Silesian language

Range of Silesian on a map of East-Central Europe (marked as G1 and G2, in southern Poland and the eastern Czech Republic).

Silesian or Upper Silesian (Silesian: ślōnskŏ gŏdka, ślůnsko godka, Czech: Slezština, Polish: język śląski/Polish: etnolekt śląski) is a West Slavic lect, related to Polish^[4][5] and Czech. Its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by Central German due to the existence of numerous Silesian German speakers in the area prior to World War II and after, until the 1990s.^[6]

There is no consensus on whether Silesian is a separate language or a somewhat divergent dialect of Polish. The issue is largely unanswerable based on linguistic criteria, due to the existence of a dialect continuum between Polish and Czech formed by the Silesian and Lach varieties. The issue of whether language forms like Silesian and Lach represent minority languages in their own right is generally quite contentious in Europe due to the increased linguistic and political rights generally enjoyed by speakers of recognized minority languages, and Silesian is no exception. In this instance, local Silesians tend to advocate in favor of language status, while Poles and Czechs from other regions tend to advocate against this.

Distribution

Silesian speakers currently live in the region of Upper Silesia, which is split between southwestern Poland and the northeastern Czech Republic. At present Silesian is commonly spoken in the area between the historical border of Silesia on the east and a line from Syców to Prudnik on the west as well as in the Rawicz area. Until 1945 Silesian was also spoken in enclaves in Lower Silesia.

Lower Silesian, a variety of Central German, was spoken by the ethnic German majority population of that region until their mass deportation to Germany after World War II.

According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, about 509,000^[1] people declared Silesian as their native language (in census 2002, about 60,000^[7]), and in the censuses in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, nearly 0.9 million people declared Silesian nationality.^{[1][8][9][10]}

Recognition

In 2003, the National Publishing Company of Silesia (Narodowa Oficyna Śląska) commenced operations.^[11] This publisher was founded by the Alliance of the People of the Silesian Nation (Związek Ludności Narodowości Śląskiej) and it prints books about Silesia and books in Silesian language.

In July 2007, the Slavic Silesian language was given the ISO 639-3 code szl.^[12]

On 6 September 2007, 23 politicians of the Polish parliament made a statement about a new law to give Silesian the official status of a regional language.^[13]

The first official National Dictation Contest of the Silesian language (Ogólnopolskie Dyktando Języka Śląskiego) took place in August 2007. In dictation as many as 10 forms of writing systems and orthography have been accepted.^[14][15]

On 30 January 2008 and in June 2008, two organizations promoting Silesian language were established: Pro Loquela Silesiana and Tôwarzistwo Piastowaniô Ślónskij Môwy "Danga".^[16]

On 26 May 2008, the Silesian Wikipedia was founded.^[17]

On 30 June 2008 in the edifice of the Silesian Parliament in Katowice, a conference took place on the status of the Silesian language. This conference was a forum for politicians, linguists, representatives of interested organizations and persons who deal with the Silesian language. The conference was titled "Silesian — Still a Dialect or Already a Language?" (Śląsko godka — jeszcze gwara czy jednak już język?).^[18]

In 2012, the Ministry of Administration and Digitization registered the Silesian language in Annex 1 to the Regulation on the state register of geographical names;^[19] however, in a November 2013 amendment to the regulation, Silesian is not included.^[20]

Writing system

Ślabikŏrzowy szrajbōnek is the relatively new alphabet created by the Pro Loquela Silesiana organization to reflect the sounds of all Silesian dialects. It was approved by Silesian organizations affiliated in Rada Górnośląska. Ubuntu translation is in this alphabet^[21] as is the Silesian Wikipedia. It is used in a few books, including the Silesian alphabet book.^[22]

Letters: A, Ã, B, C, Ć, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, Ł, M, N, Ń, O, Ŏ, Ō, Ô, Õ, P, R, S, Ś, T, U, W, Y, Z, Ź, Ż.^[22]

One of the first alphabets created specifically for Silesian was Steuer's Silesian alphabet, created in the Interwar period and used by Feliks Steuer for his poems in Silesian. The alphabet consists of 30 graphemes and eight digraphs:

Letters: A, B, C, Ć, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, Ł, M, N, Ń, O, P, R, S, Ś, T, U, Ů, W, Y, Z, Ź, Ż

Digraphs: Au, Ch, Cz, Dz, Dź, Dż, Rz, Sz

Based on the Steuer alphabet, in 2006 the Phonetic Silesian Alphabet was proposed:^[23]

Letters: A B C Ć Č D E F G H I J K L M N Ń O P R Ř S Ś Š T U Ů W Y Z Ź Ž.

