Kashubian
Kashubians (also "Kassubians", in Kashubian: "Kaszëbi") are a Slavic ethnic group.
It is believed that their ancestors came into the region between the Oder and Vistula rivers over 1500 years ago. They are direct descendants of Pomeranians, who took their name from the fact, that they settled down in Pomerania (from Slavic: Pomor'e - the land along see). The oldest mention of the name is known from the 13th century (a seal of prince Barnim I of Pomerania) ruling areas around SzczecÃÂëno (nowadays Polish: Szczecin]]. Kashubians living in the territories of the former Duchy of Pomerania, among them Slovincians, were almost entirely Germanised between the 14th and 20th centuries and lost their ethnic identity. A part of those living in Eastern Pomerania (West Prussia) has survived and today over 300,000 people in Poland regard themseves as Kashubians.
Their 'capital' city is Gdansk (Gdunsk) in Pomerania. Among the bigger towns, Gdynia (GdiniÃÂô) contains the biggest percentage of the people of Kashubian origins. The main occupation of the Kashubians was fishing in the past and now is mainly tourism.
In the modern day some 200,000 Kashubians still speak Kashubian, a West Slavic language, together with Polish belonging to Lekhitic group of languages, mainly in northern Poland. Many Polish linguists consider Kashubian to be a Polish dialect. In some towns and villages Kashubian is the second spoken language, after Polish. The language appears on some streets signs and is also taught at schools.
Number of Kashubians depends in fact on definitions and in most extreme case is estimated as half of million people. In the last Polish census of 2002 5.100 people declared Kashubian nationality (while most of Kashubians preferred to declare Polish nationality and Kashubian ethnicity, there was no option to declare more than one nationality), and some 51.000 declared Kashubian as their home language. Some claim that the census was falsified and many people were not allowed to declare their Kashubian nationality. However, barely a few such cases have been confirmed.
The loud and young group "Odroda" is aiming at national renewal of Kashubians.
There are other traditional Slavic ethnic groups inhabiting Pomerania i.e. Kociewiacy, Borowiacy, Krajniacy and others. The dialects spoken by other ethnic groups are between Kashub language and Polish dialects of Great Poland and Mazovia. It indicates that they are not only descendants of ancient Pomeranians but also settlers who arived to Pomerania from Great Poland and Masovia in the Middle Ages. However, this is only one of possible explanations.
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2 Famous Kashubians 3 See also 4 External links |
An early mentioning of the Kashubians are in the 13th century, when dukes of Pomerania included "duke of Kashubia" in their titles. From the peace treaty of Westfalia in 1648, after the Thirty years war, parts of West Pomerania became Swedish, and the Swedish kings titled themselves "duke of Kashubia" from 1648 to the 1720s.
The parliament (Landtag) of Prussia in KÃÂönigsberg in 1843 decided to change the official church language from Polish to German, but this decision was soon recalled and starting in 1852 Kashubian language was taught at the Gymnasium (high school) of Wejherowo.
The earliest writings in Kashubian language is Luther's catechism in 1643 (new editions in 1752 and 1828). Scientific interest in the Kashubian language was sparked by Mrongovius (publications in 1823, 1828) and the Russian linguist Hilferding (1859, 1862), later followed by Biskupski (1883, 1891), Bronisch (1896, 1898), Mikkola (1897), Nitsch (1903). Important works are S. Ramult's, Slownik jezyka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, 1893, and F. Lorentz, Slovinzische Grammatik, 1903, Slovinzische Texte, 1905, and Slovinzisches WÃÂörterbuch, 1908.
The first activist of the Kashubian/ Pomeranian national movement was Florian Ceynowa after 1846. He deviced a Kashubian alphabet, wrote a Kashubian grammar (1879), published a collection of ethnographic-historic stories of the life of Kashubians (SkÃÂórb kaszÃÂébsko-slovjnckjÃÂé mÃÂòvÃÂé, 1866-1868), and wrote several smaller works. Another early writer in Kashubian was Hieronim Derdowski. The next stages were: the Young Kashubian movement led by Aleksander Majkowski and the authors publishing in the nationalist "ZrzÃÂësz KaszÃÂëbskÃÂô" (the so called "ZrzÃÂëszincÃÂë" group) who contributed significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.
History
Famous Kashubians
See also
External links