Pomerelia , also known as Eastern Pomerania , Vistula Pomerania , and also before World War II as Polish Pomerania , is a historical sub-region of Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland .
129-587: Royal Prussia ( Polish : Prusy Królewskie ; German : Königlich-Preußen or Preußen Königlichen Anteils , Kashubian : Królewsczé Prësë ) or Polish Prussia (Polish: Prusy Polskie ; German: Polnisch-Preußen ) became a province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , which was annexed following the imposed Second Peace of Toruń (1466) from territory in Pomerelia and western Prussia which had been part of
258-499: A / (spelled a ), / ɔ / (spelled o ) and / u / (spelled u and ó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are / ɛ w̃ / (spelled ę ) and / ɔ w̃ / (spelled ą ). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter ó , which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include
387-759: A dialect of Polish. Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a regional language in Poland . The law recognizing it as such was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May of 2024. According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. Tomasz Kamusella , Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ) assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether
516-656: A few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of the Vistula and Oder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With Western Christianity , Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet , which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as a spoken language . The closest relatives of Polish are the Elbe and Baltic Sea Lechitic dialects ( Polabian and Pomeranian varieties). All of them, except Kashubian , are extinct. The precursor to modern Polish
645-511: A large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of their cash machines in addition to English and Spanish . According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England and Wales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. In Canada , there is a significant Polish Canadian population : There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to
774-538: A large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures. Extensive usage of nonstandard dialects has also shaped the standard language ; considerable colloquialisms and expressions were directly borrowed from German or Yiddish and subsequently adopted into the vernacular of Polish which is in everyday use. Historically, Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and part of Eastern Europe . In addition to being
903-533: A lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the speech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as SIL International and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as Ethnologue , Linguist List and others, for example the Ministry of Administration and Digitization recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007,
1032-562: A monetary union was established between Royal Prussia and Ducal Prussia and the rest of the kingdom. From 1537 summons to the Sejm were continuously sent to the Prussian sejmiks. The Prussian nobility appeared permanently at the Sejm as observers. In 1548, after the death of King Sigismund the Old , for the first time, a delegation of both Prussian chambers went to the Sejm as deputies and senators. In 1569, as
1161-454: A nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced [ɔm] , and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced [ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (for example przyjęli , przyjęły ), ę is pronounced as just e . When ę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just [ɛ] . Depending on
1290-649: A nobility revolt. These were captured by Wenceslaus who now, after gaining most of the Polish lands, was crowned in Gniezno as king of Poland by archbishop Jakub Świnka Upon the deaths of Wenceslaus and his successor Wenceslaus III and with them the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty , Pomerelia was recaptured by Władysław I the Elbow-high in 1306. During Władysław's rule, the Margraviate of Brandenburg staked its claim on
1419-553: A part of Farther Pomerania . Pomerelia has been inhabited by ethnic Kashubians , Kociewians , Borowians and Chełminians , respectively. In the Polish language, the area has been called Pomorze ('Pomerania') since the Early Middle Ages . In the early 14th century, the Teutonic Knights invaded and annexed the region from Poland into their monastic state , which already included historical Prussia , located east of
SECTION 10
#17328483726701548-620: A result of the Union of Lublin , which created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , Royal Prussia was integrated fully into the Kingdom of Poland , and its parliament reduced to the status of a provincial assembly, also other separate Prussian institutions were dissolved. Before the conclusion of the Union of Lublin, the Polish chancellor openly admitted that this act breached law by violation of
1677-654: A similar oath from the citizens of Elbląg (Elbing) and Królewiec (Königsberg) was taken. The war also included major cities from the eastern part of the Order's lands, such as Kneiphof , later a part of Königsberg. Though the Knights were victorious at the Battle of Chojnice in 1454, they were not able to finance more knights in order to reconquer the castles occupied by the insurgents. Thirteen years of attrition warfare ended in October 1466 with
1806-491: A single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as do niej ('to her'), na nas ('on us'), prze ze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin script but includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics . The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages,
1935-414: A supreme tribunal was established for the Prussian courts, excluding the courts of Danzig, which denied the right of appeal to the Prussian court and decided cases internally. It sometimes resorted to royal and parliamentary courts. Closer ties with the rest of the kingdom found support primarily among the ordinary nobility, for whom the Polish political and legal solutions were more favourable. In particular,
2064-516: A territory of the nascent Polish state and continued as such (briefly interrupted by a Danish invasion) into the 12th century. In contrast to the gradual and mostly peaceful process of Ostsiedlung occurring at the time in some other regions such as Silesia or Farther Pomerania , Pomerelia was instead violently overrun by the State of the Teutonic Order including the principal city of the territory. In
