Lower Sorbian language

Lower Sorbian (dolnoserbšćina) is a West Slavic minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia, today part of Brandenburg.

"Lower Sorbian" redirects here. For the people, see Lower Sorbs.
Not to be confused with Serbian language.
Lower Sorbian
dolnoserbšćina, dolnoserbski
Pronunciation[ˈdɔlnɔˌsɛrskʲi]
Native toGermany
RegionBrandenburg
EthnicitySorbs
Native speakers
6,900 (2007)[1]
Latin (Sorbian alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-2dsb
ISO 639-3dsb
Glottologlowe1385
ELPLower Sorbian[2]
Linguasphere53-AAA-ba < 53-AAA-b < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-baa to 53-AAA-bah)

Standard Lower Sorbian is one of the two literary Sorbian languages, the other being the more widely spoken standard Upper Sorbian. The Lower Sorbian literary standard was developed in the 18th century, based on a southern form of the Cottbus dialect.[3] The standard variety of Lower Sorbian has received structural influence from Upper Sorbian.[3]

Lower Sorbian is spoken in and around the city of Cottbus in Brandenburg. Signs in this region are typically bilingual, and Cottbus has a Gymnasium where one language of instruction is Lower Sorbian. It is a heavily endangered language.[4] Most native speakers today belong to the older generations.

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[5][6]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Postalveolar Dorsal Glottal
hard soft hard soft hard soft
Nasal m mʲ n nʲ
Plosive voiceless p pʲ t k
voiced b bʲ d ɡ
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ɕ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ ɕ x h
voiced v z ʒ ʑ
Trill r rʲ
Approximant w wʲ l j
  • /m, mʲ, p, pʲ, b, bʲ, w, wʲ/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[5]
  • /n, nʲ, l, r, rʲ/ are alveolar [n, nʲ, l, r, rʲ], whereas /t, d, t͡s, s, z/ are dental [t̪, d̪, t̪͡s̪, s̪, z̪].[5]
  • /t͡ʃ, ʃ, ʒ/ have been variously transcribed with ⟨t͡ʃ, ʃ, ʒ⟩[7][8] and ⟨t͡ʂ, ʂ, ʐ⟩.[9] Their actual phonetic realization is flat postalveolar [t͡ʃ˖, ʃ˖, ʒ˖][10] in all of the Lower Sorbian-speaking area. This is unlike in standard Upper Sorbian, where these are palato-alveolar [t͡ʃ, ʃ, ʒ].[11][12]
  • /h/ is voiceless [h], unlike Upper Sorbian, where it is voiced [ɦ].[13][14]

Final devoicing and assimilation

Lower Sorbian has both final devoicing and regressive voicing assimilation:[15]

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

The hard postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ is assimilated to [ɕ] before /t͡ɕ/:[16]

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

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Lower Sorbian is exactly the same as that of Upper Sorbian.[17] It is also very similar to the vowel inventory of Slovene.

Vowel phonemes[17]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
  • /i/ is retracted to [ɨ] after hard consonants.
  • /e, o/ are diphthongized to [i̯ɛ, u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[17]
  • The /e–ɛ/ and /o–ɔ/ distinctions are weakened or lost in unstressed syllables.[18]
  • /a/ is phonetically central [ä].[17]

Stress

Stress in Lower Sorbian normally falls on the first syllable of the word:[19]

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

In loanwords, stress may fall on any of the last three syllables:[19]

  • 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:[19]

  • 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 the 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.)[20]

See also

References
  1. Lower Sorbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Lower Sorbian.
  3. Björn Rothstein, Rolf Thieroff (2010). Mood in the Languages of Europe. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 376–377. ISBN 9789027205872.
  4. Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.
  5. Stone (2002), p. 605.
  6. Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181.
  7. Hannusch (1988).
  8. Stone (2002).
  9. Zygis (2003).
  10. This transcription follows Laver (1994:251–252). Other scholars may transcribe these sounds differently.
  11. Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181, 190–191.
  12. Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 40–41.
  13. Stone (2002), pp. 600, 605.
  14. Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 43, 46.
  15. Hannusch (1998), p. 12.
  16. Hannusch (1998), p. 13.
  17. Stone (2002), p. 600.
  18. Stone (2002), pp. 606–607.
  19. Hannusch (1998), p. 14.
  20. Omniglot

Bibliography
  • Hannusch, Erwin (1998), Niedersorbisch praktisch und verständlich, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, ISBN 3-7420-1667-9
  • Laver, John (1994), Principles of Phonetics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45655-X
  • Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjoserbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
  • Stone, Gerald (2002), "Sorbian (Upper and Lower)", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G. (eds.), The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 593–685, ISBN 9780415280785
  • Zygis, Marzena (2003), "Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Slavic Sibilant Fricatives" (PDF), ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 3: 175–213, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11, retrieved 2015-04-21

Czech-Lower Sorbian and Lower Sorbian-Czech

German–Lower Sorbian

Lower Sorbian–German
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