| Osiek | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
  Osiek | |
| Coordinates: 53°43′19″N18°29′27″E / 53.72194°N 18.49083°E | |
| Country |  |
| Voivodeship | Pomeranian |
| County | Starogard |
| Gmina | Osiek |
| Population | 1,012 |
| Website | http://www.osiek.gda.pl |
Osiek [ˈɔɕek] (German : Ossiek) is a village in Starogard County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Osiek. [1] It lies approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) south of Starogard Gdański and 73 km (45 mi) south of the regional capital Gdańsk.
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement.
Starogard County is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland. The name is a combination of two terms: stari which is Slavic for old and gard which is Pomeranian language stands for town, city, fortified settlement. In this meaning, the term gard is still being used in the only surviving dialect of the Pomeranian, Kashubian language. The county came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Starogard Gdański, which lies 45 kilometres (28 mi) south of the regional capital Gdańsk. The county contains three other towns: Skarszewy, 13 km (8 mi) north-west of Starogard Gdański, Skórcz, 19 km (12 mi) south of Starogard Gdański, and Czarna Woda, 33 km (21 mi) south-west of Starogard Gdański. Starogard County is part of the area traditionally inhabited by the Kociewiacy ethnic group.
For details of the history of the region, see History of Pomerania .
The history of Pomerania starts shortly before 1000 AD with ongoing conquests by newly arrived Polans rulers. Before that the area was recorded nearly 2000 years ago as Germania, and in modern-day times Pomerania is split between Germany and Poland. The name Pomerania comes from the Slavic po more, which means Land at the Sea.
The village has a population of 1,012.
