Pomeranian_language

Other linguists relate the Pomeranian language to the Polabian group of dialects (forming the Pomeranian-Polabian group).

There is also a third view on this matter, according to which the Pomeranian language is related neither to the Old Polish language nor to the Polabian language.

Since the Early Middle Ages, the Pomeranian language area has been shrinking. Nowadays, the only two extant Kashubian dialects are spoken in few districts of the Pomeranian Region. However, just after the Second World War it was a dominating language in family and social life in the areas today known as Puck County, Wejherowo County, Kartuzy County, Ko?cierzyna County and parts of Chojnice County, Tuchola County and Bytów County. Now the language is likely to become extinct as handing it on from generation to generation in families nearly stopped in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Terminology

This situation is similar to the Occitan and the Low German languages. The Occitan language is often called Provencal. Provencal dialects, though, are just a part of Occitan, but have had the strongest literary tradition. Low German (Nederdüütsch, Plattdüütsch) is often identified with its Low Saxon dialect (Nedersassisch, Low Saxon) because it has a much stronger position than the other dialects.

After Slovincian and all the Pomeranian dialects (except Kashubian) became extinct, the "Kashubian language? is the term most often used in relation to the language spoken by the Pomeranians. However, it is still not clear where the words "Kashubians? and "Kashubian? (Polish: "Kaszubi? and "Kaszubski?, Kashubian: "Kaszëbi" and "kaszëbsczi") originated from and how they were brought from the area near Koszalin to Pomerelia. None of the theories proposed has been widely accepted so far. There is also no indication that Pomeranians wandered from the area of Koszalin to Pomerelia.

It has been proved, though, that the medieval inhabitants of Pomerania, who were the ancestors of the present Kashubians, did not call themselves Kashubians. It is not mentioned in the preserved sources what they called their language then. The analysis of geographical names in written sources shows that in the Early Middle Ages Slavic inhabitants of the whole of Pomerania used various dialects of one language. Today, linguists usually refer to these dialects as "Pomeranian dialects?. According to chronicles, the only common name for this territory was "Pomerania? and for its inhabitants "Pomeranians?.

While Western Pomerania was being the Germanized, the Germans (both colonizers and Germanized descendants of SlavicPomeranians)started using the words "Pomeranian? (German: Pommersch; Polish: pomorski) and "Pomeranians? (German: Pommern; Polish: Pomorzacy) referring to their own population. The part of the Pomeranian population which kept their Slavic language was called the Wends (German: Wenden) or the Kashubians (German: Kaschuben). As the West lost its Slavic character, those two terms were more often used in the East.

In 1850, in the preface to his Kashubian-Russian dictionary Florian Ceynowa wrote about the language of Baltic Slavic Peoples:

"Usually it is called the , although the would be a more proper term?

The word dialect was probably used by Ceynowa because he was a follower of Pan-Slavism, according to which all the Slavic languages were dialects of one Slavic language. However, in his later works Ceynowa called his language "kaszébsko-s?ovjinsko móva".

In 1893, Stefan Ramu?t, the Jagiellonian University linguist, referred to the early history of Pomerania, publishing the "Dictionary of the Pomoranian i.e. Kashubian Language?. In the preface Ramu?t wrote:

"As Kashubians are the direct descendants of Pomeranians, it is right to use the words Pomeranian and Kashubian as synonyms. Especially as there are other reasons for it as well??

and

"Kashubians and Slavs are what remains of the once powerful Pomeranian tribe and they are the only inheritors of the name Pomeranians?.

Friedrich Lorentz (the author of "Pomeranian Grammar? and "The History of Pomeranian/Kashubian Language?) referred in his works to Ramu?t?s dictionary. After Lorentz died, Friedhelm Hinze published a great Pomeranian dictionary in five volumes (Pomoranishes Worterbuch), which was based on Lorentz?s writing.

The influence of the Pomeranian language on other dialects

Friedrich Lorentz supposed that Kociewski and Borewiacki dialects first belonged to the Pomeranian language and was then Polonized as a result of the Polish colonization of these territories. According to Lorentz, the Krajniacki dialect most probably was originally a part of the Polish language.

The common feature of the Kociewski dialects and the Kashubian language is, for example, the partial preservation of the so called "TarT? group and a part of its lexis also. For the Borowiacki dialects and the Pomeranian language the common feature was affrication of dorsal consonants.

The Pomeranian language also influenced the Low German dialects, which were used in Pomerania. After Germanisation, the population of Western Pomerania started to use the Low German dialects. Those dialects, though, were based on the Pomeranian language (Slavic).

Most words originating from Pomeranian can be found in vocabulary connected with fishery and farming. The word Zeese / Zehse may serve as an example. It describes a kind of a fishing net and is still known in the Low German dialects of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern today. The word comes from the old Pomeranian word of the same meaning- seza. It moved to Kashubian and Slovincian dialects through Low German and appeared in Pomeranian dictionaries as ceza meaning "flounder and perch fishing net?. Thus, it is so called "reverse loan-word? as the Pomeranian language borrowed the word from Low German in which it functioned as "pomeranism? (a borrowing from the Pomeranian language).

A borrowing from the Pomeranian language which has been used in everyday German language and has appeared in dictionaries is a phrase "dalli, dalli? (it means: come on, come on). It moved to the German language through the German dialects of West Prussia and is also present in the Kashubian language (spelled: dali, dali)

The status of Pomeranian today

Following the collapse of communism in Poland, attitudes on the status of Kashubian have been gradually changing. It is increasingly seen as a fully-fledged language, as it is taught in state schools and has some limited usage on public radio and television. A bill passed by the Polish parliament in 2005 recognizes Kashubian as the only regional language in the Republic of Poland and provides for its use in official contexts in ten communes where Kashubian speakers constitute at least 20 percent of the population.