Kashubian language
| Kashubian (kaszëbsczi) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Poland, Canada |
| Region: | |
| Total speakers: | 0.2 million |
| Ranking: | not ranked |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Lekhitic Kashubian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | in official use in some counties of Pomeranian Voivodship, Poland |
| Regulated by: | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | |
| ISO 639-2 | csb |
| SIL | csb |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Kashubian, Cassubian is one of the Lekhitic languages, which are a group of Slavic languages.
It is assumed that it evolved from the language spoken by some tribes of Pomeranians called Kashubians, in the region of Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Oder rivers.
It is closely related to the Slovincian language, and both of them are Pomeranian language dialects. Many Polish linguists still call it a dialect of Polish.
As of 2000, it had some 200,000 speakers, mainly in eastern Pomerania in northern Poland. In 2002 Census, 53,000 people in Poland declared that they mainly use Kashubian at home. Research shows that many Kashubian-speaking parents use Polish rather than Kashubian at home, because they believe that if they spoke Kashubian, their children would find it more difficult to learn correct Polish.