Silesian language
Silesian, occasionally called Upper Silesian, is an ethnolect of the Lechitic group spoken in Upper Silesia. While having secured some international recognition as a language, there is a debate on whether Silesian is either a dialect of Polish or a distinct language, and if Silesians are either a regional ethnic group within the Polish nation or a distinct ethnic minority that historically emerged, but later diverged from, the Polish people. Some Silesians identify as a regional ethnic group within the Polish nation, while others view themselves as a distinct ethnic minority. Its vocabulary was significantly influenced by Central German due to the existence of numerous Silesian German speakers in the area prior to World War II and after. The first mentions of Silesian as a distinct lect date back to the 16th century, and the first literature with Silesian characteristics to the 17th century.
Silesian speakers currently live in the region of Upper Silesia, which is split between southwestern Poland and the northeastern Czech Republic. At present Silesian is commonly spoken in the area between the historical border of Silesia on the east and a line from Syców to Prudnik on the west as well as in the Rawicz area. Until 1945, Silesian was also spoken in enclaves in Lower Silesia, where the majority spoke Lower Silesian, a variety of Central German. The German-speaking population was either evacuated en masse by German forces towards the end of the war or deported by the new administration upon the Polish annexation of the Silesian Recovered Territories after its end. Before World War II, most Slavic-language speakers also knew German and, at least in eastern Upper Silesia, many German speakers were acquainted with Slavic Silesian. According to the last official census in Poland in 2021, about 460,000 people declared Silesian as their native language, whereas in the country's census of 2011, the figure was about 510,000. In the censuses in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, nearly 527,000 people declared Silesian nationality; Upper Silesia has almost five million inhabitants, with the vast majority speaking Polish in the Polish part and declaring themselves to be Poles and the vast majority speaking Czech in the Czech part and declaring themselves to be Czechs.
Although the morphological differences between Silesian and Polish have been researched extensively, other grammatical differences have not been studied in depth. A notable difference is in question-forming. In standard Polish, questions which do not contain interrogative words are formed either by using intonation or the interrogative particle czy. In Silesian, questions which do not contain interrogative words are formed by using intonation (with a markedly different intonation pattern than in Polish) or inversion (e.g. Je to na karcie?); there is no interrogative particle.
Hned żech poznoł lepij ôd niego kwiotek. Na planecie ôd małego princa kwiotki dycki były proste. Miały ino jedno kōłko płatkōw, niy brały nic placu i żodnego niy szterowały. Rano sie ukazowały w trowie, a na wieczōr pōmału sie traciyły. Ale jedyn dziyń nowy kwiotek sie pokozoł ze ziorka prziwiōnego niy wiadōmo skōnd. A mały princ patrzoł pozornie na flancka, co niy wyglōndała jak żodno inkszo na jego planecie. Wiycie, to mogła być nowo zorta baobaba. Hned żech lepszy poznoł tyn kwiotek. Na planecie Małego Ksiyncio kwiotki dycki były fest ajnfachowe, miały jednóm koróne płatków, nie zabiyrały moc placu a żodnymu nie zawadzały. Kieregosi rana zaczły rosnónć miyndzy trowami a wieczór wiyndły. Krzok róże wzeszeł przes dziyń ze zorka kiere prziniós gdosi skónsikej a Mały Ksiónże sie fórt dziwoł na tóm maczyzne, kiero nie była podobno do inkszych. Móg to być nowy gatunek baobabu. Szybko dowiedziałem się więcej o tym kwiatku. Na planecie Małego Księcia zawsze były całkiem zwyczajne kwiaty, ozdobione jednym tylko rzędem płatków, które nie zabierały wiele miejsca i nikomu nie przeszkadzały. Pewnego ranka pojawiały się w trawie, a wieczorem umierały. Ale ten wykiełkował kiedyś z nasionka przyniesionego nie wiadomo skąd, a Mały Książę bardzo uważnie czuwał nad tą łodyżką niepodobną do innych łodyżek. To mógł być nowy gatunek baobabu.
