Podlachia

Podlasie, or Podlachia (Polish: Podlasie, Belarusian: Падляшша Padlyashsha) is a historical region in the eastern part of Poland. Between 1569 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the capital in Drohiczyn. Now the part north of Bug River is included in the modern Podlaskie Voivodeship with the capital in Białystok.

Etymology

The region is called Podlasie, Podlasko or Podlasze in Polish, Palenkė in Lithuanian, Padljašša (Падляшша) in Belarusian, Pidlissja (Підлісся), Pidljasije (Підлясіє), Pidlyashya (Підляшшя) or Pidljakhija (Підляхія) in Ukrainian, Podljas’e (Подлясье) in Russian, "Podlyashe" (פּאָדליאַשע) in Yiddish, and Podlachia in Latin.

There are two opinions regarding the origin of the name of the region. Commonly people derive it from the Slavic word les or las meaning "forest", i.e., it is an "by the wood(s)" or "area of forests", making Podlachia close in meaning to adjacent Polesia. The theory has been questioned, as it does not properly take into consideration the vowel shifts "a" > "e" > "i" in various Slavic languages (in fact, it mixes vowels form different languages).

Podlasie (disambiguation)

Podlasie is a region in north-east Poland.

Podlasie may also refer to the following villages in Poland: