Polabian language


Polabian is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs in present-day northeastern Germany around the Elbe river, from which derives its name. It was spoken approximately until the rise to power of Prussia in mid-18th century, when it was superseded by Low German.
By the 18th century, Lechitic Polabian was in some respects markedly different from other Slavic languages, most notably in having a strong German influence. It was close to Pomeranian and Kashubian, and is attested only in a handful of manuscripts, dictionaries and various writings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

History

About 2800 Polabian words are known; of prose writings, only a few prayers, one wedding song and a few folktales survive. Immediately before the language became extinct, several people started to collect phrases and compile wordlists, and were engaged with folklore of the Polabian Slavs, but only one of them appears to have been a native speaker of Polabian. The last native speaker of Polabian, a woman, died in 1756, and the last person who spoke limited Polabian died in 1825.
The most important monument of the language is the so-called Vocabularium Venedicum by Christian Hennig.
The language left many traces to this day in toponymy; for example, Wustrow, Ljauchów, Łuków, Sagard, Gartow, Krakow etc. The Polabian language is also a likely origin of the name, from the Polabian stem berl-/birl-.

Grammar

Phonology

For Polabian the following segments are reconstructable:


Example of Polabian

The Lord's Prayer in Polabian and related Lechitic languages, compared to Old Church Slavonic, German and English: Germanic loanwords, which are comparatively rare in the other West Slavic languages, are highlighted in bold.
Dravénopolabski :
Hornioserbšćina :
Polish:
Old High German, 8th century:
English:
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