2193-405: A verse by Jan Brzechwa ) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'). Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have syllabic consonants – the nucleus of a syllable is always a vowel. The consonant /j/ is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede
2322-478: A vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents /j/ , palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters u and i sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in autor /ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native nauka /naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized Mateusz /maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew'). Some loanwords , particularly from
2451-507: A whole by a mixed population; it is estimated that there were about 200 000 Germans in the state altogether, followed by 140 000 native Prussians located in the Prussia proper (east of Vistula), as well about 140 000 Poles in Pomerelia and Masuria . The burden of taxation and the arbitrary way of governing caused resistance among the people of Prussia. The burghers of the great Prussian cities began to organize themselves. The first organized body
2580-447: Is possible to say ko goście zoba czy li? – here kogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm. Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were
2709-512: Is the Old Polish language . Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattested Proto-Slavic language. The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska , Latin : Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau ), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj ;
SECTION 20
#17328483726702838-518: Is the most widely-used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County , by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, as Vilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts , while in West Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in
2967-430: The kropka (superior dot) over the letter ż , and the ogonek ("little tail") under the letters ą, ę . The letters q, v, x are used only in foreign words and names. Polish orthography is largely phonemic —there is a consistent correspondence between letters (or digraphs and trigraphs ) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in
3096-401: The ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound / ɕ / . The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—where s before i is pronounced as s , e.g. sinus , sinologia , do re mi fa sol la si do , Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści , Sierioża , Siergiej , Singapur , singiel . In other loanwords
3225-579: The Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries. In the United States , Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the 2000 United States Census , 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as
3354-662: The Chełmno Voivodeship , while Royal Prussia was used as the name of the wider province, which, however, also included the Malbork Voivodeship and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , covering the Prussian historical areas of Pomesania , Pogesania and Warmia , the only actual Prussian territories of the province. After the Partitions of Poland , the area was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and formed part of
3483-467: The Duchy of Pomerania . This event caused a long-lasting dispute between Poland and the Teutonic Order over the control of Gdańsk Pomerania . It resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1440, many cities of the region joined the newly formed anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation . In 1454, the organization asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to reincorporate
3612-432: The Duchy of Prussia , allowing its later elevation to Kingdom in Prussia . The independent Duchy of Pomerelia is mentioned in 1227. It was, however, invaded by Poland by 1282, but retained some autonomy. During the rule of Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland, the Margraviate of Brandenburg challenged his rule over the territory in 1308, leading Władysław to request assistance from the Teutonic Knights , who ousted
3741-623: The Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship , while a small western fragment ( Gmina Biały Bór ) is in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship . During the Early Middle Ages Pomerelia (the name comes from Proto-Slavic "po more", which means "land at the sea") was inhabited by West Slavic , Lechitic tribes, with occasional presence of Scandinavians operating a few trading posts in the area. The region then became
3870-483: The Partitions of Poland in 1772–1795, historical Pomerelia became part of the new province of West Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia. Temporarily, during the Napoleonic Wars until 1815 , Gdańsk became a Free City , while southern portions of West Prussia with Toruń became parts of the Duchy of Warsaw . Perhaps the earliest census figures (from years 1817 and 1819) about the ethnic or national composition of
3999-598: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 's influence gave Polish the status of lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe . The process of standardization began in the 14th century and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era. Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with the Greater Poland dialect group serving as the base. After World War II , Standard Polish became
Royal Prussia - Misplaced Pages Continue
4128-627: The Pomeranian Voivodeship , with southern part located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and small parts in West Pomeranian Voivodeship . It has traditionally been divided into Kashubia , Kociewie , Tuchola Forest and Chełmno Land (including the Michałów Land , sometimes with the addition of Lubawa Land). The Lauenburg and Bütow Land is considered by Polish historiography a part of Kashubia (and thus Gdańsk Pomerania and Pomerelia), while German historiography tends to treat it as
4257-588: The Russian Empire and Habsburg Austria . The area consisted of the following territories: In contrast, southern remainder of Pomesania and Pogesania, including Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), Deutsch Eylau (Iława), Riesenburg (Prabuty), Rosenberg (Susz), Bischofswerder (Biskupiec), Saalfeld (Zełwałd, later Zalewo), Freystadt (Kisielice), Mohrungen (Morąg), Preußisch Holland (Pasłęk) and Liebstadt (Libsztat, later Miłakowo), formed Upper Prussia (German: Oberland , Polish: Prusy Górne ) constituting
4386-532: The Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In 1772 and 1793, after the first and second partition of Poland , the former territory of Royal Prussia was recovered by the Kingdom of Prussia and subsequently re-organized into the province of West Prussia . This occurred at the time of the First Partition of Poland , with other parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth being annexed by
