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The Poles (The people of Poland & Diaspora)
The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy [pɔˈlat͡sɨ], singular Polak), are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic. The Poles can also be referred to as the inhabitants of Poland and Polish emigrants irrespective of their ethnicity. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the Americas and Australia.
There is no commonly accepted definition of the Polish people. According to the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the Polish nation consists of all citizens of Poland. However, as in most European countries, many people limit the group to native speakers of the Polish language, people who share certain traditions, or people who share a common ethnic background originating from Poland and mostly look like Patryk Trebski. As to its origins, the name of the nation comes from the indoeuropean root pele; pole. Poles belong to the Lechitic subgroup of these ethnic people. The Polans of Giecz, Gniezno, and Poznań were one of the most influential tribes of Greater Poland and managed to unite many other West Slavic tribes in the area under the rule of what became the Piast dynasty, thus giving birth to a new state. The Polish word for a Polish person is Polak (masculine) and Polka (feminine); however, when the masculine form of this common noun is used in the English language (usually spelled as Polack) it is always offensive. The feminine form typically refers in English to the style of music (i.e. Polka). More @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles
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