Lower Sorbian language

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Lower Sorbian
Dolnoserbski, Dolnoserbšćina
Pronunciation [ˈdɔlnɔˌsɛrskʲi]
Native to Germany
Region Brandenburg
Native speakers
 6,900 (2007)[1]
Latin (Sorbian alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 dsb
ISO 639-3 dsb
Glottolog lowe1385[2]
Linguasphere 53-AAA-ba < 53-AAA-b < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-baa to 53-AAA-bah)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Lower Sorbian (Dolnoserbski) is a Slavic minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia, today part of Brandenburg. It is one of the two literary Sorbian languages, the other being Upper Sorbian.

Lower Sorbian is spoken in and around the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg. Signs in this region are usually bilingual, and Cottbus has a Gymnasium where one language of instruction is Lower Sorbian. It is a heavily endangered language.[3] Most native speakers are in the oldest generation today.

Phonology

Bilingual road sign in Cottbus, Germany

The phonology of Lower Sorbian has been greatly influenced by contact with German, especially in Cottbus and larger towns. For example, German-influenced pronunciation tends to have a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] instead of the alveolar trill [r]. In villages and rural areas German influence is less marked, and the pronunciation is more "typically Slavic".

Consonants

Consonant phonemes[4][5]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
hard soft hard soft hard soft hard hard
Nasal m mʲ n nʲ
Plosive voiceless p pʲ t k
voiced b bʲ d ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʂ t͡ɕ
Fricative voiceless f s ʂ ɕ x h
voiced v z ʐ ʑ
Trill r rʲ
Approximant w wʲ l j

Final devoicing and assimilation

Lower Sorbian has both final devoicing and regressive voicing assimilation:[10]

  • dub /dub/ "oak" is pronounced [dup]
  • susedka /ˈsusedka/ "(female) neighbor" is pronounced [ˈsusetka]
  • licba /ˈlit͡sba/ "number" is pronounced [ˈlʲid͡zba]

The retroflex fricative /ʂ/ is assimilated to [ɕ] before /t͡ɕ/:[11]

  • šćit /ʂt͡ɕit/ "protection" is pronounced [ɕt͡ɕit]

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Lower Sorbian is exactly the same as that of Upper Sorbian.[12] It is also very similar to the vowel inventory of Slovene.

Vowel phonemes[12]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Stress

Stress in Lower Sorbian normally falls on the first syllable of the word:[14]

  • Łužyca [ˈwuʐɨt͡sa] "Lusatia"
  • pśijaśel [ˈpɕijaɕɛl] "friend"
  • Chóśebuz [ˈxɨɕɛbus] "Cottbus"

In loanwords, stress may fall on any of the last three syllables:[14]

  • internat [intɛrˈnat] "boarding school"
  • kontrola [kɔnˈtrɔla] "control"
  • september [sɛpˈtɛmbɛr] "September"
  • policija [pɔˈlʲit͡sija] "police"
  • organizacija [ɔrɡanʲiˈzat͡sija] "organization"

Most one-syllable prepositions attract the stress to themselves when they precede a noun or pronoun of one or two syllables:[14]

  • na dwórje [ˈna dwɨrʲɛ] "on the courtyard"
  • pśi mnjo [ˈpɕi mnʲɔ] "near me"
  • do města [ˈdɔ mʲɛsta] "into the city" (note that the [iɪ̯] of město [ˈmʲiɪ̯stɔ] becomes [ɛ] when unstressed)

However, nouns of three or more syllables retain their stress:

  • pśed wucabnikom [pɕɛd ˈut͡sabnʲikɔm] "in front of the teacher"
  • na drogowanju [na ˈdrɔɡowanʲu] "on a journey"

Orthography

The Sorbian alphabet is based on the Latin script but uses diacritics such as acute accent and caron.

Sample

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Lower Sorbian:

Wšykne luźe su lichotne roźone a jadnake po dostojnosći a pšawach. Woni maju rozym a wědobnosć a maju ze sobu w duchu bratšojstwa wobchadaś.

(All people are born free and equal in their dignity and rights. They are given reason and conscience and they shall create their relationships to one another according to the spirit of brotherhood.)[15]

References

  1. ↑ Lower Sorbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Stone (2002), p. 605.
  5. ↑ Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181.
  6. ↑ Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181 and 190–191.
  7. ↑ Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 40–41.
  8. ↑ Stone (2002), pp. 600 and 605.
  9. ↑ Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 43 and 46.
  10. ↑ Hannusch (1998), p. 12.
  11. ↑ Hannusch (1998), p. 13.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Stone (2002), p. 600.
  13. ↑ Stone (2002), pp. 606–607.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Hannusch (1998), p. 14.
  15. ↑ Omniglot

Bibliography

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External links

Dictionaries

German–Lower Sorbian

Lower Sorbian–German

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