Pomeranian Language - Assessment

Assessment

The classification of the Pomeranian ethnolect is problematic. It was classified by Aleksander Bruckner as one of the Old Polish dialects. At the same time, he classified the extant Kashubian and Slovincian dialects as those belonging to the Modern Polish language. Other linguists relate the Pomeranian language to the Polabian group of dialects (forming the Pomeranian-Polabian group).

After Slovincian and all the Pomeranian dialects (except Kashubian) became extinct, the “Kashubian language” is the term most often used in relation to the language spoken by the Pomeranians. However, it is still not clear from where the words “Kashubians” and “Kashubian” (Polish: “Kaszubi” and “Kaszubski”, Kashubian language: "Kaszëbi" and "kaszëbsczi") originated and how they were brought from the area near Koszalin to Pomerelia. None of the theories proposed has been widely accepted so far. There is also no indication Pomeranians wandered from the area of Koszalin to Pomerelia.

It has been proved, though, that the medieval inhabitants of Pomerania, who were the ancestors of the present Kashubians, did not call themselves Kashubians. It is not mentioned in the preserved sources what they called their language then. The analysis of geographical names in written sources shows that in the Early Middle Ages, Slavic inhabitants of the whole of Pomerania used various dialects of one language. Today, linguists usually refer to these dialects as “Pomeranian dialects”.

While Western Pomerania was being the Germanized, the Germans (both colonizers and Germanized descendants of Slavic Pomeranians) started using the words “Pomeranian” (German: Pommersch; Polish: pomorski) and “Pomeranians” (German: Pommern; Polish: Pomorzacy) referring to their own population. The part of the Pomeranian population which kept their Slavic language was called the Wends (German: Wenden) or the Kashubians (German: Kaschuben). As the West lost its Slavic character, those two terms were more often used in the East. In 1850, in the preface to his Kashubian-Russian dictionary, Florian Ceynowa wrote about the language of Baltic Slavic peoples:

“Usually it is called the , although the would be a more proper term”

The word dialect was probably used by Ceynowa because he was a follower of Pan-Slavism, according to which all the Slavic languages were dialects of one Slavic language. In his later works, though, he called his language "kaszébsko-słovjinsko móva".

In 1893, Stefan Ramułt, the Jagiellonian University linguist, referred to the early history of Pomerania, publishing the Dictionary of the Pomoranian i.e. Kashubian Language. In the preface, Ramułt wrote:

“As Kashubians are the direct descendants of Pomeranians, it is right to use the words Pomeranian and Kashubian as synonyms. Especially as there are other reasons for it as well…”

and

“Kashubians and Slavs are what remains of the once powerful Pomeranian tribe and they are the only inheritors of the name Pomeranians.”

Friedrich Lorentz (the author of Pomeranian Grammar and The History of Pomeranian/Kashubian Language) referred in his works to Ramułt’s dictionary. After Lorentz died, Friedhelm Hinze published a great Pomeranian dictionary in five volumes (Pomoranishes Worterbuch), which was based on Lorentz’s writing.