4515-570: The State of the Teutonic Order . Royal Prussia retained its autonomy , governing itself and maintaining its own laws, customs, rights and German language for the German minority and Polish language for the Polish majority. In 1569, Royal Prussia was fully integrated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and its autonomy was largely abolished. As a result, the Royal Prussian parliament was incorporated into
4644-589: The Teutonic Order , who had become his eastern neighbor in 1230, were settled in 1253 by exempting the order from the Vistula dues. With Swietopelk II's death in 1266, the rule of his realm passed to his sons Wartislaw and Mestwin II . These brothers initiated another civil war, with Mestwin II allying with and pledging allegiance to the Brandenburg margraves ( Treaty of Arnswalde / Choszczno 1269). The margraves, who in
4773-730: The Treaty of Versailles restored most of the region from Weimar Germany back to Poland, forming the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Greater Pomerania as of 1938) . Gdańsk with Żuławy became the Free City of Danzig . In the interbellum, German propaganda coined the term of Polish Corridor in reference to the region. The region was the site of the Battle of Westerplatte , the first battle of the German invasion of Poland which started World War II in September 1939, as well as several other important battles incl. at Hel , Gdynia and Kępa Oksywska . Afterwards it
4902-511: The United Kingdom and the United States . Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present. Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans tribe from the Greater Poland region, united
5031-474: The classical languages , have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, fizyka ( /ˈfizɨka/ ) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example muzyka /ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs. muzyka /muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular of muzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through inflection or suffixation ,
5160-569: The flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) , as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and Operation Vistula , the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day vernacular varieties and standard Polish ( język ogólnopolski ) appear relatively slight. Most of
5289-446: The 1269 treaty also gained the land of Białogarda, were also supposed to help Mestwin II securing the lands of Schlawe (Sławno) and Stolp (Słupsk), which after Swietopelk II's death were in part taken over by Barnim III. With the margraves' aid, Mestwin II succeeded in expelling Wartislaw from Gdansk in 1270/71. The lands of Schlawe/Slawno, however, were taken over by Mestwin II's nephew Wizlaw II, prince of Rügen in 1269/70, who founded
Royal Prussia - Misplaced Pages Continue
5418-416: The 16th century, which is also regarded as the " Golden Age of Polish literature". The orthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936. Tomasz Kamusella notes that "Polish is the oldest, non-ecclesiastical, written Slavic language with a continuous tradition of literacy and official use, which has lasted unbroken from the 16th century to this day." Polish evolved into the main sociolect of
5547-457: The 1700s as the successor to the medieval Old Polish (10th–16th centuries) and Middle Polish (16th–18th centuries). Among the major languages, it is most closely related to Slovak and Czech but differs in terms of pronunciation and general grammar. Additionally, Polish was profoundly influenced by Latin and other Romance languages like Italian and French as well as Germanic languages (most notably German ), which contributed to
5676-489: The 17th century Pomerelia was attacked and destroyed by a Swedish army. Pomerelia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia during the late 18th century Partitions of Poland , becoming part of the new Province of West Prussia , and part of Germany in 1871. The region was subjected to intense Germanisation policies. After World War I , in 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic , and
5805-481: The 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto (91,810 speakers) and Montreal . The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II and Polish population transfers (1944–46) . Poles settled in the " Recovered Territories " in the west and north, which had previously been mostly German -speaking. Some Poles remained in
5934-426: The 7th and 8th centuries. In the tenth century, Pomerelia was already settled by West-Slavic Pomeranians . The area was conquered and incorporated into early medieval Poland either by Duke Mieszko I – the first historical Polish ruler - in the second half of the tenth century or even earlier, by his father , in the 940s or 950s – the date of incorporation is unknown. Mieszko founded Gdańsk to control
6063-551: The Brandenburgers, but then seized Pomerelia for themselves and incorporated it into the Teutonic Order state in 1309 ( Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) and Treaty of Soldin ( Myślibórz )). The papal court in 1320 and 1333 ruled in favour of Poland, however, the Teutonic Knights did not comply and continued to occupy the region. At the beginning of the 15th century, the lands held by the Teutonic Knights were inhabited as
6192-578: The Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish"). The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written by Jakub Parkosz [ pl ] around 1470. The first printed book in Polish appeared in either 1508 or 1513, while the oldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661. Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography. The writing system achieved its overall form in
6321-536: The Order's subjects the right to throw off its sovereignty if it violated them. In 1440, as the tax burden rose, the nobles and various cities established the Prussian Confederation at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in resistance of the Order's domestic and financial policies. Confederation formed a self-governing bicameral institution, representing nobles and burghers of the province, which took decisions unanimously. Many further nobles and cities and towns soon joined
6450-509: The Piasts and reverted the Piasts' introduction of Christianity already in the first years of the 11th century. The exact date of separation is unknown, however. It was suggested that the inhabitants of Pomerelia participated in the Pagan reaction in Poland , actively supported Miecław who intended to detach Masovia from the power of the rulers of Poland, but after the defeat of Miecław in 1047 accepted
