Kashubian () or Cassubian (; ; ) is a West Slavic language belonging to the Lechitic subgroup.Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 2000, p.199,
Approximately 87,600 people use mainly Kashubian at home. It is the only remnant of the Pomeranian language. It is close to standard Polish with influence from Low German and the extinct Polabian (West Slavic) and Old Prussian (West Baltic) languages.
The Kashubian language exists in two different forms: vernacular dialects used in rural areas, and literary variants used in education.
Origin
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 first began to evolve separately in the period from the 13th to the 15th century as the Polish-Pomeranian linguistic area began to divide based around important linguistic developments centred in the western (Kashubian) part of the area.
In the 19th century Florian Ceynowa became Kashubian's first known activist. He undertook tremendous efforts to awaken Kashubian self-identity through the establishment of Kashubian language, customs, and traditions. He felt strongly that Poles were born brothers and that Kashubia was a separate nation.
The Young Kashubian movement followed in 1912, led by author and doctor Aleksander Majkowski, who wrote for the paper Zrzësz Kaszëbskô as part of the Zrzëszincë group. The group contributed significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.
The earliest printed documents in Polish with Kashubian elements date from the end of the 16th century. The modern orthography was first proposed in 1879.
Related languages Many scholars and linguists debate whether Kashubian should be recognized as a Polish dialect or separate language. In terms of historical development, it is a separate Lechitic West Slavic language, but, in terms of modern influence, Polish is a prestige language. Kashubian is closely related to Slovincian, and both of them are dialects of Pomeranian. Despite this, some linguists, in Poland and elsewhere, consider it a divergent dialect of Polish. Dialectal diversity is so great within Kashubian that a speaker of southern dialects has considerable difficulty in understanding a speaker of northern dialects. The spelling and the grammar of Polish words written in Kashubian, which is most of its vocabulary, are highly unusual, making it difficult for native Polish speakers to comprehend written text in Kashubian.Biuletin Radzëznë Kaszëbsczégò Jazëka rok 2007, Gduńsk. Bibiografiô.
Like in Polish, about 5% of loanwords in Kashubian are from High German and Low German (such as "art"). Unlike in Polish, these are mostly from Low German and only occasionally from High German.Anna Gliszczyńska. Germanizmy leksykalne południowej kaszubszczyzny (Na materiale książki Bolesława Jażdżewskiego Wspomnienia kaszubskiego "gbura"). "LingVaria". 1 (3), s. 79–89, 2007. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. . Other sources of loanwords include the Baltic languages.
Speakers Poland The number of speakers of Kashubian varies widely from source to source. In the 2021 census, approximately 87,600 people in Poland declared that they used Kashubian at home, a decrease from over 108,000 in the 2011 census. Of these, only 1,700 reported speaking exclusively in Kashubian within their homes, down from 3,800 in 2011. However, experts caution that changes in census methodology and the socio-political climate may have influenced these results. The number of people who can speak at least some Kashubian is higher, around 366,000. All Kashubian speakers are also fluent in Polish. A number of schools in Poland use Kashubian as a teaching language. It is an official alternative language for local administration purposes in Gmina Sierakowice, Gmina Linia, Gmina Parchowo, Gmina Luzino and Gmina Żukowo in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Most respondents say that Kashubian is used in informal speech among family members and friends. This is most likely because Polish is the official language and spoken in formal settings.
Americas During the Kashubian diaspora of 1855–1900, 115,700 Kashubians emigrated to North America, with around 15,000 emigrating to Brazil. Among the Polish community of Renfrew County, Ontario, Kashubian is widely spoken to this day, despite the use of more formal Polish by parish priests. In Winona, Minnesota, which Ramułt termed the "Kashubian Capital of America", Kashubian was regarded as "poor Polish", as opposed to the "good Polish" of the parish priests and teaching sisters. Consequently, Kashubian failed to survive Polonization and died out shortly after the mid-20th century.
Literature
Important for Kashubian literature was Xążeczka dlo Kaszebov by Florian Ceynowa (1817–1881). Hieronim Derdowski (1852–1902 in Winona, Minnesota) was another significant author who wrote in Kashubian, as was Aleksander Majkowski (1876–1938) from Kościerzyna, who wrote the Kashubian national epic The Life and Adventures of Remus. Jan Trepczyk was a poet who wrote in Kashubian, as was Stanisław Pestka. Kashubian literature has been translated into Czech, Polish, English, German, Belarusian, Slovene and Finnish. Aleksander Majkowski and Alojzy Nagel belong to the most commonly translated Kashubian authors of the 20th century. A considerable body of Christian literature has been translated into Kashubian, including the New Testament, much of it by Adam Ryszard Sikora (OFM). Franciszek GruczaPeter Hauptmann, Günther Schulz, Kirche im Osten: Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenkunde, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000, pp.44ff, graduated from a Catholic seminary in Pelplin. He was the first priest to introduce Catholic liturgy in Kashubian.
