The Political and Social History of the Silesian Language

1. Seminar, Ayoma Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan 15:00 – 18:00, July 9, 2011 The Political and Social History of the Silesian Language Tomasz Kamusella University of St Andrews Scotland, UK

2. Methodology: Goals & Considerations • Dominance of national master narratives • Forgetting about the non-national • Drawing on the national only, impossible to explain the existence of the (Upper) Silesians • Difficulty with archival research (archives created and run in the interest of specific states/nations to the exclusion of the non-national) • How to uncover the salient non-national pasts?

3. A Solution (?) • Interdisciplinary research, critical perusal of secondary sources, field research, oral history, immersement observation • Looking at a sub-national / borderland case > T Kamusella. 2007. Silesia and Central European Nationalisms: The Emergence of National and Ethnic Groups in Prussian Silesia and Austrian Silesia, 1848-1918 (Purdue U Pr) • Looking at a supranational / transnational case > T Kamusella. 2009. The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe (Palgrave)

4. Silesia: Early Political History • 9th c - in Greater Moravia • 10th c - part of the Bohemian (Czech) state • 11th-12th cc – in Poland, made into a pagus (administrative region) • 12th-14th cc – time of (semi-)independent Silesian duchies • 13th-14th cc – Bohemia gradually took over the Silesian duchies, which means they are included in the Holy Roman Empire • 1346 – Crown of Bohemia, the concept of the Czech lands includes Silesia • mid-14th c – Poland formally gives Silesia up to Bohemia • Hussite Wars • 2nd half of the 15th c, Silesia with Moravia controlled by Hungary; the division into Lower & Upper Silesia • 1526 – the Czech lands became part of the Habsburg hereditary lands • 1740-42 – Vienna loses most of Silesia to Prussia • From the remnant the Crownland of Austrian Silesia formed

5. Silesia: Early Social History • 12th—15th cc – (mainly) Germanic-speaking settlers from the Holy Roman Empire • Ius teutonicum (re-)locations of towns and villages • peopling of the mountainous and marsh areas • Thus, becoming part of Central Europe by sharing in similar customs, juridical solutions, architecture and the like • Participation in the power and intellectual channels in the Holy Roman Empire • Black Death (14th c), expulsion of Jews • Emergence of secondary serfdom, east of the Elbe • 16th c - expansion of Protestantism • 1618-1648 – Thirty Years’ War, re-Catholicization of Silesia and expulsions of Protestants • 18th c – toleration of non-Protestants in Prussia; Theresian & Josephine reforms: tolerance for Protestants, beginnings of popular elementary education • Confessional distribution Protestant western Lower Silesia, mixed Protestant-Catholic eastern Lower Silesia, Catholic Upper Silesia; Catholic westernAustrian Silesia, and mixed Catholic-Protestant easternAustrian Silesia

6. Silesia: Early Language Politics • Latin as the language of administration, education and intellectual discourse • from 12th-13th cc - ‘German’ used in these functions, too, esp in Lower Silesia • 16th-early 18th cc – ‘Czech’ (Bohemian) joins in this capacity ‘German’ in Upper Silesia • mid-18th c - German replaces Latin and ‘Czech’ in Prussian Silesia • late 18th c - German replaces Latin and ‘Czech’ in Austrian Silesia • 18th-19th cc – standard German emerges, based on the Meissen dialect of Luther’s translation of the Bible, very close to the Germanic dialect of Silesia • In Prussia, Silesia’s German-speakers enjoyed an edge, as in the core of this state, located north of Berlin, Lower German was used (language of the former Hanse), closer to Dutch than standard German • Turn of the 19th c military conscription and popular elementary education took off in earnest in Prussia & the Austrian Empire • By the 1870s illiteracy practically disappeared in all Silesia

7. Long 19th c: Politics & Administration

8. Modernization, Nationalism and Borders (I) • Modernization began in Prussian and Austrian Silesia with the reforms, political and administrative changes that ushered the long 19th c • The hold of estates on politics and social life gradually limited, and coming to a de facto end in economy after the abolishment of the remnants of serfdom in 1848-49 • At the same time German nationalism showed to be a viable & attractive alternative to other identities • German nationalism and a reaction to it by various groups of non-German speakers led to the eastward and southward spread of the ethnolinguistic model of nationalism

