Keywords: altsorbisch; Sprachgeschichte; old sorbian; language history
The Sorbian spoken today in Upper and Lower Lusatia is what remains of an earlier extensive Old Sorbian dialect area between the Elbe/Saale rivers in the west and the Bober/Queis rivers in the east. It was not a uniform language, but was divided up into Sorbian proper, represented by the Upper Sorbian language type, with clear links to the former south-eastern branch of Proto-Slavonic, and an adjacent, relatively broad transitional strip in the north-east bordering on the former Lechitic language. Here the actual Old Sorbian tribes, which advanced down the Elbe from the Bohemian basin, met the Lechitic tribes. This resulted in a kind of hybrid language, which formed the basis of the later Lower Sorbian language.
More...Keywords: Bürgereid; Wendenpassus; Kamenz; Mittelalter; Frühneuzeit; Bürgerrecht; Historiografie; Kamenzer Eidbuch; 1752; Rudolf Jenč; Frido Mětšk; Sorbian citizen´s oath; civic rights; Middle Age; the early modern period;
The motive for this article was the re-discovery by the author of an eighteenth-Century Sorbian citizen’s oath from Kamenz, which had been thought to be lost. To this day two very different sources of evidence have dominated the discussion about whether there were or could possibly have been Sorbian town populations in Lusatia in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. On the one hand citizen’s oaths in Sorbian appear to provide absolute proof of this possibility. On the other hand we know of discriminatory regulations (the so-called ‘Wend clause’), intended to make access for Sorbs to civic rights or entry into guilds extremely difficult or impossible. Despite constant attention being paid by Sorbian and German historians to this question, a systematic, critical examination and contextualisation of these contradictory phenomena has to this day not been developed. For this reason a series of generalisations and prejudices about the situation of the Sorbs in the towns of the pre-modern period have persisted. Using the Kamenz example as a basis, several errors in earlier historical writing are corrected in this article. At the same time several questions and problems are presented as guidance for further research. In conclusion the newly discovered Sorbian and the German citizen’s oath from Kamenz are presented in a critical edition.
More...Keywords: Personennamen; Flurnamen; Namensforschung; Namensdeutung; sorbisches Siedlungsgebiet; personal name, place name; reconstruction; surname studies; interpretation of names; Old Sorbian contact area
Although much good research has already been done on personal names in the former Old Sorbian contact area, there has been a lack until now of a reference work in the form of a guide, which brings together Slav personal names reconstructed from place names in an easily accessible form. Until now, these personal names, which often represent the only proof of a personal name in this field, can mostly only be elicited from the evaluation sections or indexes of the relevant books of place names. Valuable comparative material for research on both Slav personal names as well as for further work on Slav place names can be gained by working on Slav personal names, which have been reconstructed from place names from the former Old Sorbian contact area. This material is based on old forms of evidence, which in a few cases go back as far as the Tenth Century. Using this material as a basis, it is possible to develop detailed analyses and highly resilient syntheses in relation to both personal and place names. Starting from the desire to fill the gap described above, we have taken on the task of producing a guide to Slav personal names, which have been reconstructed from place names in the former Old Sorbian contact area. This article describes the conception, outline, as well as the structure, of the guide and presents one example.
More...Keywords: pastor; pfarrer; niederlausitz; lower lusatia; reformation; predigt;sermon;
After completion of the essay “New Discoveries about Andreas Tharaeus Muscovien- sis” on his funeral sermon for Eva von Schönburg auf Großleuthen printed in 1618 the author discovered a further hitherto unknown funeral sermon written by Tharaeus in the holdings of the Wolfenbüttel Duke August’s library. From this sermon it becomes clear that he was already pastor in Friedersdorf in 1599, from which it can be assumed that he had already been performing his duties there for several years. The author supposes that this citizen of Muskau already assumed office in Friedersdorf in the middle of the 1590s. This assumption is supported by references in the funeral sermon for Christina von Langen auf Blossin, who had died in childbirth on 14 July 1599. In addition there is the first evidence here of Tharaeus’s poetic skills, as the funeral sermon for Christina von Langen ended with rhyming verses.
More...Keywords: smoler; schmaler; listy; korespondenca; correspondence
This article offers a short editing history of the previously unpublished correspondence of Jan Arnošt Smoler, the most important representative of the Sorbian national movement in the 19th Century. Reference is made to the correspondence with I. P. Kornilow, A. D. Bašmakow, J. I. Kraszewski und A. Patera, which has not been consi- dered in previous surveys. Five of his letters are published: to Leipzig students in 1838, to František Palacký in 1848, to Ignac Hanuš in 1854, to Karel Jaroměr Erben in 1861 and to Bronisław Grabowski in 1881.
More...Keywords: Sorben; Spracherwerb; Witaj; sorbs; language; education; consumption; educational ethos; educational market;
More...Keywords: tracht; traditional; costume; wendland
More...Keywords: Siegmund Musiat; Volkskundler; Historiker
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