Upper Sorbian language


Upper Sorbian, occasionally referred to as Wendish, is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony, Germany. It is a West Slavic language, along with Lower Sorbian, Czech, Polish, Silesian, Slovak, and Kashubian. It is now spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in Budyšin and its immediate countryside.
Upper Sorbian differs from its closest relative, Lower Sorbian, at all levels of the language system: in phonetics, morphology, and vocabulary. At the same time, the two languages share a number of features that distinguish them from other West Slavic languages—in particular, the preservation of the dual number, the retention of simple past tense forms of verbs, and an especially large number of lexical borrowings from German. Several linguistic features link Upper Sorbian with the Lechitic languages, while in a number of other features it is similar to the Czech-Slovak subgroup.
At present, in addition to everyday use, Upper Sorbian is used as a literary language in education, the mass media, science, and so on. Compared to Lower Sorbian, it has a larger number of speakers, a stricter literary norm, and greater stylistic differentiation. Nevertheless, the number of Upper Sorbian speakers is constantly declining, with the main speakers of the language generally being older members of the Sorbian community, whose main means of communication is not the literary language but dialects. The writing system is based on the Latin alphabet; the earliest written records in Upper Sorbian date back to the 16th century.
Upper Sorbian is one of the minority languages in Germany that are officially recognized under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In the officially designated settlement area in Upper Lusatia, there are therefore, on the basis of the Saxon Sorbs Act, among other things, bilingual street and place name signs as well as state schools with Upper Sorbian as the language of instruction or Sorbian as a foreign language.

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. This so-called "Ostsiedlung" led to a slow but steady decline in use of the 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 today's Lusatia, were relatively unaffected by the new German language settlements and legal restrictions. The language therefore flourished there. By the 17th century, the number of Sorbian speakers in that area grew to over 300,000. The oldest evidence of written Upper Sorbian is the Burger Eydt Wendisch document, which was discovered in the city of Bautzen and dates to the year 1532.

Linguistic geography

There are an estimated 18,000 speakers of Upper Sorbian. Almost all of these live in the state of Saxony, chiefly in the district of Bautzen. The stronghold of the language is the village of Crostwitz and the surrounding municipalities, especially to the west of it. In this core area, Upper Sorbian remains the predominant vernacular. In this area, Sorbian is an official language and children are taught Sorbian in schools and day cares. Other concerted efforts to preserve the language through media, club, and related resources have continued into the 21st century. In spite of these efforts, numbers of Upper Sorbian speakers were still considered to be dwindling. It has been suggested that this may be in part because of a lack of understanding of the benefits of bilingualism.