9. Modernization, Nationalism and Borders (II) • Ethnolinguistic nationalism: • - language = nation, hence all speakers of a language are a nation • - in turn, the land(s) populated by the speakers of this language, is declared the nation’s polity, nation-state • - no respect for historical borders in pursuit of such national program • Other phenomena: industrialization and urbanization • Social and spatial mobility of population at large increased • National and regional identities began to spread parallely to the continuing loyalty to the monarch & religion • Rise of democracy • Emergence of mass parties, including national and social-democratic ones

10. Long 19th c: Ecclesiastical Divisions

11. ‘Eccentricities’ of Ecclesiastical Divisions • A southern section of Prussian Upper Silesia in the Olmütz/Olomouc Archdiocese • Two sections of Austrian Silesia in the Breslau (Wrocław) Diocese • Until 1821 the Breslau Diocese was formally subjected to the (Polish) Gnesen (Gniezno) Archdiocese • Until 1821 the easternmost sliver of Prussian Upper Silesia, centered on Beuthen (Bytom) belonged to the (Polish) Cracow Diocese • These eccentricities had much bearing on people’s identities, due to the fact that the Churches controlled the educational system until the early 1920s, and because national identities defined on the ethnolinguistic basis began to take over other identities quite late, especially in Upper & Austrian Silesia, that is, at the turn of the 20th c

12. Focus on Upper Silesia and Austrian Silesia • Upper Silesia and especially the eastern half of Austrian Silesia peripheral and rural • The development of coal mining and metallurgical industry in both regions threw, unexpectedly, them and their populations into the midst of modernity during the 2nd half of the 19th c • The Upper Silesian industrial basin second largest in continental Europe after the Ruhrgebiete; the East Silesian (Ostrau-Karwin) basin – the largest in Austria-Hungary • The population in the eastern half of Upper Silesia Slavic-speaking, as well as in eastern Austrian Silesia and in the eastern one-third of western Austrian Silesia • Language(s) was of no political or identificational consequence until the mid-19th century; then it changed rapidly

13. Confessional and Linguistic Complications (I) • In eastern Austrian Silesia one-third of the population Protestants • In Upper Silesia and elsewhere in Austrian Silesia Catholic • Due to the successful introduction of full popular education, all literate • Irrespective of home language practically everybody had a command of German and was literate in this language • In Prussian Upper Silesia, in order to facilitate this process, between 1849 and 1873 Polish was employed in education for Slavophones in the Breslau Diocese section, whereas the Morawec language in the Olmütz / Olomouc Archdiocese section • Both languages were used in (especially religious) publications until 1918-22, when both regions were divided • In Upper Silesia Polish was language of school and pastoral services, which did not make Slavophones into Poles

14. Confessional and Linguistic Complications (II) • Prussian/German statisticians, however, began to dub their areas with Polish as a medium of educationas ‘Polish Upper Silesia,’ later a handy argument for Polish national leaders • In Prussia’s other regions with Slavophone populations, local dialects (languages) were employed in this function, ie, Morawec in southern Upper Silesia, Sorbian in Lusatia (split between Brandenburg and Saxony), Kashubian west of Danzig (Gdańsk, in West Prussia), or Mazurian in southern East Prussia • Statisticians followed suite, which made it more difficult for Polish national activists to claim the two latter areas as ‘Polish’ after 1918 • The same difficulty was shared by Czechoslovakia in it claims to Lusatia

15. Diagression (I): Germanic-influenced Languages • Dynamic interaction between the Germanic-speaking and Slavic-speaking areas since the 6th (?) c. • In the modern times led to or facilitated the emergence of such languages as: • - Mazurian • - Kashubian • - Silesian (Szlonzokian, Slunzakian, Lachian) • - Morawec (Hultschiner, Prussian) • - Moravian • - Czech • - Slovak • - Hungarian • - Burgenland Croatian • - Slovenian • - Yiddish • Other Germanic-influenced & -inspired languages: Finnish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian

