Sorbian, Upper
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Fact corner
- Language: Sorbian, Upper
- Alternate names: Obersorbisch, Haut Sorabe, Upper Lusatian, Wendish, Hornjoserbski, Hornoserbski
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:hsb
- Language family: Indo-European, Slavic, West, Sorbian
- Number of speakers: 40,000
- Script: Latin script
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Introduction
Upper Sorbian is a minority language spoken in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. Principal towns are Bautzen (Upper Sorbian: Budyšin) and Kamenz (Sorbian Kamjenc).
A West Slavic language, it strongly resembles Czech. There are estimated to be 40,000 speakers of Upper Sorbian, of which almost all live in Saxony. This puts Upper Sorbian as the third largest minority language in Germany, after Turkish and Danish, but before Frisian.
The history of the Upper Sorbian language in Germany began with the Slavic migrations during the 6th Century AD. Beginning in the 12th Century, there was a massive influx of rural Germanic settlers from Flanders, Saxony, Thuringia and Franconia. The succeeding devastation of the country by martial actions began the slow decrease of the Upper Sorbian language.
The verb
Upper Sorbian verbs are inflected for
- Number: singular, dual, and plural
- Person: 1 'I, we', 2 'you', 3 'he, she, it; they
- Tense: present, future, perfect, and preterite
- Mood: indicative, imperative, and conjunctive
The forms that use the so called "L-participle" make a special distinction between forms for the three genders (masculine, femenine, neutre).
Sample verb: pisać pisa npf. to write
| INDICATIVE | IMPERATIVE | CONDITIONAL | ||||
| Present | Future | Perfectum | Preterite | |||
| Sg.1 | pisam | budu pisać | sym pisał (m) / sym pisała (f) | pisach | - | bych pisał (m) / bych pisała (f) |
| Sg.2 | pisaš | budźeš pisać | sy pisał (m) / sy pisała (f) | pisaše | pisaj | by pisał (m) / by pisała (f) |
| Sg.3 | pisa | budźe pisać | je pisał (m) / je pisała (f) / je pisało (n) | njech pisa | by pisał (m) / by pisała (f) / by pisało (n) | |
| Du.1 | pisamoj | budźemoj pisać | smój pisałoj | pisachmoj | pisajmoj | bychmoj pisałoj |
| Du.2 | pisatej | budźetej pisać | stej pisałoj | pisaštej | pisajtej | byštej pisałoj |
| Du.3 | njech pisatej | |||||
| Pl.1 | pisamy | budźemy pisać | smy pisali | pisachmy | pisajmy | bychmy pisali |
| Pl.2 | pisaće | budźeće pisać | sće pisali | pisašće | pisajće | byšće pisali |
| Pl.3 | pisaja | budu pisać / budźeja pisać | su pisali | pisachu | njech pisaja | by pisali |
External links
- Upper Sorbian grammar(approve sites)
References
- Faßke, Helmut et al.. Grammatik der obersorbischen Schriftsprache der Gegenwart.
Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Bautzen. .
- Kral, Georg. Grammatik der Wendischen Sprache in der Oberlausitz. 3 edition. Bautzen. 1925.