Editing Sorbian languages (section)

==History==
[[File:Germanische und slavische Volksstaemme zwischen Elbe und Weichsel.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''[[Sorbian March|Limes sorabicus]]'': the [[Sorbian settlement area]] bordering [[East Francia]] on a map of [[medieval Germany]] (''Germanische und slavische Volksstämme zwischen Elbe und Weichsel'', 1869)]]
After the settlement of the formerly [[Germanic peoples|Germanic territories]] (the part largely corresponding to the former [[East Germany]])<ref name="Sanguin 1996"/> by the [[Sorbs (tribe)|Slavic ancestors]] of the [[Sorbs]] in the 5th and 6th centuries CE,<ref name="Belgeo 2013"/> the Sorbian language (or its predecessors) had been in use in much of what was the southern half of Eastern Germany for several centuries. The language still had its stronghold in (Upper and Lower) Lusatia,<ref name="Belgeo 2013"/> where it enjoys national protection and fostering to the present day. For people living in the medieval Northern [[Holy Roman Empire]] and its precursors, especially for the [[Saxons]], the [[Wends]] (''Wende'') were heterogeneous groups and tribes of Slavic peoples living near Germanic settlement areas, in the area west of the River [[Oder]], an area later entitled ''[[Germania Slavica]]'', settled by the [[Polabian Slavs|Polabian Slav tribes]] in the north and by others, such as the Sorbs and the [[Milceni]], further south (see [[Sorbian March]]).

The exact origin of the Sorbian language is uncertain. While some [[Linguistics|linguists]] consider it to be a transitory language between [[Lechitic languages|Lechitic]] and other non-Lechitic languages of [[West Slavic languages]], others like [[Heinz Schuster-Šewc]] consider it a separate dialectical group of [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]] which is a mixture of Proto-Lechitic and [[South Slavic languages]].<ref name="Schuster2013">{{cite journal |last1=Schuster-Šewc |first1=Heinz |date=2013 |title=Das Sorbische – Genese und sprachlicher Status |trans-title=The Sorbian Language – its Origins and Linguistic Status |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=31630 |language=de |journal=Lětopis |issue=2 |pages=86–94 |access-date=27 November 2024}}</ref> According to him, "Sorbian spoken today in Upper and Lower Lusatia is what remains of an earlier extensive Old Sorbian dialect area between the [[Elbe]]/[[Saale]] rivers in the west and the [[Bóbr |Bober]]/[[Kwisa |Queis]] rivers in the east".<ref name="Schuster2013"/>  

Furthermore, while some consider it a single language which later diverged to two major dialects, others consider these dialects two separate languages. There exist significant differences in [[phonology]], [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], and [[lexicon]] between them. Several characteristics in [[Upper Sorbian language]] indicate a close proximity to [[Czech language]] which again are absent in [[Lower Sorbian language]].<ref name="Sedov"/> The Upper Sorbian is considered as representative of the old "Sorbian proper", while the Lower Sorbian would be a transitional hybrid language more akin to the [[Lechitic languages]].<ref name="Schuster2013"/> According to some researchers the archaeological data cannot confirm the thesis about a single linguistic group yet supports the claim about two separated ethno-cultural groups with different ancestry whose respective territories correspond to Tornow-type ceramics (Lower Sorbian language) and [[Leipzig group|Leipzig-type ceramics]] (Upper Sorbian language),<ref name="Sedov">{{cite book |author-last=Sedov |author-first=Valentin Vasilyevich |year=2013 |orig-year=1995 |title=Славяне в раннем Средневековье |trans-title=Sloveni u ranom srednjem veku (Slavs in Early Middle Ages) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HD4oAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Akademska knjiga |location=Novi Sad |isbn=978-86-6263-026-1 |pages=191–205}}</ref> both derivations of [[Prague culture]].<ref>Paul M. Barford (2001). ''The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe''. Cornell University Press. pp. 64–65, 77–78, 104–105. ISBN 9780801439773</ref>

Outside Lusatia, the Sorbian language has been superseded by [[German language|German]]. From the 13th century on, the language suffered official discrimination.<ref name=Faska /> [[Bible translations into Sorbian]] provided the foundations for its writing system.