6579-459: The Polish kingdom. At the same time Royal Prussia was granted a considerable degree of autonomy. Already instituted law codes were retained, only Prussians could be appointed on public offices ( ius indigenatus ), borders of the province had to remain intact and all decisions regarding Prussia had to be consulted with the Prussian council. Thorn and Danzig retained the right to mint coins. The Polish model of political and administrative organisation
SECTION 50
#17328483726706708-515: The Prussian lands as subjects, incorporated Prussia to the Polish kingdom and granted them a large autonomy. The Prussian estates received confirmation of their rights and privileges, were exempted from paying the Pfundzoll [ de ] , received the ius indigenatus , the right to decide on Prussian affairs at their own estate assemblies and a guarantee of the freedom of trade. Thorn, Elbing, Königsberg and Danzig ( Danzig law ) were to retain
6837-518: The Second Peace of Thorn (1466), which provided for the Order's cession to the Polish Crown of its rights over Pomerelia, and the western half of Prussia , including the districts of Elbląg and Malbork (Marienburg). According to the 1454 treaty signed by King Casimir IV, Royal Prussia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland and their elites enjoyed the same rights and privileges as the elites of
6966-671: The Silesian language was recognized by ISO , and was attributed an ISO code of szl. Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting prescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity, along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness" (unusual by Western standards). Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all monophthongs , and two nasal vowels . The oral vowels are / i / (spelled i ), / ɨ / (spelled y and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), / ɛ / (spelled e ), /
7095-552: The Teutonic Order's rule and for incorporation of their homeland into the Kingdom of Poland. In this treaty, Prussian delegates declared the Polish king the only true sovereign of their lands, justified by the historical fact that the king of Poland had earlier ruled them. After lengthy negotiation, on 6 March 1454, the Royal Chancellery issued the Incorporation Act by which king Kazimierz Jagiellończyk accepted inhabitants of
7224-463: The agreement, retained de facto control over the province until his death in 1294, at which time Przemysł, who was already the de jure ruler of the territory, took it under his direct rule. The hereditary ruleta of the Duchy included as follows: After the death of Mestwin II of Pomerania in 1294, his co-ruler Przemysł II of Poland , according to the Treaty of Kępno , took control over Pomerelia. He
7353-480: The big cities. Albrecht decreed that Luther's Catechism was to be translated into the Old Prussian language , Polish , and Lithuanian , so that the creed could unite the people of both the Duchy of Prussia and Royal Prussia. Cultural unity between the two parts of Prussian was threatened by the Polish strive to unite Royal Prussia with Poland proper. The Polish king attempted to stop spread of Protestantism, but it
7482-518: The burghers. They also demanded the right to send one deputy from each province to the Polish Sejm. In 1526 the Prussian Landtag , headed by the king, established sejmiks , local assemblies of noblemen, who elected deputies to the Prussian parliament, where they sat together with representatives of 27 smaller towns. The Prussian council formed the upper house – the senate – of this assembly. In 1529
7611-485: The cases mentioned above, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents / j / , yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed. The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by using j instead of i : for example, zjeść , "to eat up". The letters ą and ę , when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by
7740-471: The consent of the commons, the gathering of all estates shortly emerged, at first known as Ständetage and later as Landtag . In years 1512-1526 it developed into a bicameral Prussian parliament. At first, the bishop of Warmia claimed that his principality was independent and subordinate only to the Pope. After a short war — the so-called " priests' war " — the matter was settled in the king's favour; in 1479 Warmia
7869-687: The corresponding sentence in modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij ; and in English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest ), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added to UNESCO 's " Memory of the World " list. The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of
SECTION 60
#17328483726707998-479: The disappearance of yers . Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), źdźbło [ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'), wstrząs [ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), and krnąbrność [ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polish tongue-twister (from
8127-430: The distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress. Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings -by, -bym, -byśmy , etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, zro biłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and zro bi libyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According to prescriptive authorities ,
8256-520: The eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth wrote Polish in the Arabic alphabet. The Cyrillic script is used to a certain extent today by Polish speakers in Western Belarus , especially for religious texts. The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent ) over the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter in ł ;
8385-523: The eleventh century the region had loosened its close connections with the kingdom of Poland and subsequently for some years formed an independent duchy. Most scholars suggest that Pomerelia was still part of Poland during the reign of king Bolesław I of Poland and his son Mieszko II Lambert . However, there are also different opinions e.g. Peter Oliver Loew suggests the Slavs in Pomerelia severed their ties with
8514-420: The end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where assimilation occurs). For details, see Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology. Most Polish words are paroxytones (that is, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions. Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from
8643-469: The entire country. Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects: Silesian and Kashubian , spoken in Upper Silesia and Pomerania respectively, are thought of as either Polish dialects or distinct languages , depending on the criteria used. Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs.
