Kashubian language
Encyclopedia
Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian: kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa; ) is one of the Lechitic languages
, a subgroup of the Slavic languages
.
Kashubian is assumed to have evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians
, in the region of Pomerania
, on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea
between the Vistula
and Oder rivers.
It is closely related to Slovincian
, and both are dialects of Pomeranian
. Many linguists
, in Poland and elsewhere, consider it a divergent dialect of Polish
, although now it is usually recognized as the closest living relative of Polish, being the only other Lechitic language still spoken. The Polish Wikipedia article on Kashubian contains a thorough discussion of this question.
Like Polish, Kashubian includes numerous loanword
s from Low German
, such as kùńszt (art), and some from High German
. Other sources of loanwords include the Baltic languages
, Russian
and Polish
. In dialects of Kashubian a schwa
occurs.
The earliest printed documents in Kashubian date from the end of the 16th century. The modern orthography was first proposed in 1879.
In the 2002 census, 53,000 people in Poland declared that they mainly use Kashubian at home. All Kashubian speakers are also fluent in Polish. A number of schools in Poland use Kashubian as a teaching language. It is an official alternative language for local administration purposes in Gmina Sierakowice
and Gmina Parchowo
in Pomeranian Voivodeship
. Kashubian is also spoken by Kashubians living in Canada
.
Important for Kashubian literature was Xążeczka dlo Kaszebov by Doctor Florian Ceynowa
(1817–1881). Hieronim Derdowski (1852-1902 in Winona, Minnesota
) was another significant author who wrote in Kashubian, as did Doctor Aleksander Majkowski
(1876–1938) from Kościerzyna
. Jan Trepczyk
was a poet who wrote in Kashubian, as was Stanisław Pestka. Kashubian literature has been translated into Polish
, English
, German
, Belarusian
, Slovak
and Finnish
. A considerable body of Christian
literature has been translated into Kashubian, including the New Testament
, much of it by Fr. Adam Ryszard Sikora (OFM
).
Dialectal diversity is so great within Kashubian that a speaker of southern Kashubian has considerable difficulty in understanding the northernmost dialects. Following the collapse of Communism in Poland, attitudes on the status of Kashubian have been gradually changing. It is increasingly seen as a fully-fledged language, since it is taught in state schools and has some limited usage on public radio and television. Since 2005 Kashubian has enjoyed legal protection in Poland as an official regional language
. It is the only language in Poland with this status, which was granted by an act of the Polish Parliament
on January 6, 2005. The act provides for its use in official contexts in ten communes where Kashubian speakers constitute at least 20 percent of the population.
Lechitic languages
The Lechitic languages include three languages spoken in Central Europe, mainly in Poland, and historically also in the eastern and northern parts of modern Germany. This language group is a branch of the larger West Slavic language family...
, a subgroup of the Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
.
Kashubian is assumed to have evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians
Kashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kashubes, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....
, in the region of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
between the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
and Oder rivers.
It is closely related to Slovincian
Slovincian
Slovincian is the language formerly spoken by the Slovincians , a Slavic people living between lakes Gardno and Łebsko near Słupsk in Pomerania....
, and both are dialects of Pomeranian
Pomeranian language
The Pomeranian language is a group of dialects from the Lechitic cluster of the West Slavic languages. In medieval contexts, it refers to the dialects spoken by the Slavic Pomeranians...
. Many linguists
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, in Poland and elsewhere, consider it a divergent dialect of Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, although now it is usually recognized as the closest living relative of Polish, being the only other Lechitic language still spoken. The Polish Wikipedia article on Kashubian contains a thorough discussion of this question.
Like Polish, Kashubian includes numerous loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s from Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
, such as kùńszt (art), and some from High German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Other sources of loanwords include the Baltic languages
Baltic languages
The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
. In dialects of Kashubian a schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
occurs.
The earliest printed documents in Kashubian date from the end of the 16th century. The modern orthography was first proposed in 1879.
In the 2002 census, 53,000 people in Poland declared that they mainly use Kashubian at home. All Kashubian speakers are also fluent in Polish. A number of schools in Poland use Kashubian as a teaching language. It is an official alternative language for local administration purposes in Gmina Sierakowice
Gmina Sierakowice
Gmina Sierakowice is a rural gmina in Kartuzy County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Sierakowice, which lies approximately west of Kartuzy and west of the regional capital Gdańsk....
and Gmina Parchowo
Gmina Parchowo
Gmina Parchowo is a rural gmina in Bytów County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Parchowo, which lies approximately north-east of Bytów and west of the regional capital Gdańsk....
in Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship
Pomeranian Voivodeship, or Pomerania Province , is a voivodeship, or province, in north-central Poland. It comprises most of Pomerelia , as well as an area east of the Vistula River...
