Poles live in Poland, they speak Polish. What about other languages? Other nations? In this article we will talk about the disappearing Kashubian language, the focus of which still exists in several Polish cities.
Who are the kashubes?
Kashuby is an extensive ethnic group, akin to the Poles and having a lot in common with them. Nevertheless, they have their own language, flag, coat of arms and even their own historical territories. Kashubians are considered descendants of the ancient Slavic tribes of the Pomeranians who arrived here during the great migration of peoples. They lived in the lower reaches of the Odra River, occupying the southern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Modern kashubians are divided into dozens of different sub-ethnic groups and live mainly in the area of the city of Gdansk and its environs. In the XIX century, the region experienced economic difficulties, many of them emigrated to other parts of Europe, as well as to North and South America. Large groups of kashubs lived in Brazil, the USA, and Argentina. Today, the largest diaspora is present in Canada, where it numbers up to 20-30 thousand people.
The total number of people has not been established and is estimated at 300-500 thousand people. Most of them live within Poland. The traditional occupations of the people are fishing, painting glass, making ceramics and amber, selling tobacco and making snuffboxes from cow horn. All this can now be seen at various folk festivals and holidays.
Kashubians are sensitive to past traditions and try to preserve them at all costs. Their identity today has become a real tourist attraction. Just 30 kilometers from Gdansk is an ecological park where you can get acquainted with all the features of this people.
Kashubian language: group and status
Kashubian is the only living language left from the Pomeranians. Slovenian was also widespread among their tribes, but it has long been considered extinct, at present there is not a single person who can speak it.
The Kashubian language has managed to survive to this day, but its situation is also deteriorating. In the Atlas of World Languages of UNESCO, he was given the status of endangered. The number of speakers ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 (the distribution of Kashubian among the population is shown in the photo in the article).
Kashubian is a Slavic language that belongs to the Lehitic subgroup of the western branch. According to lexical and grammatical features, the closest extinct Slovo and Polaba languages, as well as Kabat dialect, are closest to it. Despite this, for a long time he was not recognized as independent and was considered one of the dialects of Polish. Since 2005, he received regional status. And now, along with Polish, it can be used at an official level in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the republic.
Language features
The written form of the Kashubian language is based on the Latin alphabet, but has many additional characters to indicate unique sounds. Some of them (Ł, Ó, Ń, Ą) overlap with the Polish alphabet, others (Ù, Ã, É, Ô) exist only in Kashubian. The sound of “seam” is also special, which on the letter is displayed as Russian “”, and pronounced as the middle between “e” and “a”.
There are eleven vowels in the Kashubian language. In addition to labialized and non-labialized, there are also nasal, articulation of which partially occurs through the nasal cavity. A notable phenomenon for this language is “killing”, when traditionally soft sounds become hard and acquire a whistling rather than hissing character. In this, Kashubian is different from Polish: where in Polish there will be ś, ź, ć, in Kashubian, most likely, there will be s, z, p. For example, świat - swiat, zima-zëma, rodzić-rodzëc.
Origin and formation
In the past, Pomeranian tribes occupied a significant territory between the Odra and Vistula rivers. They were divided into two groups - western and eastern, dialects of the latter and formed the basis of the Kashubian language.
Representatives of the West Pomeranian tribes were strongly influenced by the Germanic peoples and completely assimilated with them, disappearing from the world map. The eastern tribes living on the site of modern Kashubia were closely connected with the Polish state and had the opportunity to maintain their culture. Thanks to what they managed to save their language. But numerous contacts with neighbors brought him a large number of borrowings. Even today, it has a lot of common vocabulary with German and Polish.
Dialects and literary norm
On the territory of the country, the Kashubian language is spoken in the historical region of Kashubia, which is located in the northwestern regions of Poland. This region covers the area from the Gulf of Gdansk to the shores of Lake Charzykowy.
In the Kashubian language, northern, central and southern dialects are distinguished, which are divided into separate narrow-territorial dialects. Northern languages are the most archaic and best preserved the ancient features. Southern dialects are much closer to Polish. Central languages have both northern and southern features, as well as their own unique ones.
Kashubian dialects and dialects have a number of common characteristics and rules, on the basis of which they usually describe it. However, a common literary norm does not yet exist. Everyone writes, speaks and creates works under the influence of the language that is common in their native region.