[8]
The Polish language is farther spoken: 1) By the inhabitants of the
kingdom of Poland formed in 1815, three and a half millions in number,
or reckoned together with the Poles of the Polish-Russian provinces,
five millions; 2) By the inhabitants of the cities and the nobility of
Galicia, belonging to Austria, and the Poles in the Austrian part of
Silesia, about three millions; 3) By the inhabitants of the small
republic of Cracow, about one hundred thousand; 4) By the inhabitants
of the Prussian grand-duchy of Posen, and a part of the province
called Western Prussia, together with the Poles in Silesia and the
Kassubes in Pomerania; In all less than two millions.[7]
Thus the Polish language is spoken by a population of about ten
millions.[8] Like all living languages, it has different dialects, and
is in one place spoken with greater purity than in another. As these
varieties, however, are neither very striking nor have ever had an
influence on literature, they do not concern us here.
The ancient Polish language seems to have been very nearly related to
the dialects of the Czekhes and the Sorabian Vendes. Although very
little is known in respect to the circumstances and progress of the
formation of the language into its present state, it is sufficiently
obvious, that it has been developed from the conflict of its natural
elements with the Latin and German idioms.
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