Polabian language

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Polabian
Spoken in	Poland, Germany
Language extinction	18th century
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lechitic Polabian
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	sla
ISO 639-3	pox
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Polabian language is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Slavs of North-Eastern Germany around the Elbe or Laba River (hence the name). It was spoken approximately until the mid-18th century, when it was suppressed by German, in the areas of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, eastern parts of Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein.

Polabian was in some respects markedly different from other Slavic languages. It was close to Pomeranian and Kashubian, and attested only in a handful of manuscripts, dictionaries and various writings from the 17th and 18th centuries. As can be seen in the comparisons of the Lord's Prayer below, Polabian contained many German loanwords, such as Wader (Father) and Rîk (Kingdom).

About 2800 Polabian words are known (but of prosaic writings, only a few prayers, one wedding song and a few folktales). Immediately before the language went extinct several people started to collect phrases, compile wordlists and were engaged with folklore of the Polabian Slavs, but only one of them appears to have been a native speaker of Polabian (himself leaving only 13 pages of linguistically relevant material from a 310-page manuscript).^[1] The last native speaker of Polabian, a woman, died in 1756, and the last person who spoke limited Polabian died in 1825.

The most important monument of the language is the so-called Vocabularium Venedicum (1679—1719) by Christian Hennig.

The language left some traces in toponymy; for example, the German cities of Bremen and Brandenburg were originally founded by Polabian Slavs, the original names being Bremin and Branibor.^[2]

Contents 1 Grammar 1.1 Phonology 1.2 Morphology 1.3 Syntax 1.4 Lexis 1.5 Dialects 2 Example of Polabian 3 Notes 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Phonology

For Polabian the following segments are reconstructable:^[3]

Oral non-reduced monopthongs *i    ü    u  ė   e   ö   o   a   å

Diphthongs   ai     åi     åu

Reduced  ĕ       ă

Nasal   ą     ǫ

Polabian consonant segments

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Dental		Alveolar	Palatal		Post-palatal	Velar
Plosive	p	b			t	d		t'	d'		k	g
	ṕ	b́
Affricate					c	ʒ		ć	ʒ́
Fricative			f	v	s	z	š	ś	ź	x́	x
			-	v́
Nasal	m				n			ń
	ḿ
Lateral							l
							ĺ
Trill							r
							ŕ
Semi-vowel								j

[edit] Morphology

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Syntax

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Lexis

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Dialects

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Example of Polabian

The Lord's Prayer in Polabian and related Lechitic languages is:^[4]

Polabian Nôße Wader, ta toy giß wa Nebisgáy, Sjungta woarda tügí Geima, tia Rîk komma, tia Willia ſchinyôt, kok wa Nebisgáy, tôk kak no Sime, Nôßi wißedanneisna Stgeiba doy nâm dâns, un wittedoy nâm nôße Ggrêch, kak moy wittedoyime nôßem Grêsmarim, Ni bringoy nôs ka Warſikónye, tay löſoáy nôs wit wißókak Chaudak. Amen.

Upper Sorbian: Wótče naš, kiž sy w njebjesach. Swjeć so Twoje mjeno. Přińdź Twoje kralestwo. Stań so Twoja wola, kaž na njebju, tak na zemi. Wšědny chlěb naš daj nam dźens. Wodaj nam naše winy, jako my tež wodawamy swojim winikam. A njewjedź nas do spytowanja, ale wumóž nas wot złeho. Amen.

Kashubian: Òjcze nasz, jaczi jes w niebie, niech sã swiãcy Twòje miono, niech przińdze Twòje królestwò, niech mdze Twòja wòlô jakno w niebie tak téż na zemi. Chleba najégò pòwszednégò dôj nóm dzysô i òdpùscë nóm naje winë, jak i më òdpùszcziwóme naszim winowajcóm. A nie dopùscë na nas pòkùszeniô, ale nas zbawi òde złégò. Amen.

Polish: Ojcze nasz, któryś jest w niebie, święć się imię Twoje, przyjdź królestwo Twoje, bądź wola Twoja jako w niebie tak i na ziemi. Chleba naszego powszedniego daj nam dzisiaj; i odpuść nam nasze winy, jako i my odpuszczamy naszym winowajcom. I nie wódź nas na pokuszenie, ale nas zbaw ode złego. Amen.

ELLC (1988)[5] Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. Amen.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Olesch, Reinhold (1977), "Jezik polapskih Drevana: Stanje i zadaci istraživanja" (in Croatian) (PDF), Suvremena lingvistika (Zagreb) 15, http://suvlin.ffzg.hr/index.php/suvlin/article/view/387/298 

• Kapović, Mate (2008) (in Croatian). Uvod u indoeuropsku lingvistiku. Zagreb: Matica hrvatska. ISBN 978-953-150-847-6. 

• Rzetelska-Feleszko, Ewa (2002), "Polabisch" (in German) (PDF), Enzyklopädie des Europäischen Ostens, Klagenfurt, http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/eeo/Polabisch.pdf 

• Polański, Kazimierz (1993), "Polabian", in Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett, The Slavonic languages, London & New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0415280785 

• Słownik etymologiczny języka Drzewian połabskich, Part 1: ed. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński & Kazimierz Polański, Wrocław, 1962, from Part 2 on: ed. K. Polański, Wrocław, 1971-

• Kazimierz Polański & Janusz Sehnert: Polabian-English Dictionary. The Hague: Mouton 1967

[edit] See also

Polabian language repository of Wikisource, the free library

• Wends

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