Kashubian language

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 first began to evolve separately in the period from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century as the Polish-Pomeranian linguistic area began to divide based around important linguistic developments centred in the western (Kashubian) part of the area.[12]

In the 19th century, Florian Ceynowa became Kashubian's first known activist. He undertook tremendous efforts to awaken Kashubian self-identity through the establishment of Kashubian language, customs, and traditions.[13] He felt strongly that Poles were born brothers and that Kashubia was a separate nation.[14]

The Young Kashubian movement followed in 1912, led by author and doctor Aleksander Majkowski, who wrote for the paper "Zrzësz Kaszëbskô" as part of the "Zrzëszincë" group. The group contributed significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.

The earliest printed documents in Polish with Kashubian elements date from the end of the 16th century. The modern orthography was first proposed in 1879.

Important for Kashubian literature was Xążeczka dlo Kaszebov by Florian Ceynowa (1817–1881).[27] Hieronim Derdowski (1852–1902 in Winona, Minnesota) was another significant author who wrote in Kashubian, as was Aleksander Majkowski (1876–1938) from Kościerzyna, who wrote the Kashubian national epic The Life and Adventures of Remus. Jan Trepczyk was a poet who wrote in Kashubian, as was Stanisław Pestka. Kashubian literature has been translated into Czech, Polish, English, German, Belarusian, Slovene and Finnish. Aleksander Majkowski and Alojzy Nagel belong to the most commonly translated Kashubian authors of the 20th century. A considerable body of Christian literature has been translated into Kashubian, including the New Testament, much of it by Adam Ryszard Sikora (OFM).[28] Franciszek Grucza[29] graduated from a Catholic seminary in Pelplin. He was the first priest to introduce Catholic liturgy in Kashubian.

Throughout the communist period in Poland (1948-1989), Kashubian greatly suffered in education and social status. Kashubian was represented as folklore and prevented from being taught in schools. Following the collapse of communism, attitudes on the status of Kashubian have been gradually changing.[30] It has been included in the program of school education in Kashubia although not as a language of teaching or as a required subject for every child, but as a foreign language taught 3 hours per week at parents' explicit request. Since 1991, it is estimated that there have been around 17,000 students in over 400 schools who have learned Kashubian.[31] Kashubian has some limited usage on public radio and had on public television. Since 2005, Kashubian has enjoyed legal protection in Poland as an official regional language. It is the only language in Poland with that status, which was granted by the Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Language of the Polish Parliament.[32] The act provides for its use in official contexts in ten communes in which speakers are at least 20% of the population.[33] The recognition means that heavily populated Kashubian localities have been able to have road signs and other amenities with Polish and Kashubian translations on them.

Kashubian dialects area in the early 20th century

Friedrich Lorentz wrote in the early 20th century that there were three main Kashubian dialects. These include the

• Northern Kashubian dialect
• Middle Kashubian dialect
• Southern Kashubian dialect

Other researches would argue that each tiny region of the Kaszuby has its own dialect, as in Dialects and Slang of Poland:[34]

• Bylacki dialect
• Slowinski dialect
• Kabatkow dialect
• Zaborski dialect
• Tucholski and Krajniacki dialect (although both dialects would be considered a transitional form of the Wielkopolski dialect and are included as official Wielkopolskie dialects)

A "standard" Kashubian language does not exist despite several attempts to create one; rather a diverse range of dialects takes its place. The vocabulary is heavily influenced by German and Polish and uses the Latin alphabet.

There are several similarities between Kashubian and Polish. For some linguists they consider this a sign that Kashubian is a dialect of Polish but others believe that this is just a sign that the two originate from the same location. They are nevertheless related to a certain degree and their proximity has made Kashubian influenced by Polish and its various dialects.

