(in English)
Sorbian, Wendish, Lusatian
Geographic distribution: Lusatia,
the Sorbian-speaking region in Germany.
Linguistic classification: Indo-European,
Balto-Slavic, Slavic, West Slavic, Sorbian.
Subdivisions: Upper Sorbian, Lower
Sorbian.
The Sorbian languages (Serbsce, Serbski) are classified
under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native
languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany.
Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian.
Their collective ISO 639-2 code is wen. It is closely related to Polish, Kashubian, Czech and Slovak.
There are two literary languages: Upper Sorbian (hornjoserbsce),
spoken by about 40,000 people in Saxony, and Lower Sorbian (dolnoserbski)
spoken by about 10,000 people in Brandenburg. The area where the two languages
are spoken is known as Lusatia (Łužica in Upper Sorbian, Łužyca
in Lower Sorbian, or Lausitz in German).
Both languages have the dual for nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs;
very few known living Indo-European languages retain this feature as a productive
aspect of the grammar (see Slovenian grammar or Lithuanian grammar for other
ones).
In Germany, Upper and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized and protected
as minority languages. In the home areas of the Sorbs, both languages are
officially equal to German.
The city of Bautzen in Upper Lusatia is the centre of Upper Sorbian
culture. Bilingual signs can be seen around the city, including the name of the
city, "Bautzen/Budyšin".
The city of Cottbus (Chóśebuz) is considered the cultural centre of
Lower Sorbian; here too bilingual signs are found.
Sorbian has also been spoken in the small Sorbian (“Wendish”) settlement of
Serbin in Lee County, Texas, and it is possible that a few speakers still
remain there. Until recently newspapers were published in Sorbian there. The
local dialect has been heavily influenced by surrounding speakers of German and
English.
While the old German-derived labels “Wend” and “Wendish”, which once
denoted “Slav(ic)” generally, have been retained in American and Australian
communities, they are today mostly unusual in place of “Sorb” and “Sorbian”
with reference to Sorbian communities in Germany, because many Sorbs consider
such words to be offensive.
History
After the invasion of the formerly Germanic territories (the part largely
corresponding to GDR) by the Sorbs’ Slavic ancestors in the 5th and 6th
centuries, the Sorbian language (or its predecessors) has been in use in much of
(later) East Germany’s Southern half for several centuries, and has still its
stronghold in (Upper and Lower) Lusatia where it enjoys national protection and
fostering until today. Outside Lusatia, it has been superseded by German,
following repeated "positive" discrimination, from the 13th century
on, in favour of that latter tongue, being advantaged by the comparatively
higher development of the German civilisation. The printed language developed
around the main Bible translations into Sorbian.
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