Upper Sorbian language

Spoken in

Indo-European Slavic Westslawisch Sorbian Upper Sorbian language

Hsb

Upper Sorbian is a West Slavic language, in Upper Lusatia in the area of the cities of Bautzen ( Budyšin ) Kamenz ( Kamjenc ) and Hoyerswerda ( Wojerecy ) is spoken. Upper Sorbian Lower Sorbian is related to, Czech, Slovak, Polish and Kashubian. As a Slavic language Upper Sorbian belongs to the Indo-European languages .

Upper Sorbian is one of the under the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages officially recognized minority languages in Germany. In the official settlement area in Upper Lusatia, there are thus include bilingual road and place names and public schools with Upper Sorbian language of instruction.

4.1 nouns 4.1.1 Deklinationsbeispiele

6.1 Upper Sorbian media
6.2 Miscellaneous

8.1 dictionaries
8.2 Further

History

A unified Upper Sorbian literary language there is only since the 19th century. Previously there were a Catholic and a Protestant version, which had been partially differentiated in spelling, grammar and vocabulary and marked by clergy and coded. Here, the Catholic -oriented variant in terms of spelling rather the Czech, the Protestant more on the Germans. With the so-called " Sorbian rebirth " was a single, non-denominational, under the leadership of Maćica Serbska from the two written languages . Key pioneers for this process were, inter alia, January Arnost Smoler, Michał Hornik and Handrij Zejler.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonantal phonemes of the Upper Sorbian are as follows:

The left-wing consonants are voiceless, the right-wing voiced. The above consonants are not softened, the below are softened ( palatalized ).

In Upper Sorbian both devoicing and regressive assimilation of phonation occur:

/ dub / is [ dup ] pronounced,
/ hubkować susodku / [ hupkou̯aʧ susɔtku ] is pronounced.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes are as follows:

The left of the points listed vowels are unrounded ( spread ), the rounded on the right.

Word accent

The main accent ( accent) is usually in the Upper Sorbian on the first syllable, zida (zi -da ) [' ʒida ], łastojčka ( LAS tojč - ka) [' u̯astɔiʧka ], kuzłapołna ( KUZ - ła -POL -na ) [' kuzu̯apou̯na ], with the following exceptions:

Some older composites, the emphasis is on the second part: lětstotk ( LET STOTK ) wokomik ( woko - MIK )
Recent loanwords on - ěrować and ować are always before - ować emphasizes reagować (re - A-go - WAC), gratulować ( gra -TU -lo- WAC), kopěrować ( ko - pe -ro- WAC)
Foreign words that have come on the German language in Upper Sorbian, be before the first Sorbian component stresses ( a suffix or inflectional ending ): agentura (a- gen- TU- ra), agitacija (a- gi -TA -ci -ja ), Ministerstwo (mi -ni -STER - stwo ) procesjón (per - CE ' Sjón ) (zero ending in the nominative )

In groups of words (Syntagma ), the preposition (always before monosyllabic nouns ) attracts often the emphasis at: ke mni (KE mni ), na WSO (NA WSO ), do Sule (DO Sule ), na zahrodźe (NA zahrodźe ), na polu (NA polu ), do města (DO města ), za tebje (ZA tebje )

Alphabet

The Upper Sorbian alphabet based on the Latin alphabet, supplemented by the following diacritics and letter combinations: č, ć, DZ, ì, ch, ł, ń, ó, ř, š, ž. Not part of the alphabet q, v and x, these occur only in foreign words. The Upper Sorbian alphabet thus has 34 elements.

In alphabetic sorting is n between the letters and ń, and no distinction between o and ó. For example, Nosk ( = nose ) before nosorohač ( = rhinoceros) is sorted. If two words differ only by these letters, also the alphabetical order is taken into account, such as in won ( = out, out ) - WON ( it =) - Won ( = scent).

Ě, Ń, Ó and Ř never occur word-initially, so the corresponding uppercase letters are very rare and will only be used if the whole word is written in capital letters (eg Rozen ( = ( Grill ) rust spit ) ).

Grammar

Upper Sorbian is an inflectional language, which means that the Deklinierung and conjugation by means of endings and often small changes in the trunk. There are several declensions and conjugations more, as well as numerous irregularities. The word order is relatively free and allows stylistic differentiations.

The Sorbian grammar has three grammatical Numbers - singular, dual and plural - as well as four grammatical generation - male animated, inanimate masculine, feminine and neuter.

Nouns

The nouns have next to the categories number and gender of the category case with the seven cases, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative, the vocative in the colloquial language found only in the singular of the masculine animate nouns.

The grammatical gender of nouns can usually be identified by the word ending. Male nouns usually end in a consonant, female on -a and neuter in-o or -e. An article is not used in the rule.

Deklinationsbeispiele

In singular nouns are formed regularly as follows:

The vocative case as the salutation and the call only has masculine nouns in the singular nominative of different forms, but differs mostly by the intonation.

Adjectives

In adjectives in Upper Sorbian the principle of congruence, ie the formal agreement with the deterministic noun applies as in most Slavic languages, such as rjana kniha ( " beautiful book " ), rjany Stom ( " beautiful tree " ) and rjane wokno ( " beautiful window ").

Verbs (conjugation )

The verb has in addition to the categories of number and gender of the categories of aspect ( perfective and imperfective ) and tense ( present tense, future tense, past tense ), person and mood ( imperative, conditional ). The aspects are partly expressed by different Flexionsuffixe, partly by prefixes ( imperfective usually Perfektivierung verbs), in a few cases also by two different strains.

Dialects

The Sorbian language area in Upper Lusatia is historically divided into several dialect areas. The various dialects differ mainly in pronunciation, to a lesser extent but also in vocabulary and grammar.

The most vivid until today Sorbian dialect is the Catholic version of the Upper Sorbian, which is spoken in the villages at the monastery of water. A characteristic feature is the realization of the written language as y ó ( Dark o). Further north are, inter alia, to the dialect areas of Nochten, Hoyerswerda and loop, which are referred to as border dialects and more closely related to the Lower Sorbian. In the villages around Bautzen and in the city itself, the so-called ( Protestant ) Bautzen dialect is spoken, which formed the main basis for the Upper Sorbian literary language and therefore not significantly different from the current standard language.

As extinct in the 20th century Muskauer dialect Löbauer dialect and formerly in and around Großpostwitz spoken so-called mountain dialect apply. The few remaining in these regions speakers today use the Upper Sorbian language standard.

For the variation of the Germans, which is now spoken in the linguistically assimilated villages in the Sorbian settlement area is referred to as Neulausitzer dialect.

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