Sorbian languages

Sorbian languages

Infobox Language family
name=Sorbian
altname=Wendish, Lusatian
region=Lusatia
familycolor=Indo-European
fam1=Indo-European
fam2=Balto-Slavic
fam3=Slavic
fam4=West Slavic
child1=Upper Sorbian
child2=Lower Sorbian



iso2=wen
The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code is wen.

There are two literary languages: Upper Sorbian ("hornjoserbsce"), spoken by about 40,000 people in Saxony, and Lower Sorbian ("dolnoserbski") spoken by about 10,000 people in Brandenburg. The area where the two languages are spoken is known as Lusatia ("Łužica" in Upper Sorbian, "Łužyca" in Lower Sorbian, or "Lausitz" in German).

Both languages have the dual for nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs; very few known living Indo-European languages retain this feature as a productive aspect of the grammar (see Slovene grammar for the other).

In Germany, Upper and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages. In the home areas of the Sorbs, both languages are officially equal to German.

The city of Bautzen in Upper Lusatia is the centre of Upper Sorbian culture. Bilingual signs can be seen around the city, including the name of the city, "Bautzen/"Budyšin".

The city of Cottbus ("Chóśebuz") is considered the cultural centre of Lower Sorbian; here too bilingual signs are found.

Sorbian is also spoken in the small Sorbian (“Wendish”) settlement of Serbin in Lee County, Texas. Until recently newspapers were published in Sorbian there. The local dialect has been heavily influenced by surrounding speakers of German and English.

While the old German-derived labels “Wend” and “Wendish,” which once denoted “Slav(ic)” generally, have been retained in American and Australian communities, they ought not be used in place of “Sorb” and “Sorbian” with reference to Sorbian communities in Germany, because many Sorbs consider them to be offensive.

ee also

*Sorbian alphabet
*Sorbs
*Wends
*List of Sorbian-language writers
*Low Lusatian German

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=92156 Sorbian language tree]
* [http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/sorab/an/i1/i1.html Euromosaic information page]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sorbian languages — also called  Lusatian, or Wendish,         closely related West Slavic languages or dialects; their small number of speakers in eastern Germany are the survivors of a more extensive medieval language group. The centre of the Upper Sorbian speech… …   Universalium

  • Sorbian alphabet — The Sorbian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as the acute accent and the caron. The standard character encoding for the Sorbian alphabet is ISO 8859 2 (Latin 2).The alphabet is used for the Sorbian languages,… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of the European Union — Official language(s) Bulgarian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Germany — Languages of country = Germany official = Standard German (>90%) regional = Low Rhenish; Kleverlandish, Limburgish; Luxembourgish; Alemanic; Yiddish (remnants of the language facing extinction); Danish, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, North Frisian …   Wikipedia

  • Sorbian — may refer to more than one article:*the Sorbs, a Slavic people in modern day Germany *the Sorbian language(s), a group of closely related West Slavic languages …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Europe — Most of the many languages of Europe belong to the Indo European language family. Another major family is the Finno Ugric. The Turkic family also has several European members. The North and South Caucasian families are important in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Sorbian — 1. noun A group of Slavic languages spoken by a minority in eastern Germany. Syn: Lusatian, Wendish See Also: Lower Sorbian, Sorb, Upper Sorbian 2 …   Wiktionary

  • Slavic languages — or Slavonic languages Branch of the Indo European language family spoken by more than 315 million people in central and eastern Europe and northern Asia. The Slavic family is usually divided into three subgroups: West Slavic, comprising Polish,… …   Universalium

  • Lower Sorbian language — Lower Sorbian Dolnoserbski, Dolnoserbšćina Pronunciation [ˈdɔlnɔˌsɛrskʲi] Spoken in Germany Region Brandenburg …   Wikipedia

  • Slavic languages — Infobox Language family name=Slavic region=throughout Eastern Europe familycolor=Indo European fam1=Indo European fam2=Balto Slavic child1=East Slavic child2=South Slavic child3=West Slavic iso2=sla [ legend|#004040|Countries where a South Slavic …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”