8772-462: The following table. The following digraphs and trigraphs are used: Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in the Phonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters. The spelling rule for
8901-526: The inheritance rules applied under Kulm law , which guaranteed inheritance also in the female line, resulted in the fragmentation of estates. In years 1519-1521 Albrecht von Hohenzollern lost the Order's last war against Poland . As a result Order's state was secularised and became a fief of the Polish crown, held by Albrecht and his direct heirs as "dukes in Prussia". Albrecht ruled as a Lutheran ruler. Lutheranism also spread in Royal Prussia, especially in
9030-474: The land in amelioration projects, dyking of the founding of German-settled Estates and villages. As the result of the Thirteen Years' War of 1454-1466 , Pomerelia became part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland again, within the province of Royal Prussia (which along Pomerelia also included the western rim of the actual region of Prussia , namely Warmia as well as Malbork Land , the latter comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania ). After
9159-473: The lands of Schlawe (Sławno) and Stolp (Słupsk). On February 15, 1282, High Duke of Poland and Wielkopolska Przemysł II and the Duke of Pomerelia Mestwin II , signed the Treaty of Kępno which transferred the suzerainty over Pomerelia to Przemysł. As a result of the treaty the period of Pomerelian independence ended and the region was again part of Poland. Przemysł adopted the title dux Polonie et Pomeranie (Duke of Poland and Pomerania). Mestwin, per
9288-538: The language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English , 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states: Illinois (185,749), New York (111,740), and New Jersey (74,663). Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services (which has
9417-513: The last Ratiboride duke Ratibor II had died after 1223, was challenged by the Griffin dukes of Pomerania , Barnim I and Wartislaw III . In this conflict, Swietopelk II initially won the upper hand, but could not force a final decision. Swietopelk II, who styled himself dux. since 1227, chartered the town of Gdańsk with Lübeck law and invited the Dominican Order . His conflicts with
9546-505: The late 19th century this term was used in order to underline Polish claims to that area that was then ruled by the German Kingdom of Prussia . The designation of Polish Pomerania became obsolete since Farther Pomerania and a small part of Hither Pomerania were also transferred to Poland as part of the territories recovered from Germany, following World War II . In its early history, the territory which later became known as Pomerelia
9675-436: The latter case, the troops of the German monastic state exterminated the original Polish inhabitants of the city and initiated a massive colonisation campaign to hastily repopulate the area with numerous German-speaking settlers , especially in major urban areas, while in smaller towns and in rural areas, speakers of Kashubian and Greater Polish (i.e. Kociewiacy , and Borowiacy ) predominated. The Teutonic Order developed
9804-521: The latter's share. The revolt of the Old Prussians against the Teutonic Order in 1242 took place in the context of these alliances. Peace was restored only in the Treaty of Christburg ( Dzierzgoń ) in 1249, mediated by the later pope Urban IV , then papal legate and archidiacone of Lüttich ( Liege ). In the west, the Pomerelian dukes' claim to the lands of Schlawe (Sławno) and Stolp (Słupsk) , where
9933-439: The letter y . The predominant stress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first. Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter i normally does not represent
10062-537: The letters of the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet , while removing three (x, q, v). Those three letters are at times included in an extended 35-letter alphabet. The traditional set comprises 23 consonants and 9 written vowels , including two nasal vowels ( ę , ą ) defined by a reversed diacritic hook called an ogonek . Polish is a synthetic and fusional language which has seven grammatical cases . It has fixed penultimate stress and an abundance of palatal consonants . Contemporary Polish developed in
10191-431: The middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas. First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and social differences. The modern standard dialect , often termed as "correct Polish", is spoken or at least understood throughout
10320-460: The most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their first language . Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboring Lithuania , Belarus , and Ukraine . Polish
10449-429: The mouth of the Vistula between 970 and 980,. According to Józef Spors , despite some cultural differences, the inhabitants of the whole of Pomerania had very close ties with residents of other Piast provinces, from which Pomerelia was separated by large stretches of woodlands and swamps. The Piasts introduced Christianity to pagan Pomerelia, though it is disputed to what extent the conversion materialized. In
10578-426: The name Tarzan . Pomerelia Gdańsk Pomerania is largely coextensive with Pomerelia, but slightly narrower, as it does not include Chełmno Land or Michałów Land . Its largest and most important city is Gdańsk . Since 1999 the region has formed the core of Pomeranian Voivodeship . Pomerelia is located in northern Poland west of the Vistula river and east of the Łeba river, mostly within
10707-401: The newly established province of West Prussia , and the name Pomerania was avoided by Prussian or German authorities in relation to this region. Outside of the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany, the area was termed Polish Pomerania ( Pomorze Polskie ) since at least the 18th century to distinguish it from Hither and Farther Pomerania , territories long outside of Polish rule. In
10836-526: The nobles in Poland–Lithuania in the 15th century. The history of Polish as a language of state governance begins in the 16th century in the Kingdom of Poland . Over the later centuries, Polish served as the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Congress Poland , the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , and as the administrative language in the Russian Empire 's Western Krai . The growth of
