Prolegomena historyczne – wielojęzyczność w Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów

The article presents a concise characteristic of the linguistic diversity in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later (from 1569 that is from the Union of Lublin) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The heyday of this diversity was in the 15th century before the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was created. From this century (the gentry of the Commonwealth) and even more intensively from the 16th century, the process of the linguistic integration began, at first spontaneously spreading in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later (as we mentioned above, from 1569) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a result of this integration, Polish came to be the first language of the political elites. It is worth reminding that the linguistic integration was accompanied by a religious unification. In the 17th century one can observe transcending of Polish (as a language of the higher culture) beyond the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (to Moscow and Wallachia).