Identity and kinship

Language family

In the Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=CZ), the Lach dialects were described as a dialect of Czech intelligible by all users of any Czech or Slovak dialects:

the Indo-European languages → Slavic → West Slavic → Czech-Slovak → Czech [ces]: the Lach dialects.

Similarly based on the materials from Observatoire linguistique, the Lach dialects should be considered the Czech dialects, the only difference being that they were classified here as the transitional dialects (http://www.linguasphere.info/spip.php?page=variety&id_variety=1019127).

Linguistic proximity

Analysis of the Lach dialects in the context of their current development indicates that they can be considered rather as dialects of the Czech language (Karaś 1958: 295Karaś 1958: 295 / komentarz/comment/r /
Karaś, Mieczysław 1958. „Z problematyki gwar mieszanych i przejściowych“, w: Kazimierz Nitsch (red.) Język Polski 38/4. Kraków: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego, s. 286-296.
; Lotko 1959: 291Lotko 1959: 291-292 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lotko, Edward 1959. „W sprawie gwar mieszanych i przejściowych“, w: Kazimierz Nitsch (red.) Język Polski 39/4. Kraków: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego, s. 291-295.
; Hannan 1996b: 733Hannan 1996b: 733 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

; Duličenko 2002: 288Duliczenko 2002: 288 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 2002. „Lachisch“, w: M. Okuka (red.): Lexikon der Sprachen des europäischen Ostens. Klagenfurt: Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, s 287-290.

). The Polish language encyclopaedia (Urbańczyk 1978: 113Urbańczyk 1978: 113 / komentarz/comment/r /
Urbańczyk, Stanisław (red.) 1978. Encyklopedia wiedzy o języku polskim. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.

) classifies them as the Czech local dialects with a great number of the Polish features. On the other hand, as E. Lotko (1959: 291-292Lotko 1959: 291-292 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lotko, Edward 1959. „W sprawie gwar mieszanych i przejściowych“, w: Kazimierz Nitsch (red.) Język Polski 39/4. Kraków: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego, s. 291-295.
) emphasises, this view has been criticised. For instance, according to Dejna: “if not the whole area of the Lach dialects, then at least the wide north-eastern strip of its typical and strongly transitional dialects forms the border of the Polish and Czech languages” (1953: 247Dejna 1953: 247 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dejna, Karol 1953. Polsko-laskie pogranicze językowe na terenie Polski. Łódź: Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe.

). The debatable issue is also over where the Lach dialects belong, when considered in a historical context. Kulbakin (1903: 138Kulbakin 1903: 138 / komentarz/comment/r /
Кульбакин, С.М. [Kulbakin] 1903. „К истории и диалектологии польского языка“, w: Сборник отделения русского языка и словесности Императорской Академии Наук LXXIII. Sankt Petersburg: Императорскаця Акадкмия Наукъ.

) when writing about the border dialects, calls the dialect from Upper Ostrava a transitional Polish-Czech dialect. Similarly Nitsch, describing the area of Lachia, mentions the transitional Polish-Czech dialect (1939: 164Nitsch 1939: 164 / komentarz/comment/r /
Nitsch, Kazimierz 1939. Dialekty polskie Śląska. Tom I. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności.

), and at the same time indicates the probable ‘struggle for domination’ between Polish and Czech influences as early as in the pre-historical period (1939: 177Nitsch 1939: 177 / komentarz/comment/r /
Nitsch, Kazimierz 1939. Dialekty polskie Śląska. Tom I. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności.

). Zaręba (1961: 83Zaręba 1961: 83 / komentarz/comment/r /
Zaręba, Alfred 1961. Śląskie teksty gwarowe. Kraków: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

) claims that the Lach dialects are the consequences of a long-term mutual interaction between Polish and Czech. He also emphasises the presence of lexical influences from the Czech language.
Some linguists, including many Polish linguists, bring attention to the historical connection and common features of the Lach dialects and the Polish language. This is the way e.g Stieber (1934: 30Stieber 1934: 30 / komentarz/comment/r /
Stieber, Zdzisław 1934. Geneza gwar laskich. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności.

) writes about it. Similarly Bąk (1974: 160Bąk 1974: 160 / komentarz/comment/r /
Bąk, Stanisław 1974. Mowa polska na Śląsku. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich.