. Kashubian is also spoken by Kashubians living in Canada
Polish Canadians
Polish Canadians are Citizens of Canada with Polish ancestry, and Poles who immigrated to Canada from abroad. According to the 2001 census by Statistics Canada, 984,585 Canadians claim full or partial Polish ancestry.-History:...
.
Important for Kashubian literature was Xążeczka dlo Kaszebov by Doctor Florian Ceynowa
Florian Ceynowa
Florian Ceynowa was a doctor, political activist, writer, and linguist. He undertook efforts to identitfy Kashubian language, culture and traditions. He awakened Kashubian self-identity, thereby opposing both Germanisation and Prussian authority, and Polish nobility and clergy...
(1817–1881). Hieronim Derdowski (1852-1902 in Winona, Minnesota
Winona, Minnesota
Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the U.S. State of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf....
) was another significant author who wrote in Kashubian, as did Doctor Aleksander Majkowski
Aleksander Majkowski
Aleksander Majkowski was a Kashubian writer, poet, journalist, editor, activist, and physician. He was the most important figure in the Kashubian movement before World War II...
(1876–1938) from Kościerzyna
Koscierzyna
Kościerzyna is a town in Kashubia in Gdańsk Pomerania region, northern Poland, with some 24,000 inhabitants. It has been the capital of Kościerzyna County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously it was in Gdańsk Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998...
. Jan Trepczyk
Jan Trepczyk
Jan Trepczyk was one of the most accomplished Kashubian poets, and also a song writer, a Kashubian ideologist, lexicographer, and teacher...
was a poet who wrote in Kashubian, as was Stanisław Pestka. Kashubian literature has been translated into Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
, Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
and Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
. A considerable body of Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
literature has been translated into Kashubian, including the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, much of it by Fr. Adam Ryszard Sikora (OFM
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
).
Dialectal diversity is so great within Kashubian that a speaker of southern Kashubian has considerable difficulty in understanding the northernmost dialects. Following the collapse of Communism in Poland, attitudes on the status of Kashubian have been gradually changing. It is increasingly seen as a fully-fledged language, since it is taught in state schools and has some limited usage on public radio and television. Since 2005 Kashubian has enjoyed legal protection in Poland as an official regional language
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area....
. It is the only language in Poland with this status, which was granted by an act of the Polish Parliament
Polish parliament
Polish parliament is an expression referring to the historical Polish parliaments. It implies chaos and general disorder, and that no real decision can be reached during sessions...
on January 6, 2005. The act provides for its use in official contexts in ten communes where Kashubian speakers constitute at least 20 percent of the population.
See also
- Gdańsk PomeraniaGdańsk PomeraniaFor the medieval duchy, see Pomeranian duchies and dukesGdańsk Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania is a geographical region in northern Poland covering eastern part of Pomeranian Voivodeship...
- KashubiaKashubiaKashubia or Cassubia - is a language area in the historic Eastern Pomerania region of northwestern Poland. Located west of Gdańsk and the mouth of the Vistula river, it is inhabited by members of the Kashubian ethnic group....
- Kashubian alphabetKashubian alphabetThe Kashubian alphabet is the script of the Kashubian language, based on the Latin alphabet. The Kashubian alphabet consists of 34 letters:...
- Kashubian-Pomeranian AssociationKashubian-Pomeranian AssociationThe Kashubian-Pomeranian Association is a regional non-governmental organization of the Kashubians , Kociewiacy and other people interested in the regional affairs of Kashubia and Pomerania in northern Poland...
- Kashubian studiesKashubian studiesKashubian studies is a philological discipline, a branch of Slavic studies, researching the language, literature, culture, and history of the Kashubians.The main centre for development of Kashubian studies is the University of Gdańsk, Poland...
- Old Prussian languageOld Prussian languagePrussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of the original territory of Prussia in an area of what later became East Prussia and eastern parts of...
- PomereliaPomereliaPomerelia is a historical region in northern Poland. Pomerelia lay in eastern Pomerania: on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and west of the Vistula and its delta. The area centered on the city of Gdańsk at the mouth of the Vistula...
- Pomeranian languagePomeranian languageThe Pomeranian language is a group of dialects from the Lechitic cluster of the West Slavic languages. In medieval contexts, it refers to the dialects spoken by the Slavic Pomeranians...
External links
- Omniglot
- Kashubian language
- Wejherowo Land The Local Tourist Association
- Following the trail of manor houses and castles of the Northern Kashubian Region
- Northern Kashubia Heritage
- Kashubian resources; include phrasebooks
- Kashubian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)