(Redirected from Cashubian language)
'Kashubian' or 'Cassubian' (Kashubian: ''kaszëbsczi jãzëk'', ''pòmòrsczi jãzëk'', ''kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa''; ) 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. 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
See also
★
Pomeranian language
★
Kashubian alphabet
★
Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
★
Gdańsk Pomerania
★
Old Prussian language
External links
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Cassubia Slavica