Kashubians (; ; ) also spelled as Kaszubians, Kassubians, Cassubians, Cashubes or Kashubs, and formerly known as Kashubes, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia (, , ). They speak the Kashubian language, classified either as a separate language closely related to Polish, or a Polish dialect. In analogy to the linguistic classification, Kashubians are considered either an ethnic or a linguistic group. Kashubians are closely related to Poles.