16. Diagression (II): Magyar (Hungarian)-influenced Languages • Similarly, in Central Europe, since the 10th c, the interaction of Finno-Ugric-speaking Magyars with their neighbors speaking other languages, led to or facilitated the emergence of the following languages: • - Slovak - Paulician • - East Slovak • - Rusyn • - Burgenland Croatian • - Prekmurjan • - Croatian • - Bunjevcian • - Bosnian • - Walachian (Romanian) in the Latin script

17. Confessional and Linguistic Complications (III) • In Austrian Silesia education in local Slavic dialects (Morawec/Moravian and Slunzakian) was available in 1849-51 • Later German was the sole language of administration and education • With the creation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Polish (Slunzakian) and Czech (Slavic-Moravec/Moravian) was allowed into education, alongside German • German remained the sole official language of Austrian Silesia, but beginning in the late 19th c, also Czech and Polish were allowed in local governments • As a result, especially educated, people became poly-glossic (rather than multilingual), speaking / writing dialects at home, Polish/Czech in the nearby town, German in Troppau (Opava), Czech in Bohemia, Polish in Galicia, and German/French abroad • Polyglossia survived in Upper Silesia, too, but with almost exclusive literacy in German, while Szlonzokian and Morawec remained idioms of home and neighborhood communication

19. Who Were Morawcs, Szlonzoks and Slunzaks? • Szlonzoks (‘Silesians’), Slavophone Catholics living in the Breslau Diocese section of Upper Silesia, agriculturalists and increasingly industrial workers • Morawecs (‘Moravians’), Slavophone Catholics living in the Olmuetz/Olomouc Archdiocese section of Upper Silesia, agriculturalists • Slunzaks (‘Silesians’), Slavophone Catholics & Protestants living in eastern Austrian Silesia, contained in the Breslau Diocese, agriculturalists and increasingly industrial workers

20. Nationalisms and Other Identities (I) • German nationalism became the main ideology of identity formation and statehood legitimization in Prussia after the founding of the German Empire as a nation-state in 1871 • German(ic)-speakers and most Slavophones who gained secondary and university education (with the exception of Catholic clergy) became Germans, too • Prallely, Prussian identity persisted, and a non-ethnolinguistic, Silesian / Upper Silesian regional identity developed • Confessional identities persisted • Neither Polish nationalism (spreading from Posen [Poznań]), nor Czech one (from Olmütz/Olomouc) was very successful before 1918 • The situation opened a space for Szlonzokian identity

21. Nationalisms and Other Identities (II) • In Austrian Silesia the rise of German nationalism was curbed by a degree of enmity between Austria-Hungary and the German Empire that followed the Six Weeks’ War (1866) • In addition the non-national character of Austria-Hungary allowed for the relatively free operation of Czech and Polish national parties in Austrian Silesia; the competing nationalisms mutually nullified their impact • German nationalism emanated from Vienna and Troppau/Opava, Czech from Olmütz/Olomouc and Polish from Cracow • Confessional identities persisted • Identification with the monarch and Austria continued • Regional identities developed pegged on Austrian Silesia, or either on its western or eastern half • In the situation, the Slunzakian identity developed, and the Moravian identity, morphing with time into Slavo(Czech)-Moravian, influenced Slavophones in western Austrian Silesia • 1905 Moravian Ausgleich, German & Slavic(-Moravian) official • 1909 Schlesischer Volkspartei / Śląska Partia Ludowa

22. World War I & the Age of Nation-States • WW I shook the economic prosperity and stability of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary to their very cores • Allies, taking use of the economic collapse and social chaos in Germany and A-H, supported ethnolinguistic national movements in both states and the western provinces of Russia • Wild card: socialism and the Bolshevik Revolution • Breakup of A-H, territorial curtailment of Germany and Bolshevik Russia • Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Kdm of Serbs Croats & Slovenes (since 1929, Yugoslavia) founded as nation-states • Hungary pared down to its ethnolinguistic Magyar core • Enlarged Romania transformed from a largely homogenous ethnolinguistic nation-state into a multiethnic polity • 1922 : the SU founded as a federation of ethnolinguistic (national) republics • Denial of national statehood to Germans, Hungarians, Rusyns (Ruthenians), Szlonzoks, Slunzaks etc

