what language group does polish belong to?
Lechitic languages
neutral
 Linguist A. P. Nepokupnyj proposes that the language source for Białystok is Yotvingian . Names with the -stok suffix as a second element of a hydronym are localized in the basin of the upper Narew . 

neutral
 Kościuszko also appears in non @-@ Polish literature , including a sonnet by Samuel Taylor Coleridge , another by James Henry Leigh Hunt , poems by John Keats and Walter Savage Landor , and a work by Karl Eduard von Holtei . 

entailment
 In the historical 1931 census preceding World War II , 78 @.@ 1 % of Cracovians declared Polish as their primary language , with Yiddish or Hebrew at 20 @.@ 9 % , Ukrainian 0 @.@ 4 % , German 0 @.@ 3 % , and Russian 0 @.@ 1 % . The ravages of history have greatly reduced the percentage of ethnic minorities living in Kraków . The official and unofficial numbers differ , as in the case of Romani people . Hence , according to the 2002 census , among those who have declared their national identity ( irrespective of language and religion ) in Kraków Voivodeship , 1 @,@ 572 were Slovaks , followed by Ukrainians ( 472 ) , Jews ( 50 ) and Armenians ( 22 ) . Romani people , officially numbered at 1 @,@ 678 , are estimated at over 5 @,@ 000 . Statistics collected by the Ministry of Education reveal that , even though only 1 % of adults ( as per above ) officially claim minority status , as many as 3 % of students participate in programmes designed for ethnic minorities . 

contradiction
 The languages have not undergone the deliberate highlighting of minor linguistic differences in the name of nationalism as has occurred in the Bosnian , Serbian and Croatian standards of Serbo @-@ Croatian . However , most Slavic languages ( including Czech ) have been distanced in this way from Russian influences because of widespread public resentment against the former Soviet Union ( which occupied Czechoslovakia in 1968 ) . Czech and Slovak form a dialect continuum , with great similarity between neighboring Czech and Slovak dialects . ( See " Dialects " below . ) 

entailment
 Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub @-@ branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo @-@ European language family . This branch includes Polish , Kashubian , Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak . Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech , and the languages are closer than any other pair of West Slavic languages ( including Upper and Lower Sorbian , which share a name by association with an ethnic group ) . 