10965-571: The office was abolished. Polish language Polish ( endonym : język polski , [ˈjɛ̃zɘk ˈpɔlskʲi] , polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɘzna] or simply polski , [ˈpɔlskʲi] ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script . It is primarily spoken in Poland and serves as
11094-459: The official language of Poland, Polish is also spoken as a second language in eastern Germany , northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in southeast Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods, most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can also be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia ,
11223-661: The official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. In 2024, there were over 39.7 million Polish native speakers. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union . Polish is subdivided into regional dialects and maintains strict T–V distinction pronouns, honorifics , and various forms of formalities when addressing individuals. The traditional 32-letter Polish alphabet has nine additions ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) to
11352-657: The organization. The Confederation was led by the citizens of Danzig, Elbing, and Thorn. The gentry from Chełmno Land and Pomerelia participated as well. After the monastic knights complained to the Emperor and Council of Basel , the Prussian parliament had to dissolve itself in 1449, but immediately resumed its clandestine activities. In turn, in February 1454, the Confederation sent a delegation, under Jan Bażyński , to King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland, to ask him for support against
11481-626: The other parts of the realm were governed by Piast descendants of Bolesław III. The Christian centre became Oliwa Abbey near Gdańsk. Two Samborides administering Pomerelia in the 12th century are known by name: Sobieslaw I and his son, Sambor I . In 1210, king Valdemar II of Denmark invaded Pomerelia, whose princeps Mestwin I became his vassal. The Danish suzerainty did not last long, however. Mestwin had already gained more independence from Poland and expanded southward, and his son Swietopelk II , who succeeded him in 1217, gained full independence in 1227. After Mestwin I's death, Pomerelia
11610-659: The others being Czech orthography and Croatian orthography , the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two. Kashubian uses a Polish-based system, Slovak uses a Czech-based system, and Slovene follows the Croatian one; the Sorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones. Historically, Poland's once diverse and multi-ethnic population utilized many forms of scripture to write Polish. For instance, Lipka Tatars and Muslims inhabiting
11739-401: The palatal sounds / ɕ / , / ʑ / , / tɕ / , / dʑ / and / ɲ / is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulfur") and
11868-424: The position of governor, which was first held by Jan Bażyński , and after his death in 1459 by his brother Stibor . As the governor was elected by the estates and only approved by the king, Casimir abolished this office and appointed Stibor as voivode of Malbork. In 1472, the king introduced in Prussia the office of starosta general [ pl ] , who was solely dependent on the king. Son of Stibor Nicholaus
11997-511: The previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR , resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of the Lithuania - Belarus border. Meanwhile,
12126-455: The privileges granted in 1454. The former territory was subsequently governed as Pomeranian Voivodeship , Chełmno Voivodeship , Malbork Voivodeship , and Prince-Bishopric of Warmia . At the same time as the 1772 and 1793 ( first and second partition of Poland ), the former lands of Royal Prussia were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia , the successor state of the Teutonic Order. In 1510, after several attempts to install another governor,
12255-525: The region come from Prussian data published in 1823. At that time, entire West Prussia (of which historical Pomerelia was part) had 630,077 inhabitants – 327,300 ethnic Poles (52%), 290,000 Germans (46%) and 12,700 Jews (2%). In this data Kashubians are included with Poles, while Mennonites (numbering 2% of West Prussia's population) are included with Germans. Another German author, Karl Andree , in his book " Polen: in geographischer, geschichtlicher und culturhistorischer Hinsicht " (Leipzig 1831), gives
12384-662: The region into the Kingdom of Poland , to which the King agreed and signed an act of re-incorporation in Kraków . After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) , the longest of all Polish–Teutonic wars, the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the region and recognized it as part of Poland. Pomerelia was organized into the Pomeranian Voivodeship , part of the larger Polish provinces of Royal Prussia within Greater Poland Province . Lauenburg and Bütow Land (Lębork and Bytów)
12513-400: The region. As a result of Teutonic rule, in German terminology, the name of Prussia was extended to annexed Polish lands like Vistula/Eastern Pomerania, although it was never inhabited by Baltic Prussians but by Slavic Poles. After the area was reintegrated with Poland in 1466, both names were in use: Pomerania was used when referring to the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Gdańsk Pomerania) and
12642-528: The region. Major sites of massacres of Poles in the region included Piaśnica , Szpęgawsk , Mniszek , Igielska Valley , Luszkówko , Skarszewy , Rudzki Most and Grupa . After the defeat of Germany in the war in 1945, almost the entire region, including the former Free City of Danzig , was reclaimed by Poland according to the Potsdam Agreement , except for a small portion of the Vistula Spit around
12771-403: The return of prisoners, which became a financial burden on the citizenry. Facing the opposition the komtur of Danzig ordered to execute the city's mayor Konrad Letzkau along with two councillors and five Chełmno nobles without a trial. In order to protect their rights nobles and burghers created for the first time a joint assembly in 1412. Subsequent peace treaties (1422 and 1435) with Poland gave
