Slovincian is the extinct language formerly spoken by the

Slovincians Slovincians, also known as Łeba Kashubians, is a near-extinct ethnic subgroup of the Kashubian people, who originated from the north western Kashubia, located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, from the area around the lakes of Łebsko and G ...

living between lakes Gardno and Łebsko near

Słupsk Słupsk (; , ; formerly german: Stolp, ; also known by several alternative names) is a city with powiat rights located on the Słupia River in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland, in the historical region of Pomerania or more specific ...

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. Slovincian is classified either as a language (first by Friedrich Lorentz, 1902/3Dicky Gilbers, John A. Nerbonne, J. Schaeken, ''Languages in Contact'', Rodopi, 2000, p.329, ), or as a Kashubian dialectChristina Yurkiw Bethin, ''Slavic Prosody: Language Change and Phonological Theory'', pp.160ff, Cambridge University Press, 1998, Edward Stankiewicz, ''The Accentual Patterns of the Slavic Languages'', Stanford University Press, 1993, p.291, (first by Lorentz, after 1903) or variant,Roland Sussex, Paul Cubberley, ''The Slavic Languages'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p.97, with Kashubian itself being classified either as a language or as a Polish dialect.Harry Hulst, Georg Bossong, ''Eurotyp'', Walter de Gruyter, 1999, p.837, Slovincian and Kashubian are both classified as Pomeranian. Slovincian became extinct in the early twentieth century. However, individual words and expressions survived until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, when the region became Polish. Some Slovincians were expelled along with the Germans. Of those allowed to stay, a few elderly people had fragmentary knowledge of Slovincian until the 1950s. It is disputed whether Slovincians actually used that name, given to them by the Russian academic Aleksander Hilferding, for themselves. The synonym ''Lebakaschuben'' is also used. Some scholars believe that Slovincians regarded themselves merely as Lutheran

Kashubians The Kashubians ( csb, Kaszëbi; pl, Kaszubi; german: Kaschuben), also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ( West Slavic) ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in nor ...

and their language as Kashubian. Nevertheless, the name "Slovincian" prevails in literature and is also used officially, for example in ''Słowiński Park Narodowy'' (

Slovincian National Park Slovincian may refer to: * Slovincian language * Slovincians Slovincians, also known as Łeba Kashubians, is a near-extinct ethnic subgroup of the Kashubian people, who originated from the north western Kashubia, located in the Pomeranian Voivode ...

), a protected area on the Polish Pomeranian coast.

Phonology

Accent

Slovincian is particularly important to Slavic accentologists because, together with the closely related northern Kashubian dialects, it is the only part of West Slavic to retain the free accent from

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...

. The accent was stress-based, free (''ˈkolo'', ''vječˈeřa'', gen. pl. ''břegˈōv''). The length was distinctive (''ˈstrava'' "food" ≠ ''ˈtrāva'' "grass"). Stress can be enclinomenic and mobile (''ˈvoda'' "water", ''ˈza vodą'' "for water", ''vodˈǭ'' "with water") or bound (''rˈiba'', ''za rˈibą'', ''rˈibǭ''). Beside accent, vowel length can also alternate within the paradigm (''mlˈocic'' "to trash, hit", 2nd. person present ''mlˈōcīš''). The syllable is always long before a voiced final consonant (''břēg'' "hill", but ''ˈbřegū''). The small number of oxytones has been considered both an archaism and an innovation, while the quantity distinction by stress is a conservative feature shared with Slovene and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

. There are two accentual paradigms in Slovincian, a fixed and a mobile one, with the mobile one resulting in a stress alternation only within the stem, not the ending.

Grammar

Slovincian grammar is preserved in the compiled in 1903 by Friedrich Lorentz, who in 1908–1912 also published , a Slovincian dictionary.

History

The ancestors of the Slovincians, the West Slavic Pomeranians, moved in after the Migration Period. Following the Ostsiedlung, the Slovincians like most of the other

Wends Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various people ...

gradually became Germanized. The adoption of Lutheranism in the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (german: Herzogtum Pommern; pl, Księstwo Pomorskie; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country ha ...

in 1534Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, pp.205-212, Gerhard Krause, Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Müller, ''Theologische Realenzyklopädie'', Walter de Gruyter, 1997, pp.43ff, distinguished the Slovincians from the

Kashubes The Kashubians ( csb, Kaszëbi; pl, Kaszubi; german: Kaschuben), also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ( West Slavic) ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in nor ...

in Pomerelia, who remained

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

.Bernard Comrie, Greville G. Corbett, ''The Slavonic languages'', Taylor & Francis, 2002, p.762, In the 16th century, "Slovincian" was also applied to the Slavic speakers in the

Bytów Bytów (; csb, Bëtowò; formerly german: Bütow ) is a town in the Gdańsk Pomerania region of northern Poland with 16,730 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the capital of Bytów County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The origins of Byt ...

(Bütow) region further south. In the 16th and 17th century Michael Brüggemann (also known as Pontanus or Michał Mostnik), Simon Krofey (Szimon Krofej) and J.M. Sporgius introduced Kashubian into the Lutheran Church. Krofey,

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

(Bütow), published a religious song book in 1586, written in Polish but also containing some Kashubian words. Brüggemann, pastor in Schmolsin, published a Polish translation of some works of

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

and biblical texts, also containing Kashubian elements. Other biblical texts were published in 1700 by Sporgius, pastor in Schmolsin. His ''Schmolsiner Perikopen'', most of which is written in the same Polish-Kashubian style of Krofey's and Brüggemann's books, also contain small passages ("6th Sunday after Epiphanias") written in pure Kashubian.Peter Hauptmann, Günther Schulz, Kirche im Osten: Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenkunde, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000, pp.44ff,

/ref> Hilferding (1862) and Parczewski (1896) confirmed a progressive language shift in the Kashubian population from their Slavonic vernacular to the local German dialect ( Low German Ostpommersch or

High German The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...

, in eastern Kashubian areas also Low German

Low Prussian Low Prussian (german: Niederpreußisch), sometimes known simply as Prussian (''Preußisch''), is a moribund dialect of East Low German that developed in East Prussia. Low Prussian was spoken in East and West Prussia and Danzig up to 1945. In D ...

). By the 1920s, the Slovincian villages had become linguistically German, though a Slovincian consciousness remained. The area remained within the borders of Germany until becoming part of Poland after World War II ended in 1945 and the area became Polish. Some Slovincians were expelled along with the German population, some were allowed to remain. In the 1950s, mainly in the village of Kluki (formerly Klucken), a few elderly people still remembered fragments of Slovincian. Slovincians began to ask for the right to emigrate to West Germany, and virtually all of the remaining Slovincian families had emigrated there by the 1980s.

References

External links

{{Authority control Languages of Poland Languages of Germany West Slavic languages Slovician History of Pomerania Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 20th century Extinct Slavic languages