23. The Post-WW I Fate of Upper Silesia • Poland, however reluctantly, competed for Upper Silesia, mostly on the basis of its industrial basin; Warsaw redefined local Slavophones as Poles • 1919, 20, 21: (Upper) Silesian Uprisings (rebellions, civil wars), 30% to 50% participants not from Upper Silesia • 1920: part of the Olmütz / Olomouc Archdiocese section, with the Morawecs, to Czechoslovakia (Hultschiner Ländchen / the Hlučínsko) • 1920-1922: International admin. of the U Silesian Plebiscite Area • Bund der Oberschlesier / Związek Górnoślązaków, supported by Catholic clergy and industrialists want an independent and undivided U Silesia or autonomous within postwar Germany, or in Czechoslovakia (not in Poland), with German & Polish as official languages • 1921 Plebiscite, lost by Poland • 1922, under France’s pressure, U Silesia divided, with 4/5 of the industrial basin falling to Poland

24. The Post-WW I Fate of Austrian Silesia • Wilsonian principle of national (ie, ethnolinguistic) self-determination denied to Germans in Austria-Hungary • Austria-Germany prohibited from uniting with Germany and denied its name, the provinces of Bohemian and Moravian-Silesian Germans crushed and brought under Czechoslovak control • Following the breakup of A-H, western Aust Silesia in Czechoslovakia • 1918 Polish-Czechoslovak provisional division of eastern Austrian Silesia, followed by war next year • Planned plebiscite prevented by increasing violence • Elites and industrialists, alongside the Schlesischer Volkspartei / Śląska Partia Ludowa wanted an independent (eastern) Austrian Silesia, or its autonomy in Germany or Czechoslovakia (not in Poland), with German & Polish as official languages • France supported Prague, so Czechoslovakia might have its own industrial basin, too • 1920 partition of eastern Austrian Silesia, industrial basin to Czechoslovakia

25. Upper & Austrian Silesia in Poland • Polish sections of Upper & Austrian Silesia organized as the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship; autonomy increasingly a fiction after the 1926 coup • Immediate Polonization of all place-names, less urgently of personal names • In the Austrian Silesian section Polish introduced immediately • The Schlesischer Volkspartei / Śląska Partia Ludowa banned • In the Upper Silesian section 4 years of grace for German until 1926 • After 1922, the ZG/BdO waned and disappeared in 1924 • Before 1922 Warsaw identified Szlonzokian (Silesian) as the Polish language, later Silesian-speaking civil servants removed from posts unless they acquired ‘proper Polish’ • Elite literate in German left for Germany, replaced by Poles, mainly from Galicia • Feliks Steuer (1889-1950), Silesian spelling, scholarly & literary works • Szlonzoks started voting for German parties, sending children to German-medium schools • The Związek Obrony Górnoślązaków (1924-34) founded to prevent discrimination against Szlonzoks • After 1926, tentative acceptance of Silesian, as a Polish dialect, but ‘cleansed of ugly Germanisms and Bohemainisms’ • 1934/35 Suppression of Szlonzokian organizations, the de facto end of autonomy

26. Upper Silesia in Germany • Most of Upper Silesia, but only with 1/5 of the industrial basin remained in Germany • 1923 referendum on autonomy, most votes against, so Upper Silesia remained in Germany, but was made into a province in its own right • Interwar period: 100,000 Szlonzoks, seeing themselves as Poles, left for Poland. On the other hand, 120,000 Szlonoks and Upper Silesian Germans left the Silesian Voivodeship for Poland • Geneva Convention (1922-37) protected minority rights (mainly schools in minority language) in the former Upper Silesian Plebiscite Area • The founding of the Polish-language minority education system • Catholic and regional politics cherish and uphold local Upper Silesian and Szlonozkian traditions and values, despite the German-Polish national conflict • Catholicism proved to be the non-national, universalistic platform (bilingual pilgrimages, non-national Latin in liturgy) • 1933: homogenous Germanness became the top priority, Germanization of place-names and personal names (Volksgemeinschaft) • Szlonzoks – adoptiv Stamm of the German nation, eigensprachige Kulturdeutsche, their language not Polish, a Kulturmundart of German