12900-650: The right to mint coins during the war, although with the image of the Polish king. After the Prussian Confederation pledged allegiance to Casimir on 6 March 1454, the Thirteen Years' War ("War of the Cities") began. King Casimir IV Jagiellon appointed Bażyński as the first war-time governor of Royal Prussia. On 28 May 1454, the king took an oath of allegiance from the citizens of Chełmno Land, including Toruń (Thorn) in Toruń, and in June
13029-554: The rule of duke Casimir I the Restorer and that the province remained a part of Poland till the 1060s, when Pomerelian troops took part in the expedition of the Polish king Bolesław II the Generous against Bohemia in 1061 or 1068. Duke Bolesław suffered a defeat during the siege of Hradec and had to retreat to Poland. Soon after Pomerelia separated from his realm. A campaign by Piast duke Władysław I Herman to conquer Pomerelia in 1090–91
13158-540: The same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings -śmy, -ście , although this rule is often ignored in colloquial speech (so zro bi liśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in practice it is commonly stressed on the third as zrobi li śmy ). These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable clitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of ko go zoba czy liście? ('whom did you see?') it
13287-500: The second important area besides Gdańsk. Wartislaw died before 27 December 1229, his share was to be given to Oliwa Abbey by his brothers. The remaining brothers engaged in a civil war: Sambor II and Ratibor allied with the Teutonic Order and the Duke of Kuyavia against Swietopelk, who in turn allied with the Old Prussians , took Ratibor prisoner and temporarily assumed control over
13416-505: The secret council of the Prussian Confederation. Three voivodes , three castellans (of Chełmno, Elbing and Danzig), three chamberlains ( Polish : podkomorzy ) and two delegates from each of the main cities: Thorn, Danzig and Elbing were part of the council. Later bishops of Warmia (1479) and Chełmno (1482) were admitted into a council, which ultimately consisted of 17 members. Since the council wasn't able to impose taxes without
13545-410: The series of affricate and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist): Neutralization occurs between voiced – voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at
13674-500: The six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages . However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood. Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish, while some consider Silesian to be
13803-494: The stress normally becomes regular. For example, uniwersytet ( /uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/ , 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive uniwersytetu ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/ ) and derived adjective uniwersytecki ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/ ) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress. In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to
13932-409: The territory in 1308, leading the local governor appointed by Władysław I the Elbow-high to request assistance from the Teutonic Knights , who evicted the Brandenburgers but took the area for themselves, annexing and incorporating it into the Teutonic Order state in 1309 ( Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) and Treaty of Soldin / Myślibórz ). At the same time, Słupsk and Sławno became part of
14061-461: The title Haupt des Landes , and although he was non-Prussian, he was accepted as such by the Prussian council. A monument of the reapprochement between Prussia and the rest of the kingdom was the Statute of Prussia, promulgated in 1506, in which many Polish legal solutions were introduced into the Prussian legal system. An important achievement was the establishment of a central Prussian treasury. In 1511,
14190-567: The town of Rügenwalde (now Darlowo) near the fort of Dirlow. In 1273, Mestwin found himself in open conflict against the margraves who refused to remove their troops from Gdańsk, Mestwin's possession, which he had been forced to temporarily lease to them during his struggles against Wartisław and Sambor. Since the lease had now expired, through this action, the Margrave Conrad broke the Treaty of Arnswalde/Choszczno and subsequent agreements. His aim
14319-583: The village of Narmeln (Polski) which was annexed by the Soviet Union . The local German minority population which included numerous members of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz complicit in its atrocities, fled or was expelled to Germany , also in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement. Historic Pomerelia nowadays forms the bulk of the Pomeranian Voivodeship , but its southern part is part of
14448-563: The vowel i is changed to y , e.g. Syria , Sybir , synchronizacja , Syrakuzy . The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling: Digraphs and trigraphs are used: Similar principles apply to / kʲ / , / ɡʲ / , / xʲ / and /lʲ/ , except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings are k, g, (c)h, l before i , and ki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization of k, g, (c)h or l as creating new sounds. Except in
14577-594: The westernmost part of the Prussian territory left to the Teutonic Knights, known as Teutonic or Monastic Prussia with Königsberg as its capital, later secularized in 1525 to become Ducal Prussia ruled by the Protestant dukes of the Hohenzollern dynasty . From 1618 this area was ruled in personal union with the Electorate of Brandenburg as Brandenburg-Prussia . In 1657 the Treaty of Wehlau granted full independence to
14706-443: The word, the phoneme / x / can be spelt h or ch , the phoneme / ʐ / can be spelt ż or rz , and / u / can be spelt u or ó . In several cases it determines the meaning, for example: może ("maybe") and morze ("sea"). In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/ , not / ʐ / , in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in
14835-545: Was occupied and illegally annexed by Nazi Germany , and the Polish population was subjected to various crimes , such as mass arrests, imprisonment, slave labor , kidnapping of children , deportations to Nazi concentration camps and genocide, incl. the Intelligenzaktion . The Germans established the Stutthof concentration camp , the first Nazi concentration camp outside of pre-war German borders, with multiple subcamps in
