Lower Sorbian language
Lower Sorbian | |
---|---|
Dolnoserbski, Dolnoserbšćina | |
Pronunciation | [ˈdɔlnɔˌsɛrskʲi] |
Native to | Germany |
Region | Brandenburg |
Native speakers | 6,900 (2007)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Latin (Sorbian alphabet) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 |
dsb |
ISO 639-3 |
dsb |
Glottolog |
lowe1385 [2] |
Linguasphere |
53-AAA-ba < 53-AAA-b < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-baa to 53-AAA-bah) |
Lower Sorbian (Dolnoserbski) is a Slavic minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia, today part of Brandenburg. It is one of the two literary Sorbian languages, the other being Upper Sorbian.
Lower Sorbian is spoken in and around the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg. Signs in this region are usually bilingual, and Cottbus has a Gymnasium where one language of instruction is Lower Sorbian. It is a heavily endangered language.[3] Most native speakers are in the oldest generation today.
Phonology
The phonology of Lower Sorbian has been greatly influenced by contact with German, especially in Cottbus and larger towns. For example, German-influenced pronunciation tends to have a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] instead of the alveolar trill [r]. In villages and rural areas German influence is less marked, and the pronunciation is more "typically Slavic".
Consonants
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hard | soft | hard | soft | hard | soft | hard | hard | ||
Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʲ | |||||
Plosive | voiceless | p | pʲ | t | k | ||||
voiced | b | bʲ | d | ɡ | |||||
Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | h | ||
voiced | v | z | ʐ | ʑ | |||||
Trill | r | rʲ | |||||||
Approximant | w | wʲ | l | j |
- /m, mʲ, p, pʲ, b, bʲ, w, wʲ/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[4]
- /n, nʲ, l, r, rʲ/ are alveolar [n, nʲ, l, r, rʲ], whereas /t, d, t͡s, s, z/ are dental [t̪, d̪, t̪͡s̪, s̪, z̪].[4]
- /t͡ʂ, ʂ, ʐ/ are laminal retroflex (flat postalveolar) [t͡ʂ, ʂ, ʐ] in all of the Lower Sorbian–speaking area. This is unlike in standard Upper Sorbian, where these are palato-alveolar [t͡ʃ, ʃ, ʒ].[6][7]
- /h/ is voiceless [h], unlike Upper Sorbian, where it is voiced [ɦ].[8][9]
Final devoicing and assimilation
Lower Sorbian has both final devoicing and regressive voicing assimilation:[10]
- dub /dub/ "oak" is pronounced [dup]
- susedka /ˈsusedka/ "(female) neighbor" is pronounced [ˈsusetka]
- licba /ˈlit͡sba/ "number" is pronounced [ˈlʲid͡zba]
The retroflex fricative /ʂ/ is assimilated to [ɕ] before /t͡ɕ/:[11]
- šćit /ʂt͡ɕit/ "protection" is pronounced [ɕt͡ɕit]
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Lower Sorbian is exactly the same as that of Upper Sorbian.[12] It is also very similar to the vowel inventory of Slovene.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
- /i/ is retracted to [ɨ] after hard consonants.
- /e, o/ are diphthongized to [i̯ɛ, u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[12]
- The /e–ɛ/ and /o–ɔ/ distinctions are weakened or lost in unstressed syllables.[13]
- /a/ is phonetically central [ä].[12]
Stress
Stress in Lower Sorbian normally falls on the first syllable of the word:[14]
In loanwords, stress may fall on any of the last three syllables:[14]
- internat [intɛrˈnat] "boarding school"
- kontrola [kɔnˈtrɔla] "control"
- september [sɛpˈtɛmbɛr] "September"
- policija [pɔˈlʲit͡sija] "police"
- organizacija [ɔrɡanʲiˈzat͡sija] "organization"
Most one-syllable prepositions attract the stress to themselves when they precede a noun or pronoun of one or two syllables:[14]
- na dwórje [ˈna dwɨrʲɛ] "on the courtyard"
- pśi mnjo [ˈpɕi mnʲɔ] "near me"
- do města [ˈdɔ mʲɛsta] "into the city" (note that the [iɪ̯] of město [ˈmʲiɪ̯stɔ] becomes [ɛ] when unstressed)
However, nouns of three or more syllables retain their stress:
- pśed wucabnikom [pɕɛd ˈut͡sabnʲikɔm] "in front of the teacher"
- na drogowanju [na ˈdrɔɡowanʲu] "on a journey"
Orthography
The Sorbian alphabet is based on the Latin script but uses diacritics such as acute accent and caron.
Sample
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Lower Sorbian:
Wšykne luźe su lichotne roźone a jadnake po dostojnosći a pšawach. Woni maju rozym a wědobnosć a maju ze sobu w duchu bratšojstwa wobchadaś.
(All people are born free and equal in their dignity and rights. They are given reason and conscience and they shall create their relationships to one another according to the spirit of brotherhood.)[15]
References
- ↑ Lower Sorbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Lower Sorbian". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.
- 1 2 3 Stone (2002), p. 605.
- ↑ Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181.
- ↑ Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181 and 190–191.
- ↑ Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 40–41.
- ↑ Stone (2002), pp. 600 and 605.
- ↑ Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 43 and 46.
- ↑ Hannusch (1998), p. 12.
- ↑ Hannusch (1998), p. 13.
- 1 2 3 4 Stone (2002), p. 600.
- ↑ Stone (2002), pp. 606–607.
- 1 2 3 Hannusch (1998), p. 14.
- ↑ Omniglot
Bibliography
- Hannusch, Erwin (1998), Niedersorbisch praktisch und verständlich, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, ISBN 3-7420-1667-9
- Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjo-serbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
- Stone, Gerald (2002), "Sorbian (Upper and Lower)", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G., The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 593–685, ISBN 9780415280785
- Zygis, Marzena (2003), "Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Slavic Sibilant Fricatives" (PDF), ZAS Papers in Linguistics 3: 175–213
External links
Lower Sorbian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
For a list of words relating to Lower Sorbian language, see the Lower Sorbian language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Lower Sorbian |
- (German) (Lower Sorbian) Dolnoserbski radio program (RealAudio)
- Lower Sorbian Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
Dictionaries
German–Lower Sorbian
- (German) (Lower Sorbian) at dolnoserbski.de
- (German) (Lower Sorbian) at Korpus GENIE
Lower Sorbian–German
- (German) (Lower Sorbian) at dolnoserbski.de
- (German) (Lower Sorbian) Lexikalische Übungen
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