Polabian Slavs (West Slavs)

Polabian Slavs is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites tribes who live along the Elbe river, between the Baltic Sea to the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae to the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes to the south, and Poland to the east.

They have also been known as Elbe Slavs (German: Elbslawen) or Wends.

Their name derives from the Slavic po, meaning "by/next to/along", and the Slavic name for the Elbe (Labe in Czech and Łaba in Polish).The Polabian Slavs start settling in the territory of modern Germany in the second half of the first millennium.

They are largely conquered by Saxons and Danes during the 12th century and subsequently included within the Holy Roman Empire.

The tribes are gradually Germanized and assimilated in the following centuries; the Sorbs are the only descendants of the Polabian Slavs to have retained their identity and culture.The Polabian language is now extinct.

However, both Sorbian languages are spoken by approximately 60,000 inhabitants of the region and the languages are regarded by the government of Germany as official languages of the region.

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