Works The earliest recorded artifacts of Kashubian date back to the 15th century and include a book of spiritual psalms that were used to introduce Kashubian to the Lutheran church: 1586 Duchowne piesnie (Spiritual songs) D. Marcina Luthera y ynßich naboznich męzow. Zniemieckiego w Slawięsky ięzik wilozone Przes Szymana Krofea... w Gdainsku: przes Jacuba Rhode, Tetzner 1896: translated from pastorks. S. Krofeja, Słowińca (?) rodem z Dąbia. 1643 Mały Catechism (Little Catechism) D. Marciná Lutherá Niemiecko-Wándalski ábo Slowięski to jestá z Niemieckiego języká w Słowięski wystáwiony na jáwnosc wydan..., w Gdaińsku przes Jerzego Rhetá, Gdansk 1643. Pastor smołdziński ks. Mostnik, rodem ze Slupska. Perykopy smołdzinskie (Smoldzinski Pericope), published by Friedhelm Hinze, Berlin (East), 1967 Śpiewnik starokaszubski (Old Kashubian songbook), published by Friedhelm Hinze, Berlin (East), 1967
Education Throughout the communist period in Poland (1948–1989), Kashubian greatly suffered in education and social status. Kashubian was represented as folklore and prevented from being taught in schools. Following the collapse of communism, attitudes on the status of Kashubian have been gradually changing. It has been included in the program of school education in Kashubia although not as a language of teaching or as a required subject for every child, but as a foreign language taught 3 hours per week at parents' explicit request. Since 1991, it is estimated that there have been around 17,000 students in over 400 schools who have learned Kashubian. Kashubian has some limited usage on public radio and had on public television. Since 2005, Kashubian has enjoyed legal protection in Poland as an official regional language. It is the only language in Poland with that status, which was granted by the Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Language of the Polish Parliament. The act provides for its use in official contexts in ten communes in which speakers are at least 20% of the population.G. Stone: Slav outposts in Central European history : the Wends, Sorbs and Kashubs, London, UK : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016, p. 348 The recognition means that heavily populated Kashubian localities have been able to have road signs and other amenities with Polish and Kashubian translations on them.
Dialects
Friedrich Lorentz wrote in the early 20th century that there were three main Kashubian dialects. These include the Northern Kashubian dialect Middle Kashubian dialect Southern Kashubian dialect
Other researches would argue that each tiny region of the Kaszuby has its own dialect, as in Dialects and Slang of Poland: Bylacki dialect Slowinski dialect Kabatkow dialect Zaborski dialect Tucholski and Krajniacki dialect (although both dialects would be considered a transitional form of the Wielkopolski dialect and are included as official Wielkopolskie dialects)
Phonology The phonological system of the Kashubian language is similar in many ways to those of other Slavic languages. The Kashubization of consonants a distinguishing feature of Pomeranian lects. Kashubian has a large vowel inventory, with 9 oral vowels and 2 nasal vowels.
Vowel length Friedrich Lorentz argued that northern dialects had contrastive vowel length, but later studies showed that any phonemic length distinctions had disappeared by 1900. Any other vowel length is used for expressive purposes or is the result of syllable stress. All traces of vowel length can now be seen in vowel alterations.
Syllable stress Kashubian features free placement of stress, and in some cases, mobile stress, and in northern dialects, unstressed syllables can result in vowel reduction. An archaic word final stress is preserved in some two-syllable adjectives, adverbs, and regularly in the comparative degree of adverbs, in some infinitives and present and past tense forms, some nouns ending in -ô, in diminutives. ending in -ik/-yk, nouns formed with -c and -k, and some prepositional phrases with pronouns.
Stress mobility can be observed in nouns, where in the singular the stress is initial, but in the plural it's on the final syllable of the stem, i.e. but , and in some verb forms, i.e. vs . Some dialects have merged ë with e, making the distinction contrastive. Most of this mobility is limited to morphology and stress has largely stabilized in Kashubian.
Northern and central dialects show a much more limited mobility, as northern dialects show stabilization on initial stress, and central shows constant distance between the stressed syllable and the initial syllable of the word. Proclitics such as prepositions, pronouns, and grammatical particles such as may take initial stress.
Eastern groups place accents on the penultimate syllable.
The difference between southern and northern dialects dates as far back as the 14th–15th century and is the result of changes to the Proto-Slavic vowel length system.
Phonological processes from Proto-Slavic Retention of softness before -ar-: Kashubian vs Polish Proto-Slavic *-ъl-/*-ьl- -> -ôł-: Kashubian vs Polish This change is somewhat archaic or lexicalized, appearing more in the North. TelT -> TłoT: Kashubian vs Polish Retention of TarT, especially in the North: Kashubian vs Polish This feature is not regular and is somewhat archaic, even giving rise to archaizing neologisms such as Kashubian (from Kashubian ). Labialization of initial o-: Kashubian vs Polish So-called , Proto-Slavic soft t/d/s/z initially to and finally to : Kashubian vs Polish , Kashubian vs Polish , Kashubian vs Polish , Kashubian vs Polish This process occurred differently in the West, where soft ć/dź went to t/d Initial ra- -> re- and ja- -> je-, however modern forms usually retain -a- Kashubian vs Polish , Kashubian vs Polish Irregular change of -ar- -> -er-, Kashubian alongside Kashubian (from Kashubian ), vs Polish (from Polish ). Regional retention of medial -t- in the word Kashubian ("seven") vs Polish (compare Masurian Polish ).