14964-420: Was a Polish fief ruled by Pomeranian dukes until 1637, when it was incorporated directly into Poland. In early modern times Gdańsk was the biggest city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and most of its exports (especially grain) were made through the port. Gdańsk and Żuławy Wiślane were mostly German/Dutch-speaking Lutheran or Reformed , while most of the region remained Polish/Kashubian Catholic. In
15093-455: Was administered by governors of a local dynasty, the Samborides , and subordinated to the bishopric of Włocławek . In 1138, following the death of Bolesław III, Poland was fragmented into several provincial principalities. The principes in Pomerelia gradually gained more local power, evolving into semi-independent entities, much like other fragmented Polish territories, with the difference that
15222-509: Was appointed voivode of Malbork and administrator of Prussia. In 1485 Nicholaus resigned his office and led the Prussian opposition against the violation of Prussian privileges, above all the ius indigenatus . In response, King Casimir strengthened the position of the Malbork starosta, to whom he always appointed a non-Prussian. In 1485 it was a magnate from Lesser Poland , Zbigniew Tęczyński . The situation changed in 1498 when Frederick of Saxony
15351-504: Was crowned as king of Poland in 1295, but ruled directly only over Pomerelia and Greater Poland , while the rest of the country ( Silesia , Lesser Poland , Masovia ) was ruled by other Piasts . However, Przemysł was murdered soon afterwards and succeeded by Władysław I the Elbow-high . Władysław, sold his rights to the Duchy of Kraków to King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia in 1297 and accepted him as his suzerain in 1299. However, he lost control of Greater Poland and Pomerelia in 1300 after
15480-612: Was declared the ruling religion in Danzig, Elbing and Thorn (Gdańsk, Elbląg, Toruń) after 1526 (of course, part of the population remained Catholic in these cities). During the war, the Polish General Assembly descended to Toruń in 1519 and to Bydgoszcz in 1520. Some Prussian nobles attended it. In 1522 the Prussian nobility gathered in the Landtag demanded the introduction of the Polish model of inheritance and land ownership, excluding
15609-486: Was elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and started a hostile politics against Poland in an attempt to reclaim lost territories in Royal Prussia. As a result, the newly elected bishop of Warmia, Lucas Watzenrode , and Nicholaus von Baysen began to take part in meetings of the royal council. During 1509 Sejm Watzenrode took part in a Senate meeting as the first representative of the Prussian council. Ambroży Pampowski , starosta of Malbork between 1504 and 1510, also bore
15738-399: Was formally incorporated into Poland. The bishop's subjects were given the right to appeal to the king, to whom they swore allegiance. The Bishop of Warmia became, ex officio , a member of the Prussian council. From 1508 the bishop headed the council. The bishopric of Warmia was a suffragan of the archbishopric of Riga until 1566; after that date it was subordinated directly to the Pope. It
15867-531: Was internally divided among his sons Swietopelk II , Wartislaw, Sambor II and Ratibor. Swietopelk II, who took his seat in Gdańsk, assumed a leading position over his brothers: Sambor II, who received the castellany of Lubieszewo (the center later moved to Tczew ), and Ratibor, who received the Białogard area, were initially under his tutelage. The fourth brother, Wartislaw, took his seat in Świecie , thus controlling
15996-504: Was introduced into the province. Royal Prussia was divided in 1454 into four voivodeships : Pomeranian , Chełmno , Elbląg (since 1467 Malbork ) and Królewiec ( Königsberg ), which ceased to exist after the Second Peace of Thorn. Voivodeships were divided subsequently into powiats . By the decision of the Polish Sejm in 1467 the main governing body of Royal Prussia was the Prussian council ( German : Landesrat ), which emerged from
16125-404: Was not part of archdiocese of Gniezno . The Prussian states stood for deep particularism. They were reluctant to participate in the institutions of the kingdom. The members of the council refused to participate in the meetings of the royal council and sent only token delegations to the royal elections in 1492, 1501 and 1506. During the war the king exercised his authority over the province through
16254-540: Was the Lizard League founded by the Chelmno Land nobility in 1397. After being defeated at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the Teutonic Knights's prestige declined, most towns and castles, as well as three Prussian bishops, swore loyalty to the Polish king. Although the Order soon regained control over most of its territory, by the 1411 Peace of Thorn they were forced to pay large compensation of 100,000 kop groszy for
16383-705: Was the site of the Pomeranian culture (also called the Pomerelian face urn culture, 650-150 BC), the Oksywie culture (150 BC-AD 1, associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii ), and the Wielbark Culture (AD 1–450, associated with Veneti , Goths , Rugii , Gepids ). In the mid-6th century Jordanes mentioned the Vistula estuary as the home of the Vidivarii . Pomerelia was settled by West Slavic and Lechitic tribes in
16512-510: Was to capture as much of Mestwin's Pomerelia as possible. Mestwin, unable to dislodge the Brandenburgian troops himself called in the aid of Bolesław the Pious , whose troops took the city with a direct attack. The war against Brandenburg ended in 1273 with a treaty (possibly signed at Drawno Bridge), in which Brandenburg returned Gdańsk to Mestwin while he paid feudal homage to the margraves for
16641-403: Was unsuccessful, but resulted in the burning of many Pomerelian forts during the retreat. In 1116, direct control over Pomerelia was reestablished by Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland, who by 1122 had also conquered the central and western parts of Pomerania. While the latter regions (forming the Duchy of Pomerania ) regained independence quickly, Pomerelia remained within the Polish realm. It
#669330