27. Austrian & Upper Silesia in Czechoslovakia • Prague’s sections of Austrian & Upper Silesia made into the Province of Silesia • Official acceptance of multilingualism and multiethnicity in Czech Silesia, minority schools in German and Polish, bilingual place-names • Slunzaks accepted as ‘Czech, Polish, German or Silesian Silesians’ • Sidelined and splintered, but the Schlesischer Volkspartei / Śląska Partia Ludowa survived in Czechoslovakia • 1928: Merger of Czech Silesia with Moravia, seen as a policy of Czechization • Morawecs forced to give up their language for Czech, and prevented from attending German-medium schools; they change into German-Slavic-speaking Hultschiners • Óndra Łysohorsky (Erwin Goj, 1905-89), Lachian language, socialism, Lachia = northern Moravia + eastern Austrian Silesia + southern Upper Silesia • The Lašsko Perspektiva

28. World War II (I) • 1938 de facto ban on the use of Polish in Germany’s Province of Upper Silesia, and of German in Poland’s Silesian Voivodeship • 1938 Warsaw seized Prague’s section of eastern Austrian Silesia (incorporated into the Silesian Voivodeship) and banned Czech • 1938/39 end of Czechoslovakia, the border regions of the Czech lands incorporated into Germany (Czech banned), the truncated Czech lands made into a bilingual, German-Czech, Protectorate of Bohemia Moravia, Slovakia gained independence with Slovak as its sole official language, & Subcarpathian Ruthenia, re-incorporated as bilingual, Hungarian-Rusyn, Carpathia into Hungary • Hultschiner Ländchen / the Hlučínsko incorporated into the Province of Upper Silesia • 1939 end of Poland, western regions incorporated into Germany (Polish banned), the rest made into a trilingual, German-Polish-Ukrainian, Generalgouvernement • Enlarged Silesian Voivodeship incorporated into the Province of Upper Silesia • Clergy clandestinely tolerated the use of various languages, esp the Morawec Joseph Martin Nathan (1867-1957) of Branitz (Branice)

29. World War II (II) • Poles who settled in the Silesian Voivodeship after 1922 expelled • Ironically, Slunzakian (Silesian, Oberschlesisch) identified as Polish, and thus de facto banned • This ban also included Morawec, now identified as Czech • More vacillation in regard of Slunzakian (Slonzokisch), but progressively discouraged from use • In Polish and Czechoslovak section of Upper & Austrian Silesia incorporated into Germany, the German National List (DVL) • Active German minority members: Group 1 • German minority members: Group 2 • Zwischensicht (‘In-Between People,’ ie, Morawecs, Slunzaks & Szlonzoks): Group 3 (largest) • Pro-Polish Zwischensicht (‘German renegades’): Group 4 • Only temporary German citizenship for Group 3, but after 1941, regular citizenship to allow for drafting them into the army • Half of the Polish forces in the West composed from Group 3 card holders (German deserters), or Szlonzoks, Slunzaks, Mazurs, or Kashubs

30. Aftermath (I) • Interwar German-Czechoslovak border reestablished, Hultschiner Ländchen / the Hlučínsko returned • German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (less northern east Prussia, seized by the SU) given to Poland • Czechoslovak-Polish conflict over southern German Upper Silesia and the Czech section of eastern Austrian Silesia • 1945-1948/50, Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia and Poland, German banned • Prewar Polish & Czechoslovak citizens, holders of the DVL 3, ‘nationally rehabilitated’ • Slavophones or persons of ‘Slavic roots’ in the German territories granted to Poland (mainly German Upper Silesia & southern East Prussia) ‘nationally verified’ as Poles • Both, the nationally rehabilitated and the nationally verified, known as Autochthons (autochtoni) in Poland, ie, ‘ethnic Poles unaware of their Polishness’ • Polonization, under the slogans of ‘de-Germanization’ and ‘re-Polonization directed at Autochthons