Silesian's phonetic alphabet replaces the digraphs with single letters (Sz with Š, etc.) and does not include the letter Ł, whose sound can be represented phonetically with U. It is therefore the alphabet that contains the least letters. Although it is the (phonetically) most logical and hence the most intuitive writing of Silesian, it did not become popular with Silesian organizations, with the argument that it contains too many caron diacritics and hence resembles the Czech alphabet. Large parts of the Silesian Wikipedia, however, are written in Silesian's phonetic alphabet.

Sometimes other alphabets are also used, such as the "Tadzikowy muster" (for the National Dictation Contest of the Silesian language) or the Polish alphabet, but writing in this alphabet is problematic as it does not allow for the differentiation and representation of all Silesian sounds.^[22]

Grammar

While the morphological differences between Silesian and the neighboring language of Polish have been researched extensively, grammatical differences have not been studied in great depth. One example is that, in contrast with Polish, Silesian retains the pluperfect (joech śe była uobaliyła — "I had slipped") and separate past conditional (jo bych śe była uobaliyła — "I would have slipped").

Another major difference is in question-forming. In Polish, questions that do not contain interrogative words are formed either by using intonation or the interrogative particle czy. In Silesian, questions that do not contain interrogative words are formed by using intonation (with a markedly different intonation pattern than in Polish) or inversion (e.g. je to na mapie?); there is no interrogative particle.

Example

The Lord's Prayer in Silesian, Polish and Czech.

Dialects of Silesian

Grave inscription at Lutheran cemetery in Střítež near Český Těšín. The inscription, which says "Rest in Peace", is in the Cieszyn Silesian dialect.

Silesian has many dialects:

• Dialects spoken on both sides of the Czech–Polish border:
  • Cieszyn Silesian dialect
• Dialects spoken in areas which are now part of the Czech Republic:
  • Opava Silesian dialect
  • Jabłonków Silesian dialect
  • Lach Silesian dialect
• Dialects spoken in areas which are now part of Poland:
  • Niemodlin Silesian dialect
  • Gliwice Silesian dialect
  • Kluczbork Silesian dialect
  • Prudnik Silesian dialect
  • Opole Silesian dialect
  • Sulkovian Silesian dialect

Dialect vs. language

Opinions are divided among linguists about whether Silesian is a distinct language or a dialect of Polish. The issue can be contentious, because some Silesians consider themselves to be a nationality within Poland. Some linguists from Poland such as Jolanta Tambor,^[24] Juan Lajo,^[25] Dr Tomasz Wicherkiewicz^[26] and philosopher Dr hab Jerzy Dadaczyński,^[27] sociologist Dr Elżbieta Anna Sekuła^[28] and sociolinguist Tomasz Kamusella^[29][30] support its status as a language. According to Stanisław Rospond, it is impossible to classify Silesian as a dialect of the contemporary Polish language because he considers it to be descended from the Old Polish language.^[31] Other Polish linguists, such as Jan Miodek and Edward Polański, do not support its status as a language.

The German linguist Reinhold Olesch was eagerly interested about the "Polish vernaculars" of Upper Silesia and other Slavic varieties spoken by few people, such as Kashubian and Polabian.^{[32][33][34][35]}

Most linguists writing in English, such as Alexander M. Schenker,^[36] Robert A. Rothstein,^[37] and Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley^[38] in their respective surveys of Slavic languages, list Silesian as a dialect of Polish, as does Encyclopædia Britannica.^[39]

A similar disagreement exists concerning the neighboring Lach varieties, sometimes considered separate languages and sometimes dialects of Czech, but the latter opinion appears currently dominant.^[40][41][42]

Czech Óndra Łysohorsky and his translator Ewald Osers (1949),^[43][44] were interested in Lach dialects.

Gerd Hentschel wrote "Das Schlesische ... kann somit ... ohne Zweifel als Dialekt des Polnischen beschrieben werden" ("Silesian ... can thus ... without doubt be described as a dialect of Polish").^[45][46]

Culture

Silesian has recently seen an increased use in culture, for example:

• TV and radio stations (for example: TV Silesia, Sfera TV, Slonsky Radio,^[47] Radio Piekary);
• music groups (for example: Hasiok, Dohtor Miód, FEET);
• theatre^[48] (for example: Polterabend in Silesian Theatre^[49]);
• film (for example: Grzeszny żywot Franciszka Buły ("The Sinful Life of Franciszek Buła")
• books (for example, the so-called Silesian Bible; poetry: "Myśli ukryte" by Karol Gwóźdź)
• teaching aids (for example, a Silesian basal reader)^[50]

See also

• List of Silesian-language books in standard orthography
• Silesian German
• Texas Silesian
• Wymysorys language

References

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Silesian

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Silesian language.

Wikinews has related news: Silesian language granted ISO code

Silesian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• (Silesian) Jynzyk S'loonski