) classifies the Lach dialects as south-western-Cieszyn dialects of the Polish language, arguing that they have Czech or rather Moravian features. At the same time, in a legend of the map compiled by Bąk and Raspond (Bąk 1974: 16Bąk 1974: 16 / komentarz/comment/r /
Bąk, Stanisław 1974. Mowa polska na Śląsku. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich.

), the Lach dialects exist as mixed Polish-Czech dialects. Also Hannan (1996b: 732Hannan 1996b: 732 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

) underlines that the consonant system of the Lach dialects shares some significant phonological features with Polish. Duliczenko (2002: 288Duliczenko 2002: 288 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 2002. „Lachisch“, w: M. Okuka (red.): Lexikon der Sprachen des europäischen Ostens. Klagenfurt: Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, s 287-290.

), however, lists the following features of all Silesian languages: lack of distinction between short and long vowels, fixed penultimate stress, distinction between soft [l] and hard [ł], non-syllabic [l] and [r], the change from [t’] to [ć], and from [d’] to [dz’] or [dž].
On the other hand, the historical connection with Czech is also frequently emphasised. Polívka (1900: 314Polívka 1900: 314 / komentarz/comment/r /
Polívka, Jiří 1900. „Loriš’ schlesicher, oberostrauer Dialekt“, w: V. Jagič (red.) Archiv für slavische philologie XXII. Berlin: Berlin Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, s. 314-316.

) calls the Lach dialects - the mixed Polish-Czech dialects and presents a theory about the creation of those dialects as a result of mixing the language of Czech and Slovak settlers with a new wave of Polish migration (1902: 118Polívka 1902: 118 / komentarz/comment/r /
Polívka, Jiří 1902. „Ke sporu českopolskému v Těšinsku“, w: Adolf Černy (red.) Slovanský Přehled IV. Praga: Slovanský Výbor v Praze, s. 117-119.

). It can be claimed that there is a consensus among the Czech linguists according to which, despite the fact that the Lach dialects have common features with Polish (many of those features come from the 13th-16th c.) (Lamprecht 1968: 147-149Lamprecht 1968, 147-149 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lamprecht, Arnošt 1968. „Přechodové dialekty a jejich význam pro poznání vzájjemných vztahů slovanských jazyků”, w: Bohuslav Havránek (red.) Československé přednášky pro VI. mezinárodní sjezd slavistů v Praze. Praha: Akademia, s. 145-154.

) and Slovak, those are the features which are the consequences of the internal changes, independent from those two languages. According to this belief, the Lach dialects form one of four groups of the traditional Czech dialects (Trávníček 1927Trávníček 1927 / komentarz/comment/r /
Trávníček, František 1927. Příspěvky k dějinám českého jazyka. Brno: Filozofická Fakulta Masarykovu University.

; Stieber 1934Stieber 1934 / komentarz/comment/r /
Stieber, Zdzisław 1934. Geneza gwar laskich. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności.
; Dejna 1953Dejna 1953 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dejna, Karol 1953. Polsko-laskie pogranicze językowe na terenie Polski. Łódź: Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe.
, 1955Dejna 1955 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dejna, Karol 1955. „Z zagadnień polsko-czeskiego pogranicza językowego”, w: Milan Kudělka (red.) Česko-polský sborník vědeckých prací. Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, s. 113-131.
; Lamprecht 1954Lamprecht 1954 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lamprecht, Arnošt 1954. „Z jazykového zeměpisu lašskeho”, w: Stanislav Králík (red.) Adolfu Kellnerovi. Sborník jazykovědných studií. Opava: Slezský studijní ústav, s. 34-43.
; Skulina 1959: 9Skulina 1959: 9 / komentarz/comment/r /
Skulina, Josef 1959. Poezie a nářečí hornoostravské. Těšínsko    .

; Balhar 1974: 157Balhar 1974: 157 / komentarz/comment/r /
Balhar, Jan 1974. Skladba lašskych nářečí. Praha: Akademia.
). Also Stieber (1956: 53Stieber 1956: 53 / komentarz/comment/r /
Stieber, Zdzisław 1956. Zarys dialektologii je̜zyków zachodniosłowiańskich z wyborem tekstȯw gwarowych. Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk.

), writing about the situation before the WWII claims that the area of Opawa, strip of Cieszyn Silesia on the river Ostrawica, and wedge of Moravia between Opawskie and Cieszyńskie, were Czech in the linguistic meaning. The Czech dialects were spoken in some parts of Racibórz County and Głubczycki County. On the other hand, he does not claim that Lach is of Czech origin. He supposes the possibility that the Polish ethnic element existed in the past (1956: 86Stieber 1956: 86 / komentarz/comment/r /
Stieber, Zdzisław 1956. Zarys dialektologii je̜zyków zachodniosłowiańskich z wyborem tekstów gwarowych. Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk.

