Lach dialects

{{Short description|Group of West Slavic dialects}}

{{Expand German|Lachische Sprache|date=March 2009}}

File:Lach Silesian dialect and Cieszyn Silesian dialect.png (east) in the Czech-Polish-Slovak borderlands.{{imagefact|date=November 2022}}]]

File:Polskie Morawy.png

The Lach dialects, also known as Lachian dialects ({{langx|cs|lašská nářečí, laština}}, {{langx|pl|gwary laskie}}, {{langx|szl|dialekty lachijske}}), are a group of West Slavic dialects that form a transition between the Polish and Czech language. They are spoken in parts of Czech Silesia, the Hlučín Region, and northeastern Moravia,Hannan 1996, 726. as well as in some adjacent villages in Poland.Hannan 1996, 730. Most Czech researchers{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} consider Lach a dialect of Czech, whereas Polish dialectologists{{who?|date=March 2025}} tend to ascribe Polish origins to Lach.S. Bąk, Mowa polska na Śląsku, Wrocław and Warsaw 1974.

Lachian is divided into numerous subdialects (Western, Eastern and Southern), it can therefore also be regarded as a dialect continuum, with limited mutual intelligibility between the eastern and western dialects.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} This dialectal differentiation is not typical for the Czech Republic, where there is a good deal of dialect leveling, especially in the west of the republic.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Most Lachs, especially younger speakers, now speak standard Czech, and use it as a written language, while Lach remains the language of everyday speech. Lachian contains many German loanwords, according to some sources,{{which|date=July 2017}} up to 8% of the vocabulary.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

The poet Óndra Łysohorsky is probably the best-known writer in Lachian. Łysohorsky was notable for refusing to write in Standard Czech, instead writing in the local dialect of Upper Silesia. In doing so, he contributed significantly to the development of the Lach literary language.Hannan 1996, 726.