Kashubian language

Kashubian

Spoken in:	Poland Canada
Total speakers:	0.2 Million
Ranking:	not ranked
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Slavic   West    Lekhitic     Kashubian
Official status
Official language of:	no country (in official use in some counties of Pomeranian Voivodship, Poland)
ISO 639-2:	csb
SIL:	CSB

Kashubian, Cassubian is one of the Lekhitic languages, which are a group of Slavic languages.

It is assumed that it evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians, in the region of Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Oder rivers.

It is closely related to the Slovincian language, and both of them are Pomeranian language dialects. Many Polish linguists still call it a dialect of Polish.

As of 2000, it had some 200,000 speakers, mainly in eastern Pomerania in northern Poland. In 2002 Census, 53,000 people in Poland declared that they mainly use Kashubian at home. Research shows that many Kashubian-speaking parents use Polish rather than Kashubian at home, because they believe that if they spoke Kashubian, their children would find it more difficult to learn correct Polish.

See also

• Kashubian alphabet
• Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
• Gdansk Pomerania

External link