). As Hannan writes, some elements common with Czech (lack of nasal vowels, sound change in clusters *TolT, *TorT, the change from [*g] to [h]) distinguish the Lach dialects from the Silesian dialects, which remind Polish in this matter. If we, however, consider them the dialects of Czech, they turned out to differ the most from its standard. (Hannan 1996b: 732Hannan 1996b: 732 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

). These dialects also share many elements with the Eastern Slovak dialects (van Wijk 1935: 52-60van Wijk 1935: 52-60 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wijk, Nicholas van 1935. „Ostslovakisch und lachisch”, w: Ludovít Novák (red.) Sborník Matice Slovenskej XIII. Turčiansky Svätý Martin: Matica slovenská, s. 52-60.

). Hannan (1996b: 732Hannan 1996b: 732 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

) also emphasises that the Lach dialects share many features with the Western Slovak dialect - far more than with the Middle Slovak, on which the present-day Slovak is based.
The Lachian literary micro-language is a different research subject, about which Duliczenko (1992: 110Duliczenko 1992: 110 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 1992. „Феномен Ондры Лысогорского: Один человек - один язык”, w: Karel Bogar (red.) Umělecký a lidský odkaz básníka Óndry Łysohorského. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd, s. 104-113.

) writes that it is a mixture of influences of Polish, Czech, Upper Ostrava dialectal language base and the Ó. Łysohorsky word formation. As far as Lach being part of the Czech literature writers include e.g. J.Rumler, editor of a publication Aj lašske řéky płynu do mořa in 1958, and the critic M. Horvat, author of the afterword to the Slovak translation of Łysohorsky poem in 1960 (Duliczenko 1992: 107Duliczenko 1992: 107 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 1992. „Феномен Ондры Лысогорского: Один человек - один язык”, w: Karel Bogar (red.) Umělecký a lidský odkaz básníka Óndry Łysohorského. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd, s. 104-113.

).

Language or dialect (group)?

As Łysohorsky (1934: 100Łysohorski 1934: 100 / komentarz/comment/r /
Łysohorski 1934. Śpiwajuco piaść. Praga: Družstevni prace.

) writes, the Lach language consists of several local dialects, which form together one language system. On the other hand, Šembera writes about the Lach dialect and introduces a division: „Rozeznává se v ném různořecí troje: a) Jičínské, b) Ostravické a c) Opavské (1859: 10Šembera 1859: 10 / komentarz/comment/r /
Šembera, Alois Voitěch 1859. Dějiny řeči a literatury československé. Wien: nakład własny.

)”. As Hanna claims, most linguists consider the Lach dialects part of the dialectal continuum, which comprises three adjacent, genetically related dialects. Some isoglosses which describe Lach, are meaningful in differentiating standard languages (Hannan 1996b: 730Hannan 1996b: 730 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

) Additionally, Hannan introduced the division of the Lach dialects into three subgroups: western or opawska (Opawa area (Czech: Opava), Hulczyna (Czech: Hlučín)); eastern or ostravian (on both banks of the river Ostravica: the area of Ostrawa (Ostrava), Frydland (Frýdlant), Frydek-Mistka (Frýdek-Místek)); southern or Moravian (the area of cities: Příbor, Štramberk and Frenštat near Radhoštěm) (Stieber 1956: 83Stieber 1956: 83 / komentarz/comment/r /
Stieber, Zdzisław 1956. Zarys dialektologii je̜zyków zachodniosłowiańskich z wyborem tekstów gwarowych. Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk.

). Isoglosses between those groups of dialects are e.g.:

• the isogloss which show the change [á > o], which characterises eastern dialects,
• the isogloss which shows the border of the change [o > u] and [e > y] before nasal consonants, e.g. strum ‘drzewo’ ‘tree’, jelin ‘jeleń’ ‘deer’.

