Kashubia
Kashubians (also "Kassubians," or "Cassubians," in Kashubian: "Kaszëbi") are a Slavic ethnic group.
It is believed that their ancestors came into the region between the Oder and Vistula rivers over 1500 years ago.
They are direct descendants of Pomeranians, who took their name from the fact that they settled down in Pomerania (from Slavic: Pomor'e - the land along the sea).
The oldest known mention of the name dates from the 13th century (a seal of prince Barnim I of Pomerania), when they ruled areas around Szczecin (Kashubian: Szczecëno). Kashubians living in the territories of the former Duchy of Pomerania, among them Slovincians, were almost entirely Germanised between the 14th and 20th centuries and lost their ethnic identity. Some of those living in Eastern Pomerania has survived and today over 300,000 people in Poland regard themseves as Kashubians.
Their 'capital' city is Gdansk (Gdunsk) in Pomerania. Among the larger towns, Gdynia (Gdiniô) contains the biggest percentage of people of Kashubian origins. The main occupation of the Kashubians was fishing in the past and now it's mainly tourism.
In modern times some 50,000 Kashubians still speak Kashubian, a West Slavic language belonging to the Lekhitic group of languages in northern Poland. Many Polish linguists consider Kashubian to be a Polish dialect. In some towns and villages Kashubian is the second spoken language after Polish. The language appears on some streets signs and is also taught at schools.
The number of Kashubians depends in fact on definitions and in the most extreme case it is estimated to be as high as 500,000. In the Polish census of 2002 5,100 people declared Kashubian nationality (while most of Kashubians preferred to declare Polish nationality and Kashubian ethnicity, there was no option to declare more than one nationality), and some 51,000 declared Kashubian as their home language. That was the result of the fact that vast majority of Kashubians has dual national identity, considering themselves both Poles and Kashubians. Some claim that the census was falsified and many people were not allowed to declare their Kashubian nationality. However, barely a few such cases have been confirmed.
The loud and young group "Odroda" is aiming for a renewal of Kashubian culture.
There are other traditional Slavic ethnic groups inhabiting Pomerania i.e. Kociewiacy, Borowiacy, Krajniacy and others. The dialects spoken by these are between Kashubian and the Polish dialects of Greater Poland and Mazovia. It might indicate that they are not only descendants of ancient Pomeranians but also settlers who arived to Pomerania from Greater Poland and Masovia in the Middle Ages. However this is only one possible explanation.
History
An early mention of the Kashubians is in the 13th century, when the Dukes of Pomerania included "Duke of Kashubia" in their titles. From the peace treaty of Westphalia in 1648, after the Thirty years war, parts of West Pomerania became Swedish, and the Swedish kings titled themselves "Dukes of Kashubia" from 1648 to the 1720s.
The parliament (Landtag) of Prussia in Königsberg in 1843 decided to change the official church language from Polish to German, but this decision was soon repealed, and, starting in 1852, Kashubian was taught at the Gymnasium (high school) of Wejherowo. In the 1830s, several hundred Kashubians emigrated to Upper Canada and created a settlement named Wilno, in Renfrew County, Ontario, which still exists today.
The earliest writing in Kashubian is Luther's catechism in 1643 (new editions in 1752 and 1828). Scientific interest in the Kashubian language was sparked by Mrongovius (publications in 1823, 1828) and the Russian linguist Hilferding (1859, 1862), later followed by Biskupski (1883, 1891), Bronisch (1896, 1898), Mikkola (1897), Nitsch (1903). Important works are S. Ramult's, Slownik jezyka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego, 1893, and F. Lorentz, Slovinzische Grammatik, 1903, Slovinzische Texte, 1905, and Slovinzisches Wörterbuch, 1908.
The first activist of the Kashubian/ Pomeranian national movement was Florian Ceynowa after 1846. He deviced a Kashubian alphabet, wrote a Kashubian grammar (1879), published a collection of ethnographic-historic stories of the life of the Kashubians (Skórb kaszébsko-slovjnckjé mòvé, 1866-1868), and wrote several smaller works. Another early writer in Kashubian was Aleksander Majkowski and the authors publishing in the nationalist "Zrzësz Kaszëbskô" (the so called "Zrzëszincë" group) who contributed significantly to the development of the Kashubian literary language.
Famous Kashubians
See also
