Silesian German
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lover Silesian German, Silesian Schlesisch |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Poland | |
| Region: | Dolny Slask (Lower Silesia). Also spoken in Czech Republic, eastern Germany (Gorlitz). | |
| Total speakers: | ? | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Lover Silesian German, Silesian |
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | - | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | gem | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | sli | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
- For the West Slavic language / Polish dialect, see Silesian.
Lower Silesian German (ISO 639-2 language code: SLI), or simply Silesian (German: Schlesisch), is a German dialect spoken in Lower Silesia in southwestern Poland as well as in the northeastern Czech Republic and a part of eastern Germany.
The German Silesian dialect is part of the East Central German language area with some West Slavic influences. After the expulsion of the German Silesians east of the Oder-Neisse line, German Silesian culture and language nearly died out when Silesia came under Polish administration. Authorities banned the remaining German minority from speaking their native language. There are still unresolved feelings on the sides of both Poles and Germans, largely because of German atrocities committed against the Poles and the subsequent displacement of Germans in areas that constitute roughly the western half of modern Poland; atrocities were committed by Poles as well.
The dialect is not recognized in Poland and there are no known speakers who declared this as their primary language in the last census.