31. Aftermath (II) • Autochthons retained in Poland, because not enough ethnically Polish ‘repatriates’ (ie expellees from the Polish territories seized by the SU) to repopulate the German territories incorporated into Poland • No replacement for the qualified workforce in the Upper Silesian industrial basin • Similar situation of Slunzaks in the Ostrava-Karviná industrial basin, & of pro-Polish Slunzaks whom Prague wanted to expel to Poland, but was prevented from doing so by Moscow • 1958: Polish-Czechoslovak border treaty sanctioned the border between new Polish Upper Silesia and Czech Silesia • Dramatic removal of all traces of German language & culture in Poland and Czechoslovakia, incl. mass destruction of German-language publications • Autochthons in Poland, Hultschiners and Slunzaks in Czechoslovakia, though officially claimed to be ur-Poles & ur-Czechs, de facto treated as crypto-Germans & 2nd class citizens • Their language treated as ‘corrupted’ Polish or Czech, at school they had to be taught ‘correct’ Polish or Czech

32. Communist Times (I) • Hundreds of thousands of Autochthons, Hultschiners and Slunzaks faced with everyday humiliation in offices, at school, in public, seized at the opportunity to ‘escape’ to West between 1952 and 1991 • In West Germany (as de jure German citizens or descendents of such) they were given German citizenship; and switched to German • Óndra Łysohorsky, during the war, was in the SU, and with Stalin’s support, worked as a member of the All-Slavic Committee, representing eastern Austrian Silesia (Těšínské Slezsko, Śląsk Cieszyński, Teschener Schlesien), or a future Lachian state. In Czechoslovakia it saved him from direct reprecussions, but had to move to Bratislava, and continued writing in German rather than in Lachian. After 1958 the de facto ban on the use of Lachian • In Poland the gradual Polonization of Szlonzokian • In Czechslovakia the gradual Czechization of Slunzakian (Lachian) and of the Hultischiner dialect • Hultschiners began to refer to themselves as ‘Prussians’ (Prajzaci) and their dialect as ‘Prussian language’ (prajzská grófka)

33. Communist Times (II) • 1970-1979 Global Détente • 1970-72 Normalization of relationships between West Germany and the Soviet bloc • Intensification of the emigration of Autochthons, Prussians and Slunzaks to West Germany • development of research on the Slavic dialects of Poland’s Upper Silesia and of Czech Silesia, seen as dialects of Polish and Czech, respectively, despite the fact that speakers of the dialects do not have many problems to communicate with one another across the state border, unlike with their ‘co-ethnics’ in Warsaw or Prague • Research on the Lachian poetry of Łysohorsky, abroad, but not in Czechoslovakia • 1970: Switzerland nominated Łysohorsky to the Nobel Prize in Literature • 1970s-1980s: regional publications with legends, stories, anecdotes & the like in a Polonized version of Szlonzokian and a Czechized version of Slunzakian • Reinhold Olesch (1910-90), Der Wortschatz der polnischen Mundart von Sankt Annaberg (1958), the de facto first Szlonzokian-Polish dictionary

34. Postcommunist Times (I) • 1989: Fall of communism; 1991: breakup of the SU; 1993: breakup of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic & Slovakia • Democratization and market reforms, pressure among Szlonzoks and Slunzaks to emigrate for (West) Germany lessens, a 1993 change in German citizenship law further discourages immigration of Autochthons • 1991: German-Polish Treaty on Cooperation & Good Neighborliness, recognition of the German minority in Poland, overwhelmingly in Upper Silesia • 1991 to this day: issuing German citizenship & passports to Germans in Poland, though German and Polish law deems dual citizenship illegal; but Poland wanted to prevent the looming depopulation of Upper Silesia, while Germany had to deal with the sudden influx of ethnic Germans from post-Soviet states & Romania • From the nationally verified Autochthons to a German minority, c 150-300,000 in Upper Silesia; but only those born before 1935 knew some German (as they had managed to attend a few years of German school before 1945) • By 2005, 250,000 German / EU passports issued. It stimulated the arrival of seasonal workers from Upper Silesia to Germany; their command of German improved

