(in English)
Upper Sorbian, Hornjoserbšćina
Spoken natively in Germany.
Region - Saxony, Brandenburg.
Native speakers -18,000
(1995).
Language family - Indo-European, Balto-Slavic,
Slavic, West Slavic, Sorbian, Upper Sorbian.
Writing system - Latin (Sorbian
alphabet).
Official language in regional
language in Germany (Brandenburg and Saxony).
Upper Sorbian (Hornjoserbšćina) is a minority language
spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia (Hornja
Łužica in Sorbian), which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West
Slavic language branch, together with Lower Sorbian, Czech, Polish, Slovak and Kashubian.
History
The history of the Upper Sorbian language in Germany began with the Slavic
migrations during the 6th century AD. Beginning in the 12th century, there was
a massive influx of rural Germanic settlers from Flanders, Saxony, Thuringia
and Franconia. The succeeding devastation of the country by military actions
began the slow decrease of the Upper Sorbian language. In addition, in the
Saxony region, the Sorbian language was legally subordinated to the German
language. Language prohibitions were later added: In 1293, the Sorbian language
was forbidden in Berne castle before the courts; in 1327 it was forbidden in Zwickau
and Leipzig, and from 1424 on it was forbidden in Meissen. Further, there was
the condition in many guilds of the cities of the area to accept only members
of German-language origin.
However, the central areas of the Milzener and Lusitzer, in the area of the
today's Lausitz, were relatively unaffected by the new German language
settlements and legal restrictions. The language therefore flourished there. By
the 17th century, the number of Upper Sorbian speakers in that area grew to
over 300,000. The oldest evidence of written Upper Sorbian is the „Burger
Eydt Wendisch” monument, which was discovered in the city of Bautzen and
dated to the year 1532.
The Upper Sorbian language in Germany
There are estimated to be 40,000 speakers of Upper Sorbian, of which almost
all live in Saxony.
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