Sociolinguistic information

The language situation in modern Upper Lusatia is characterized by complete German–Sorbian bilingualism, with a growing tendency toward German monolingualism. The domain of Upper Sorbian, unlike that of German, is significantly limited. German is practically the universal means of communication for all Sorbs, while Upper Sorbian is used mainly in everyday communication—in the family, with friends and acquaintances; the literary form of Upper Sorbian is used in public life mainly in Sorbian organizations and in the church.
The functions of Upper Sorbian also include Sorbian or bilingual groups in kindergartens, teaching of some subjects in schools providing special education as provided for by Saxony state law, the periodic press and publishing, and use in certain fields of art, culture, and science supported by the Foundation for the Sorbian People, which is funded by the federal government of Germany and the governments of Saxony and Brandenburg. At the same time, due to the small number of pupils, Sorbian schools are under threat of closure; language development is hindered by the administrative fragmentation of Sorbian-inhabited areas, the mass outmigration of young people to western Germany, the industrial development of the region, and the expansion of brown coal mining, which forces Sorbs to relocate and disrupts the compactness of their settlement area. The low prestige of Sorbian, the existence of mixed Sorbian–German marriages, and the dominant role of German in all areas of life in Upper Lusatia contribute to the constant decline in the number of Upper Sorbian speakers.
Upper Sorbian exists in several forms: the supraregional form, which includes the literary written and spoken varieties as well as the colloquial form ; and the regional form, represented by Upper Sorbian dialects. A distinctive feature of the relationship between the different forms is the relatively large gap between the literary language and the developing dialectal koine, which influences the colloquial form of Upper Sorbian.
The use of Upper Sorbian varies in different regions of Upper Lusatia, particularly between Catholic and Protestant areas.
Among Catholics in the far west of the Upper Sorbian-speaking area, natural language transmission from the older and middle generations to the younger generation is preserved. In Catholic communities located in the triangle Bautzen–Hoyerswerda–Kamenz, 60–65% of the population speak Upper Sorbian, and in some places this figure reaches 80–90%. Members of the younger generation here typically have equally good command of both Upper Sorbian and German; the German population may understand Sorbian passively or even speak it actively. In the Catholic church, services are conducted in Upper Sorbian; in some schools, teaching is carried out in Upper Sorbian, while in others it is taught as a subject. These areas are characterized by more active use of the literary language, due to the concentration of scientific and cultural Sorbian organizations. In everyday communication, speakers from this dialect area often use a colloquial form of the language that ranges from strongly dialectal to semi-literary with dialectal coloring. The language situation in Catholic communities is somewhat similar to that in Bautzen, the cultural center of the Sorbs.
For most other Upper Sorbian speakers, natural language transmission from the older generation has been broken; members of the middle and younger generations have learned their native language in its literary form only at school. Sorbs here are a minority compared to the German population, and German is the main language of communication; Germans generally do not speak Sorbian. The use of Upper Sorbian in public life is limited; in schools, it is taught as a special elective subject. The role of the literary language compared to dialects is very low. The language situation among Sorbs in the Protestant areas of Upper Lusatia is largely similar to that observed in Lower Lusatia.
As of 2009, there were 12 Sorbian kindergartens in Saxony, three of them following the Witaj program; in addition, 11 kindergartens had Witaj program groups. Sorbian schoolchildren attended six Sorbian and three bilingual primary schools, four Sorbian and one bilingual secondary school; in the 2009/2010 school year there were 2,232 Sorbian pupils. Bautzen also has a Sorbian gymnasium, and in two other gymnasiums Upper Sorbian is taught as a subject. Upper Sorbian is taught at the Institute for Sorbian Studies at Leipzig University.
Upper Sorbian-language periodicals include the newspaper Serbske Nowiny, the cultural monthly Rozhlad, the children’s magazine Płomjo, and religious publications—the Catholic Katolski Posoł and the Lutheran Pomhaj Bóh. Radio programs are broadcast by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. As of 2017, MDR produces 21.5 hours of radio programming per week. MDR also produces a half-hour Upper Sorbian television program Wuhladko. There are also online publications, such as Runjewonline.info.
The preservation and development of Sorbian language and culture is overseen by Domowina—a union of scientific, cultural, religious, student, and other Sorbian organizations. Domowina also operates a publishing house producing books in the Sorbian languages. The current regulator of the literary language is the Upper Sorbian Language Commission.

Dialect

For most speakers of the Sorbian languages—primarily rural residents—dialects are the main means of communication. Only a relatively small portion of the Sorbian population, mainly the rural and urban intelligentsia, speak the literary languages, including literary Upper Sorbian. In the peripheral areas of the Sorbian language territory, dialects are disappearing relatively quickly, while in the central regions they are better preserved. Overall, the dialects have been more heavily influenced by the German language compared to the literary Upper Sorbian language.
In Upper Lusatia, the Upper Sorbian group of dialects is spoken; the modern literary Upper Sorbian language developed on the basis of several of these dialects. The area of this dialect group is located in the southern part of the Sorbian-speaking territory and contrasts with the Lower Sorbian dialect area in the north. Upper Sorbian dialects are separated from Lower Sorbian dialects by a zone of transitional dialects, through which broad bundles of isoglosses of major Sorbian linguistic features pass.
Despite covering a relatively small area, the Upper Sorbian territory is characterized by considerable dialectal diversity. The following main dialects are distinguished:
Western dialects, including:
  • Kulow dialect.
  • Catholic dialect.
Central dialects, including:
  • Bautzen dialect.
  • Golan dialect.
Eastern dialects, including:
  • Eastern Golan dialect.
According to the Sorbian Linguistic Atlas, there is also the Lubij or Löbau dialect, among others.
The Bautzen dialect, which formed the basis of the literary language, is spoken in the area surrounding the town of Bautzen. The Catholic dialect is spoken in Catholic parishes west of Bautzen up to the town of Kamenz. The Kulow dialect, closely related to the Catholic dialect, is spoken by Sorbs in the vicinity of Kulow. To the north and northeast of the Bautzen dialect area lie the regions where the Golan and Eastern Golan dialects are spoken.