Similar features can be found in the adjacent dialects on the Polish territory. Isoglosses which divide Lachia indicate that this was peripheral, far from the center of linguistic change in Czech, Polish and Slovak. (Hannan 1996b: 733Hannan 1996b: 733 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

). There is not any single city in history, which could serve a function of linguistic change centre, caused that isoglosses in the Lachia area reflect the trace of changes in the adjacent area (Hannan 2005: 472Hannan 2005: 472 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 2005. “The historical and linguistic background of lachian regionalism and «separatism»” w: Wojciech J.Burszta & Tomasz Kamusella & Sebastian Wojciechowski (red.) Nationalisms across the Globe. An overview of nationalsims in state-endownedand stateless nations. Europe. Vol. 1. Poznań: School of Humanities and Journalism, s. 471-496.

).
Additionally Kellner (1946Kellner 1946 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kellner, Adolf 1946. Východolašska nařeči. T. I. Brno: Melantrich.

, 1949Kellner 1949 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kellner, Adolf 1949. Východolašska nařeči II. Brno: Melantrich.
) classifies the dialect used in the area of Zaolzie as the Lach dialect. According to phonology and morphology, it is a dialect of the Polish language (Hannan 1996b: 740Hannan 1996b: 740 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

).
Among the Lach dialects, the local dialect of Upper Ostrava served a significant role being a base for the Lach literary micro-language (Duličenko 2002: 287Duličenko 2002: 287 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 2002. „Lachisch“, w: M. Okuka (red.): Lexikon der Sprachen des europäischen Ostens. Klagenfurt: Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, s. 287-290.


). Its characteristic features are: change of the nasal vowel from [e] to [i] or [y], and [o] to [u], double consonants, three forms of the past tense: ja sym pisoł, pisołch, joch pisoł (Duličenko 2002: 288Duliczenko 2002: 288 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 2002. „Lachisch“, w: M. Okuka (red.): Lexikon der Sprachen des europäischen Ostens. Klagenfurt: Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, s 287-290.

).

Status according to the speakers and status in the opinion of others

The creation of the Lachian literary micro-language by Óndra Łysohorsky, poet was and attempt to give Lach a status of a separate language. He aroused many controversies throughout a period of publishing in this language (Pešta 1992: 78-90Pešta 1992, 78-90 / komentarz/comment/r /
Pešta, Pavel 1992. „Spory o dílo a teorie Ó. Łysohorskeho v třicatých”, w: Karel Bogar (red.) Umělecký a lidský odkaz básniká Óndry Łysohorského. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd, s. 78-94.

). Although the poetry of Łysohorsky gained recognition in the eyes of F. X. Šaldy (one of the most known Czech critics of that period and the author of the introduction to the piece Śpiwajuco Piaść), as well as, e.g. Jaroslav Seifert, K. Jírečka, B. Vaclavka, J. Hora oraz P. Eisnera (Duliczenko 1992: 106Duliczenko 1992: 106 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 1992. „Феномен Ондры Лысогорского: Один человек - один язык”, w: Karel Bogar (red.) Umělecký a lidský odkaz básníka Óndry Łysohorského. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd, s. 104-113.

), many Czech critics criticised the new literary language and the concept of the Lach ethnolinguistic identity. According to the opinions of some them, the name Lach suggested, to certain extent, the Polish origin (Hannan 1996b: 727Hannan 1996b: 727 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

). The critique of the Lachian literary micro-language applied also to non-linguistic criteria: J. Skulina (1959: 9Skulina 1959: 9 / komentarz/comment/r /
Skulina, Josef 1959. Poezie a nářečí hornoostravské. Těšínsko    .

) claimed that “in the period of economic, social and cultural development of Frydek (Frýdek) and Cieszyn, and usefulness of both Polish and Czech literary languages, a collection of poems created in a local dialect is far too regional phenomenon”. The Lachian literary micro-language was considered a local dialect stylisation (Pallas 1970: 96Pallas 1970: 96 / komentarz/comment/r /
Pallas, Ladislav 1970. Jazyková otázka a podmínky vytváření národního vědomí ve Slezsku. Opava: Publikace Slezského ústavu ČSAV.

) and an attempt to have Czech lexicon assumed the Polish phonology (Pallas 1960: 456-460Pallas 1960: 456-460 / komentarz/comment/r /
Pallas, Ladislav 1960. „K problematyce Óndry Łysohorského”, w: Slezský sborník LVIII. Opava: Slezský ústav Československé akademie věd, s. 443-471.

).
It was also claimed that the Lachian literary language does not represent any authentic language form - based on the Lach dialect used in the upper course of a river Ostravica, Łysohorsky also used other regional Lach variations. (Duliczenko 1993: 157Duliczenko 1993: 157 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 1993. „Литературная ляштина Ондры Лысогорского в контексте западнославянских языков и в связи с литературными микроязыками современной Славии”, w: Х. И. Толстой (red.) Славянское языкознание. XI Международный съезд славистов. Москва: Наука, s. 151-161.