35. Postcommunist Times (II) • 1990s: Political and social conflicts of low level connected to the acceptance of the German minority in Poland • So far no German-medium minority educational system has been created, and the about 500 German minority schools in Poland, are schools where German is taught as ‘mother tongue,’ ie, 3 hours per week • Similar situation of the Czech Rep’s German minority, concentrated in the Hlučínsko • The Czechoslovak census of 1991 recorded 44,000 Silesians (Slunzaks and Prussians), but a decade later their number fell to 11,000 • The Polish census of 2002 recorded 170,000 Silesians (Szlonzoks), making them into Poland’s largest national minority, with Germans as the second one with 150,000 declarations. Both the minorities concentrate in Upper Silesia, making it into Poland’s most multicultural region. But so far Warsaw has not recognized the existence of the Silesians or their Silesian language • Silesian movement: 1990 - Ruch Autonomii Śląska (Silesian Autonomy Movement), 1996 - Związek Ludności Narodowości Śląskiej (Union of the People of Silesian Nationality)

36. Nowadays: The Silesian Language(I) • 2000: Bartylla-Blanke, Alfred. 2000. Ród. Przyczynek w sprawie śląskiej [The Family: On the Silesian Question], first play consciously written in Silesian • 2003: Narodowa Oficyna Śląska • Dariusz Jerczyński. 2003. Historia narodu śląskiego [History of the Silesian Nation] • Roczniok, Andrzej. 2007-10. Słownik polsko-śląski / Zbornik polsko-ślůnski (3 vols) [The Polish-Silesian Dictionary] • 2006: Czajkowski, Andrzej; Schröder, Lidia and Schröder, Sandra. Wielki słownik śląsko-niemiecko-angielski [The Great Silesian-German-English Dictionary] • 2007: International recognition of the Silesian language (ISO639-3 code szl) • 2008: Organizations for the cultivation of Silesian > Pro Loquela Silesiana and the Tôwarzistwo Piastowaniô Ślónskij Môwy "Danga“ • 2008: Silesian Wikipedia > Ślůnsko Wikipedyjo • 2008: First Standardization Conference of Silesian, Katowice • 2008: Kadłubek, Zbigniew. 2008. Listy z Rzymu [Letters from Rome], the first volume of literary essays in Silesian

37. Nowadays: The Silesian Lg (II) • 2009: Standard orthography adopted for Silesian • 2009: Second standardization conference of Silesian • 2009: Lysohorsky [sic], Óndra (Erwin Goj). 2009. Spiwajuco piaść [The Singing Fist] – the first-ever book published in standard orthography • - in this manner Lachian claimed as part of common Silesian • 2010: Adamus, Rafał et al. Gōrnoślōnski ślabikŏrz [Upper Silesian Primer for Schools]; and Grynicz, Barbara and Roczniok, Andrzej. Ślabikorz ABC [Primer ABC for Schools] • Efforts to gain recognition as a regional language in Poland have continued since 2007 • 21st c saw the unprecedented spread of the use of Silesian in the internet, radio and television (Telewizja Silesia, est in 2008) • Silesian is many things to various people: • - dialect of Polish for pro-Polish Szlonzoks & Szlonzokian Poles • - dialect of German for Szlonzokian Germans & pro-German Szlonzoks • - Silesian language for Szlonzoks • * Hence, some Upper Silesian towns and villages, though linguistically homogenously, on the sociolinguistic plane are even tri-lingual.

38. Nowadays: Slunzakian, Prussian, Lachian • In the Czech Republic Moravian-Silesian parties were active in the first half of the 1990s • Dialects and language varieties are better respected in the Czech Rep than in Poland and the level of living is higher and more equal, hence, thus far language has not become there an instrument of political-cum-cultural mobilization • In Ostrava and the vicinity some dictionaries of Slunzakian (seen as a dialect of Czech) are published, eg, Janeček, Pavel. 2005. Ostravsko-český slovník, zejména pro Čech obyvatele, nejvíce pak pro Města hlavního obyvatele, ku pochopení lepšímu dělného lidu prostého [An Ostrava Dialect-Czech Dictionary, Intended for Czech Citizens, but Especially for the Inhabitants of the Capital, so that They Could Better Understand the Simple Working Folk] • In the Hlučínsko a low-key Prussian regionalist-cum-linguistic movement developed with popular, though low circulation, publications in Prussian, eg, Rumanová, Lidie. 2005. Chcu byč enem Prajz. Lidové básně [I Want to Remain a Prussian: Folk Poems] • Also a revival of interest in Łysohorsky’s Lachian oeuvre

