The Polish language beyond the country's borders in the history of Polish

Authors:

• Bogdan Walczak

Abstract

Chronologically, the first time the Polish language went beyond the borders of the state (country) was in the 14^th c. and resulted from changing the borders after the country's reunification (following the period of regional disintegration in Poland). The regions of Silesia and Pomerania remained outside the borders at that time. In the 17^th c, Livonia and Courland (which had been Polonised from the 16^th c.) were also outside the First Commonwealth, and in the period of partitions (1795-1918) the notion of borders of the country disappeared, while the notion of the Polish language in the ethnically Polish area and beyond the area occurred. What is meant here is mainly the old Eastern Borderlands and the southern borderland of the First Commonwealth. The fact that Poland regained its statehood in 1918 and 1945 within different borders changed the territorial reach of the Polish language abroad.