Exemplary differences between Kashubian and Polish:

• a consonant-softening outcome of Proto-Slavic soft syllabic r in northern Kashubian dialects: ex: Northern Kashubian: cwiardi, czwiôrtk; Polish: twardy, czwartek
• the disappearance of a movable e in the nominative case: ex: pòrénk, kóńc; poranek, koniec
• vowel ô takes the place of former long a, continuants of the old long a distinct from the old short a are present in most dialects of Polish but absent from the standard language
• transition of -jd- to -ńd- just like the Masurian dialects: ex: przińdą; przyjdą

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kashubian:

Wszëtczi lëdze rodzą sã wòlny ë równy w swòji czëstnoce ë swòjich prawach. Mają òni dostóne rozëm ë sëmienié ë nôlégô jima pòstãpòwac wobec drëdzich w dëchù bracënotë.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:[37]

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

• 
  Percentage of people that speak Kashubian at home (2002)
• 
  Two bilingual signs in Garcz in Kashubia with the Polish name above and the Kashubian name below
• 
  Bilingual sign in Polish and Kashubian in Pogórze, Puck County, Poland, on road from Gdynia to Rewa
• 
  Page of Stefan Ramułt Pomeranian (Kashubian language) Dictionary 1893
• 
  Map showing regions in Poland where Kashubian is recognized as a regional language (orange) and where it could qualify in the upcoming years (yellow)
• 
  Church of the Pater Noster, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Lord's Prayer in Kashubian

• Ł–l merger
• Bilingual communes in Poland
• Gdańsk Pomerania
• Kashubia
• Kashubian alphabet
• Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
• Kashubian studies
• Masurian dialects
• Old Prussian language
• Pomerelia
• Pomeranian language

• Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville. G. (2002). The Slavonic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28078-8
• Blank, Joshua C. Creating Kashubia: History, Memory and Identity in Canada's First Polish Community. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016.
• Gyula Décsy, Die linguistische Struktur Europas, Vergangenheit — Gegenwart — Zukunft, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1973
• Friedhelm Hinze, Wörterbuch und Lautlehre der deutschen Lehnwörter im Pomoranischen (Kaschubischen), Berlin 1965
• Język kaszubski. Poradnik encyklopedyczny. ed. J. Treder, Rev. 2. corrected and expanded UG, Oficyna Czec, Gdańsk, 2006
• J. Borzyszkowski, J. Mordawski, J. Treder: Historia, geografia, język i piśmiennictwo Kaszubów; J. Bòrzëszkòwsczi, J. Mòrdawsczi, J. Tréder: Historia, geògrafia, jãzëk i pismienizna Kaszëbów, Wëdowizna M. Rôżok przë wespółrobòce z Institutã Kaszëbsczim, Gduńsk 1999, p. 128
• Aleksander Labuda, Słowôrz kaszëbsko-polsczi. Słownik polsko-kaszubski, Gdańsk 1982
• Friedrich Lorentz, Geschichte der Pomoranischen (Kaschubischen) Sprache, Berlin and Leipzig, 1925
• Nestor, N. & Hickey, T. (2009). Out of the Communist frying pan and into the EU fire? Exploring the case of Kashubian Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine.
• Nomachi Motoki, On the recipient passive in the Kashubian Language: Annex to Milka Ivić's syntactic inventory for Slavonic dialectology
• Stefan Ramułt, Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, Kraków, 1893 i.e. "Dictionary of the Pomeranian (Seacoast) or Kashubian language" (Kraków, 1893)
• Stefan Ramułt, Słownik języka pomorskiego czyli kaszubskiego. Scalił i znormalizował Jerzy Treder, Gdańsk, 2003
• C. F. i F. N. Voegelin, Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier, New York 1977

• The dictionary definition of Appendix:Kashubian Swadesh list at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of Kashubian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words at Wiktionary
• LC
• The World Atlas of Language Structures - WALS
• BnF
• Omniglot
• COE 2011
• Kashubian language
• UNESCO
• Following the trail of manor houses and castles of the Northern Kashubian Region
• Kashubian resources; include phrasebooks
• dictionary
• Endangered languages
• Kaszëbskô Mowa: Freeing the Kashubian Language