Dave Goeke's response:
Absolutely fascinating! As I'm sure you aware, the film points out a couple of really interesting, encouraging things....but, also points out a
couple of disturbing things. The encouraging thing is that the Sorbian language (Upper Sorbian, anyway) is still being spoken among young couples,
who are also teaching it to their children. And, the Sorbian Kindergarten still plays a significant role in helping to maintain the language. And,
while this is very encouraging, the sad thing is that this is taking place almost exclusively in the Catholic communities in and around Bautzen....and
especially in the dorfs where the population is predominately Catholic. Thus, in addition to families who still tenaciously hold to Sorbian, the
language is further grounded by the educational system and especially by the church. I found it really interesting when the narrator, early in the
film, stated that in the Roman Catholic churches, while daily masses are not very well attended, the Sunday mass "fill up the benches" almost every
week. So, really what has kept the Sorbian language alive in this area boils down to the church. You have a small dorf where almost everyone is Roman
Catholic, where everyone knows each other, where a heavy influx of totally German speakers (because of industry) did not move in...and where the
school system promotes the language, and the language is surviving. And the young couples (at least those shown in the film) are raising their
children bilingually, Sorbian remains the chief language spoken in the home. Another thing that has helped to save Sorbisch in several of these small
dorfs around Bautzen, is the fact industry did not move in on them....whereas farther north in the area around Schleife, the Braunkohl industry with
its Tagebau, brought large numbers of German speakers into the area and these small Sorbian "islands" (as Jan Mahling calls them...such as those
around Bautzen)could not exist in the area around Schleife because it was almost imperative that German be chiefly spoken in the coal industry. So,
the areas around Schleife, where the coal industry heavily impacted Sorbian...and, also where the Lutheran and the Reformed churches "diversified" and
thus disrupted worship serves held in Sorbian, the language began to die out more rapidly. So, one might say that industry and Protestantism were the
major "nails in the coffin" for Sorbian not being spoken in the areas around Schleife, northward and eastward today. Really sad.
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and plan on watching it several more times. Thanks so much for sharing it. Did you just stumble across it or did
someone point it out to you? Either way, I'm tickled that you shared it with me. The R.C. Sorbs may be the salvation of the Upper Sorbian language. I
fear that Niedersorbisch as well as the Schleife dialect, are on their last legs, however.
![[*]](images/davis/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