). Łysohorsky (1935a: 775-776Łysohorsky 1935a: 775-776 / komentarz/comment/r /
Łysohorsky, Óndra 1935. Hłos hrudy. Praga: Družstevni prace.

) claimed, however, that his literary work did not intend to copy linguistic field methods - the literary version of Lach was created to describe thoughts and feelings, and for this purpose the colloquial Lach language from the upper course of the Ostravica river was not suitable.
The Upper Ostrava dialect, which was a base for the Lachian literary micro-language, is used in the area located to the south-west from the town Frydek-Mistek (Czech: Frýdek-Místek), along the upper course of the Ostravica river (Loriš 1899Loriš, 1899 / komentarz/comment/r /
Loriš, Jan 1899. “Rozbor podřečí hornostravkého ve Slezsku”, w: Rozpravy České akademie Cisaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění VII. Praha: Akademia, s. 3-82.

). When creating his literary language, Łysohorsy also used the dialectal research of Šembera (1864Šembera 1864 / komentarz/comment/r /
Šembera, Alois Voitěch 1864. Základové dialektologie československé. Vien: Leopold Sommers.
) Bartoša (1886Bartoš 1886: 97 / komentarz/comment/r /
Bartoš, František 1886. Dialektologie moravská. T. I. Brno: Matice Moravská.

, 1895Bartoš 1895 / komentarz/comment/r /
Bartoš, František 1895. Dialektologie moravská. T. II. Brno: Matice Moravská.

) and Loriš (Duliczenko 1992: 108Duliczenko 1992: 108 / komentarz/comment/r /
Дуличенко, Александр Д. [Duličenko] 1992. „Феномен Ондры Лысогорского: Один человек - один язык”, w: Karel Bogar (red.) Umělecký a lidský odkaz básníka Óndry Łysohorského. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd, s. 104-113.

).

Identity

Now the term Lach refers rather to the language/dialect than to the geographical area or the ethnic group (Hannan 1996b: 730Hannan 1996b: 730 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

). Lachia - whether ethnographic or linguistic region - has a territory which is difficult to establish: apart from the natural border with Slovakia in the south, in the form of the Beskides chain, the borders of this region do not correspond with any political, historical or geographical border. Generally speaking, it comprises the area of north-eastern Czech, between the Polish-Slovakia border, with main cities: Ostrawa and Opawa. The Moravian Gate needs to be recognised here as a characteristic element, which is a natural passage between the Sudetes and the Carpathians. Through this area ran the trade routes from Southern Europe to the Baltic Sea (e.g. the Amber Trail) and the routes from Poland to Czech. Through the ages, this area was under Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Austrian rule (Hannan 1996b: 729Hannan 1996b: 727 / komentarz/comment/r /
Hannan, Kevin 1996b. „The Lachian Literary Language of Óndra Łysohorsky“, w: Michael M. Naydan (red.) The Slavic and East European Journal 40/4. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages of the US, s. 726–743.

).

Initiatives related to the regional Moravian identity are currently undertaken by local cultural institutions, such as e.g. Municipal Cultural Centre in Krzanowice. In the Centre popular conferences were organised three times in years 2000-2012, devoted to the Moravian identity on the Polish-Czech border (Cultural heritage of the Polish-Czech borderland in 2000, Cultural changes in the Silesian-Moravian borderland in 2007 and The Moravian identity in the Polish-Czech borderland in 2012 - Wasiczek 2012: 3Wasiczek 2012: 3 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wasiczek, Marian 2012. „Słowo wstępne”, w: Marian Wasiczek (red.) Tożsamość morawska na pograniczu polsko–czeskim. Racibórz: WAW, s. 3-4.

). During these conferences issues concerning e.g. the Lach dialects were discussed. Moreover, the actions of the Municipal Cultural Centre in Krzanowice aiming at the popularisation of the Moravian culture include organisation of music festivals, fest, workshops and publication of ethnographic materials, often related to the local dialect (Wasiczek 2012: 3Wasiczek 2012: 3 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wasiczek, Marian 2012. „Słowo wstępne”, w: Marian Wasiczek (red.) Tożsamość morawska na pograniczu polsko–czeskim. Racibórz: WAW, s. 3-4.

)