The Silesian language consists of a number of dialects, broadly classified into three groups; northern, central and southern. Per Alfred Zaręba, these dialects are further divided as follows: According to the 2021 census, majority of native speakers of the Cieszyn dialect don’t consider their speech a part of separate Silesian language, but rather Polish (less than 1% of Cieszyn Silesian speakers consider it part of Silesian language, the rest Polish), reflecting historical differences between former Prussian and Austrian Silesia, where Polish identity was historically strong, in 1848 Cieszyn Silesians expressed: "Considering that here we speak the Polish language and have Polish nationality, many voices among us already wish for our part of Silesia to be united with the Kraków governorate." Historically, the dialectal distribution also included the Chwalim dialect, part of the Lower Silesian dialect group. This dialect formed the northernmost boundary of the Silesian language and influenced nearby new mixed dialects until its extinction in the 20th century.
Politicization
Opinions are divided among linguists regarding whether Silesian is a distinct language, a dialect of Polish, or, in the case of Lach, a variety of Czech. The issue can be contentious, because some Silesians consider themselves to be a distinct nationality within Poland. When Czechs, Poles, and Germans each made claims to substantial parts of Silesia as constituting an integral part of their respective nation-states in the 19th and 20th centuries, the language of Slavic-speaking Silesians became politicized. Rudolf Abicht, a Slavicist of Upper Silesian extraction who worked at the University of Breslau and proposed an early standardization of the Belarusian language, clearly recognized that standardizing and making Silesian into a language is a socio-political process. In 1920, he expressed his opinion on the subject in an extensive essay on the 'Upper Silesian language question.'
Views
Some linguists from Poland, such as Jolanta Tambor, Juan Lajo, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, philosopher Jerzy Dadaczyński, sociologist Elżbieta Anna Sekuła, and sociolinguist Tomasz Kamusella, support its status as a language. According to Stanisław Rospond, it is impossible to classify Silesian as a dialect of the contemporary Polish language because he considers it to be descended from Old Polish. Although often, this view is contested with the fact that during the time of Old Polish, the West Slavic regions didn't classify as separate languages, and rather fell into a dialect continuum such as Serbo-Croatian, with Silesian still being different from other dialect regions of the time. According to Kamusella, "between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, several popular Silesian-Polish dictionaries were published, some of which were quite extensive. Initially, they referred to Silesian as a gwara (dialect) but then increasingly termed it a language." Kamusella also wrote: "During the first decade of the 21st century Silesian was accepted as a language by most of its speakers in Poland, and also by linguists and IT specialists outside Poland."
There have been a number of attempts at codifying the language spoken by Slavophones in Silesia. Probably the most well-known was undertaken by Óndra Łysohorsky when codifying the Lachian dialects in creating the Lachian literary language in the early 20th century. Ślabikŏrzowy szrajbōnek is the relatively new alphabet created by the Pro Loquela Silesiana organization to reflect the sounds of all Silesian dialects. It was approved by Silesian organizations affiliated in Rada Górnośląska. Ubuntu translation is in this alphabet as is some of the Silesian Wikipedia, although some of it is in Steuer's alphabet. It is used in a few books, including the Silesian alphabet book. One of the first alphabets created specifically for Silesian was Steuer's Silesian alphabet, created in the Interwar period and used by Feliks Steuer for his poems in Silesian. The alphabet consists of 30 graphemes and eight digraphs:
Silesian has recently seen an increased use in culture, for example:
In 2003, the National Publishing Company of Silesia (Narodowa Oficyna Śląska) commenced operations. This publisher was founded by the Alliance of the People of the Silesian Nation (Związek Ludności Narodowości Śląskiej) and it prints books about Silesia and books in Silesian language. In July 2007, the Slavic Silesian language was given the ISO 639-3 code szl. On 6 September 2007, 23 politicians of the Polish parliament made a statement about a new law to give Silesian the official status of a regional language. On 7 September 2007, the MPs of Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, League of Polish Families, People's National Movement and the Polish People's Party submitted a bill recognizing Silesian as a regional language in Poland. The bill did not pass because the Sejm was dissolved before it could be voted on, triggering a snap election. The first official National Dictation Contest of the Silesian language (Ogólnopolskie Dyktando Języka Śląskiego) took place in August 2007. In dictation as many as 10 forms of writing systems and orthography have been accepted.
