Polish
Polish is a member of the Western group of the Slavic branch of Indo-European languages
and thus closely related to Czech, Slovak, and the Sorbian language found in
German. It is the national language spoken by most of the inhabitants of Poland
and by several million native speakers in the United States, Russia, Ukraine,
Canada, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Slovakia, Azerbaijan,
Romania, Australia, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Israel. In all there are
45,000,000 speakers. Polish dialects include Little Polish and Silesian (spoken
in the south) and Mazovian and Great Polish (spoken in the north). Kashubian, or
Cassubian, also heard in the north, is often treated as a dialect of Polish,
although it evolved as a separate West Slavic language.
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![Poland - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/pl-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Russia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/rs-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Australia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/as-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Romania - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/ro-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Azerbaijan - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/az-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Slovakia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/lo-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Belarus - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/bo-flag.gif){kind=small}