West Slavic languages
West Slavic is a branch of the Slavic languages comprising Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Sorbian. Its languages are spoken chiefly in Central Europe.
Slavic languages: A branch of the Indo-European family comprising East, West, and South Slavic languages. West Slavic forms one of the three main branches of this larger language family.
Polish language: A West Slavic language spoken chiefly in Poland and by Polish communities worldwide. Polish is the largest language in the West Slavic branch by number of speakers.
East Slavic languages: The Slavic branch comprising Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, among other historical varieties. Its languages form a separate branch from Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Sorbian.
West Slavic languages history: The historical development of West Slavic languages from early Slavic varieties into modern languages. It traces the branch's differentiation and changing distribution through time.
Jan Hus: A Czech religious reformer whose writings helped shape Czech spelling and literary language. His orthographic proposals influenced the written form of Czech.
Proto-Slavic: The reconstructed common ancestor of the Slavic languages, spoken before their historical diversification. Its inherited vocabulary and grammar link West Slavic languages to one another.
Czech language: A West Slavic language spoken chiefly in the Czech Republic. Czech is one of the branch's major national languages.
South Slavic languages: The Slavic branch comprising languages such as Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Slovene. The branch contrasts geographically and historically with West Slavic.
Slavic migration: The movement of Slavic-speaking peoples across central, eastern, and southeastern Europe during the early medieval period. These migrations spread early Slavic varieties into the regions where West Slavic languages developed.
Josef Dobrovský: A Czech philologist and historian whose scholarship helped establish modern Slavic studies. His comparative work contributed to systematic study of Czech and related Slavic languages.