Masurians
Masurians are an ethnographic and linguistic group historically associated with Masuria, a region in the northeastern part of present-day Poland that was part of East Prussia for several centuries. The term commonly refers to the inhabitants of Masuria who spoke Masurian dialects, a cluster of West Slavic varieties closely related to Polish, and who historically followed Lutheranism. In broader historical narratives, Masurians are described as a Polish-speaking (or Polish-adjacent) minority within the German state during much of the East Prussian period, though German-language sources have sometimes treated them as a distinct East Prussian population.
Masuria stretches across the so-called Masurian Lakeland in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. The Masurian dialects formed a linguistic
The Masurian region experienced German East Prussian settlement and consolidation from the Middle Ages onward, while
In contemporary Poland, Masurians are usually identified within the broader Polish nation, though regional Masurian culture