Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T23:57:37.682Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Slavic-Germanic hybridisation in the Vilamovicean language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2018

Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Barbara Podolak
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Alexander Andrason
Affiliation:
(Stellenbosch)
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Vilamovicean

The Vilamovicean language is an East Central German (Ostmitteldeutsch) colonial variety used by a minority group of elderly speakers in the town of Wilamowice in Southern Poland. The language belongs to the so-called Bielsko-Biała linguistic enclave (Bielitz-Bialaer Sprachinsel), which originated from the First German Colonisation in the Middle-Ages in the 12th century and which was later used to include several villages and towns located in the Eastern Silesian and Western Galician regions. However, Vilamovicean seems to distinguish itself from other members of this linguistic community through possible Flemish, Anglo-Saxon and/or Frisian influences (Kleczkowski 1920, 1921; Besch et al. 1983; Ryckeboer 1984; Morciniec 1984, 1995; Lasatowicz 1992; Wicherkiewicz 2003; Ritchie 2012).

Since its origin, Vilamovicean has remained in close contact with Slavic languages of the area. This intensified in the 15th century when the eastern part of the region of Bielsko-Biała – and, hence, Wilamowice as well – was incorporated into Little Poland in the Polish kingdom. The partition of Poland in the 18th century and the absorption of Lesser Poland by the Austrian Empire might partially have reinstated a more direct link between Vilamovicean and German. Nevertheless, due to the introduction of Polish as the official language of Lesser Poland by the Austro-Hungarian administration of the 19th century, the Polonisation of the Wilamowice again became noticeable. While the Second World War and the German domination over the Polish territory hindered, once more, the influence of the Polish language and promoted the usage of Vilamovicean and its connection with German, a profound Polonisation of the town and the speakers of Vilamovicean was triggered by the communist rule after the fall of Nazi Germany. In 1946, the use of the language was officially banned and Vilamovicean customs prohibited. This constituted the beginning of the death of the Vilamovicean language, which still – despite many recent initiatives and activities – seems imminent (Wicherkiewicz 2003: 6–19). According to the website www.ethnologue.com, Vilamovicean is severely endangered, being on the verge of total extinction. It is located at level 8.b in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) of 10, i.e. in the class of “dying” or nearly extinct languages.

Due to its geographic location, the Vilamovicean community has always coexisted with the Polish and German cultures and languages. Over the decades, Vilamoviceans have consistently been trilingual – speaking not only their own ethnolect but also Polish and German.

Type
Chapter
Information
Words and Dictionaries
A Festschrift for Professor Stanisław Stachowski on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday
, pp. 29 - 40
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×