From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upper Sorbian (Hornjoserbšćina) is a minority
language spoken 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 other languages.
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 martial 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
A bilingual sign in Germany; the lower part is in Upper
Sorbian
There are estimated to be 40,000 speakers of Upper Sorbian, of
which almost all live in Saxony. This puts Upper Sorbian as the third
largest minority language in Germany, after Turkish and
Danish, but
before Frisian. Since the nationality
affiliations in Germany are not officially recorded and Upper
Sorbian nationality is self-identified, these figures are only
estimates. The number of active speakers may be substantially
smaller. Some scholars predict that Upper Sorbian is in danger of
extinction. Computer forecasts predict that in 20-30 years time,
there will only be 7,000 speakers of Lower Sorbian and 13,000 of
Upper Sorbian left in the world. (Some in fact believe that Lower Sorbian may be extinct by that time.)
In the opinion of more optimistic language experts, by the end of
the 21st century Upper Sorbian will not yet be extinct.
Nevertheless, no further reliable forecasts can be made at the
present time.
See also
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