39. In Silesian: Ślōnzoki a ônych godka i hajmat Ślōnzoki pomiyszkujōm na Wiyrchnym Ślōnsku, kery terozki je we Polsce, i tyż na ōstyn tajli Pepickigo Ślōnska, kero roztopiyrzo sie pojstrzōd Ostravōm a Těšínym. Ze geszichtowego blikniyńcio, ôd pojstrzedniowieczo ku ôstatka II weltowyj wojny, bōł to plac, kaj doimyntowały sie dijalekty słowianowe a germanowe. We efekcie powstowanio landōw nacyjowogodkowych we Pojstrzodkowyj Europie po 1918 roku, plac tyn roztajlowany ôstoł pojstrzōd Czechosłowacyjo, Niymce a Polska. Te tajlowanie uznali Alianty i niy powożali majnunga samych Ślōnzoków. Nojwiyncy Ślōnzokōm zdało sie coby Wiyrchny Ślōnsk ôroz ōstyn poły Pepikowego Ślōnska (wtynczos jeszcze mianowany Ślōnsk Esterajchowy) zrychtować za samostanowiōny land (nacyjowy) Ślōnzoków, abo dociepnōńć za autōnōmijowy rigijōn ku Niymcōm abo ku Czechosłowacyje

40. In Polish: Ślązacy a ich język i ich hajmat Ślązacy mieszkają na Górnym Śląsku, obecnie w Polsce, a także we wschodniej połowie Czeskiego Śląska, która się rozciąga między Ostravą a Těšínem. Z historycznego punktu widzenia, od średniowiecza po koniec II wojny światowej był to obszar przenikania się dialektów słowiańskich i germańskich. W wyniku postwania etnicznojęzykowych państw narodowych w Europie Środkowej po roku 1918, obszar ten został rozdzielony między Czechosłowację, Niemcy i Polskę. O tym rozbiorze zadecydowali Alianci, nie biorąc pod uwagę woli samych Ślązaków. Większość Ślązaków zda się chciała aby z Górnego Śląska oraz wschodniej połowy Czeskiego Śląska (wtedy jeszcze zwanego Śląskiem Austriackim) uwtorzyć niepodległe państwa (narodowe) Ślązaków, lub włączyć je jako regiony autonomiczne do Niemiec lub Czechosłowacji.

41. Silesian: Between German & Polish 0. Standard German. 1.1.Über Dächer über Häuser, wie der Kater zu die Mäuser, also schleicht sichAntekhin zu dem Bett von Schwägerin. Bruderlibe. 1.2.DuHacherverfluchter, pieronnischerBux. 2.1.Marykaübern Reifen springt, was diepajacyhammitgebringt. 2.2.Sollt ichkapitulirowatsch (...) Tatulekhat Krieg gemachen. 3.1.Mach demkanarekmal dieklotkaauf, da kann er sich rein undraushopsać. 3.2.DieMamulkadenkt sichw doma, was sich macht Soldaten, denkt sich, żre kapusta, kloski, trinkt sich Wein (...). Hab geschrieben Mutter gestern, hab kanon puzowatsch, ispsiakrewkaput gegangen, mußgobezahlowatsch. (...) Sabioł szabląganz alleine tausendzwölf turkusen. 4.1.Alexanderscho na wander, kupiou buty za trzy knuty. 4.2.(...) Szlajfyrzemieli tałośka zbruskamizamontowano nalinksztandzeprzi kole. 5.1.Maryko ty stara kryko, ty mos tyn pysk jak starywertiko. 5.2.A potymgeburstagmoł jego babaibajtel. 6.1.Za komuny szło nejwyżi pozaglondać na fajerwerki w telewizorze. 6.2.(...) Dziołcha była piykno - no wiycie: krew a mleko, jak to padajom. 0. Standard Polish.