The Lower Sorbian/Wendish Language Commission is a body appointed and authorised by Maśica Serbska to codify the written form of Lower Sorbian/Wendish. It deals with all areas of the written language in which regulation and standardisation are required.

On the basis of findings from linguistic research and with due consideration of language use in practice, it develops rules and recommendations for the practical use of written Lower Sorbian/Wendish. At the same time, in view of changes in language practice, existing regulations are reviewed and, where necessary, adapted to new circumstances. In this way, the Language Commission aims to contribute to the consolidation and further development of the written language standard.

Its tasks include clarifying issues of orthoepy, orthography, punctuation, morphology, lexis and syntax.

A central focus of the Commission’s work is the practical application of the written language. For this reason, its members include not only Sorbian linguists (staff of the Sorbian Institute and the Institute of Sorbian Studies at Leipzig University), but also representatives of Sorbian institutions in which the use and dissemination of written Lower Sorbian/Wendish play a key role. These include Sorbian educational institutions (schools, the School for Lower Sorbian Language and Culture, the WITAJ Language Centre, and the Working Group for Sorbian/Wendish Educational Development in Cottbus [ABC]) as well as Sorbian media (the book division of the Domowina publishing house, newspapers and journals, and broadcasting).

Board and Members

Spokesperson
dr. Fabian Kaulfürst (Serbski institut); fabian.kaulfuerst(at)serbski-institut.de

Members
dr. Hauke Bartels (Serbski institut)
Uta Henšelowa (Šula za dolnoserbsku rěc a kulturu)
Margot Hašcyna
Bernd Melcher (Rěcny centrum WITAJ)
Werner Měškank (Serbski muzej)
Janka Pěčkojc-de Lévano (Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina)
dr. Christiana Piniekowa (Źěłanišćo za serbske kubłańske wuwijanje Chóśebuz [ABC])
Manfred Starosta
Marion Stensel (Serbski rozgłos, RBB)
Stanislav Tomčík (Institut za sorabistiku, uniwersita Lipsk)
Gregor Wieczorek (Nowy Casnik)

Deputy Members
Adelheid Dawmowa (Nowy Casnik)
Martina Golašojc (Serbski rozgłos, RBB)
Ingrid Hustetojc (Rěcny centrum WITAJ)
Christina Kliemowa (Serbski muzej)
prof. dr. Edward Wornar (Institut za sorabistiku, uniwersita Lipsk)

On the History of the Lower Sorbian Language Commission

The first attempts to codify and standardise Lower Sorbian/Wendish date back to the 17th century. In 1650, Johannes Chojnanus wrote a grammar which, although never printed, was copied several times and circulated widely. More than a hundred years later, in 1761, the first printed grammar of Lower Sorbian/Wendish was published by J. G. Hauptmann. In 1847, Maćica Serbska was founded in Budyšyn/Bautzen, followed in 1880 by its Lower Sorbian/Wendish section, Maśica Serbska, in Chóśebuz/Cottbus. This section ensured the publication of various Lower Sorbian/Wendish printed works and thus familiarised the population of Lower Lusatia with the written language. Naturally, care was taken to use good, “pure” Lower Sorbian/Wendish, although purist tendencies were not particularly pronounced.

A clear turning point in the development of the Lower Sorbian/Wendish written language occurred after the Second World War, in the 1950s. At that time, the previously used Fraktur script was replaced by Latin letters. At the same time, a new orthography was introduced, resulting in a sudden and striking visual change to written Lower Sorbian/Wendish. There were also interventions at other linguistic levels: in the lexicon, traditional loanwords from German were replaced by words derived from Upper Sorbian or other Slavic languages. Significant changes also occurred in morphology and syntax, leading to greater differences between the written language and the original dialectal forms of Lower Sorbian/Wendish. Overall, these developments led to a critical distance on the part of many native speakers towards the written language and thus reinforced the tendency to turn away from Lower Sorbian/Wendish in any of its forms.

In October 1952, the first “Upper Sorbian Language Commission” was established at the then Institute for Sorbian Folk Research in Bautzen, which at the time was affiliated with the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (from 1972: the Academy of Sciences of the GDR). A corresponding body for Lower Sorbian/Wendish was not created at that time. This changed only in 1979, when a Sorbian Language Commission was founded with a special Lower Sorbian/Wendish subgroup. This subgroup was headed by the native Lower Sorbian and graduate Slavicist Manfred Starosta. He expanded the group to include native speakers of Lower Sorbian/Wendish, such as Margita Heinrichowa, Hermann Jahn and the pastor Herbert Nowak. The work of the Language Commission was based on the following hierarchically ordered principles:

1. Communicativeness (the meaning and pronunciation of a word or grammatical form must be known and recognised; newly coined forms must be comprehensible)

2. Lower Sorbian/Wendish Slavic character (consideration of historically developed Lower Sorbian features)

3. Internal Sorbian uniformity (provided this does not conflict with the first two principles; in practice, this principle was applied mainly in the field of terminology and in certain areas of orthography, such as capitalisation, compound or separate spelling, punctuation, etc.)

Shortly after the political changes of 1989/1990, Maćica Serbska, together with its Lower Sorbian/Wendish section Maśica Serbska, was re-established. At the association’s general assembly in 1994, it was decided to set up two separate language commissions for Upper and Lower Sorbian/Wendish. Since then, the Lower Sorbian/Wendish Language Commission has operated independently.

Information on Lower Sorbian orthography can be found here