Silesian People - Language

Language

The Slavic Silesian language (or often Upper Silesian) is spoken by the Silesian ethnic group or nationality inside Polish Upper Silesia. According to the last census in Poland (2011), some 509,000 people declared Silesian as their native language, however as much as 817,000 people declared to be of Silesian nationality, not necessarily speaking Silesian, even though such nationality has not been recognized by Polish governments since its creation in 1945.

There is some contention over whether Silesian is a dialect or a language in its own right. Most Polish linguists consider Silesian to be a prominent regional dialect of Polish. However, many Silesians regard it as a separate language belonging to the West Slavic branch of Slavic languages, together with Polish and other Lechitic languages, as well as Upper and Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. In July 2007 the Silesian language was officially recognized by the Library of Congress and SIL International. The language was attributed ISO code: SZL. The first official dictation contest of the Silesian language took place in August 2007.

Although the German Language is still spoken in Silesia, as it has a sizable minority of speakers in the Opole Voivodship in Poland, the vast majority of native speakers were expelled during or after 1945. Therefore the number of speakers of German in the region was radically and significantly decreased after centuries of settlement after the Second World War. The Silesian German dialect is a distinct variety of East Central German, with some West Slavic influence likely caused by centuries of contact between Germans and Slavs in the region and related in some ways to contemporary Saxon. The Silesian German dialect is often referred to as Lower Silesian in the German Language. The usage of this dialect appears to be decreasing, as most German Silesians prefer either Standard German or Polish.