Kashubian language
| Kashubian | |
|---|---|
| kaszëbsczi, pòmòrsczi | |
| Native to | Poland Canada |
| Region | Pomerania |
Native speakers | 50,000 |
| Official status | |
Official language in | in official use in some communes of Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | csb |
| ISO 639-3 | csb |
| ELP | Kashubian |
Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian: kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa; Polish: język kaszubski, gwara kaszubska) 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 of them are dialects of Pomeranian. Though the Kashubian language can hardly be understood by Polish speakers, until recently many Polish linguists considered it a dialect of Polish.
Similarly to Polish, Kashubian includes numerous loanwords from Low German, such as kùńszt (art), and some from German (Kunst). Other sources of loanwords include the Baltic languages, Russian and Polish.
The first 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. Research shows that many Kashubian-speaking parents use Polish rather than Kashubian at home, because they believe that if they spoke Kashubian, their children would find it more difficult to learn Polish.[citation needed] A number of schools in Poland teach in Kashubian as a lecture language, and it is used as an official alternative language for local administration purposes in parts of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Kashubian is also spoken by Kashubians living in Canada.
Gallery
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Bilingual sign in Polish and Kashubian in Puck, Poland
See also
- Pomeranian language
- Kashubian alphabet
- Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
- Gdańsk Pomerania
- Old Prussian language
External links
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