Serbscina

Helmut Faska, ed. Serbscina. Opole: Uniwersytet Opolski, 1998 (Najnowsze dzieje jezykow stowianskich. Ed. Stanislaw Gajda). 337 pp. Paper.

This volume represents one of the most important scholarly investigations of Sorbian published since German unity prepared the way for more objective studies of this language group than was possible in the GDR period. Its editor, the now retired Dr. Helmut Faska (Fal3ke), was a long-time senior researcher at the Sorbian Institute in Budysin/Bautzen. His introductory chapter defines the term serbscina as "the sum of linguistic features forming the specific diasystem that serves... the ethnic group carrying the ethnonym 'Sorbs' (Sorbian Serbja or Serby) as their means of communication" (p. 13-translation mine-GS). This suggests that the term "Sorbian" is analogous to the school subject "English," i.e., the language "English" no matter where in the world it is taught, be it England, Canada, the U.S., or Australia. In Faska's system, serbgeina refers to "Sorbian" irrespective of where it is spoken, the Upper Sorbian or the Lower Sorbian areas. When dictionaries are devoted to one of the language's two literary variants, they use the distinguishing designations Upper Sorbian or Lower Sorbian just as we refer to American English, Canadian English, etc. While this is not new to the seasoned Sorabist, the non-specialist will welcome the clarification of the meaning of "Sorbian," "Upper Sorbian," and "Lower Sorbian."

The volume Serbscina is the collective work of 15 authors, including the editor, who have contributed in one way or another to the five major chapters, excluding the Introduction. The chapters vary from 16 pages in length (Chapter 3: "The ethno- and sociolinguistic situation of Sorbian" by Ludwig Ela and Ronald Letzsch) to 88 pages (Chapter 6: "The development and changes of the Upper and Lower Sorbian literary languages and their norms" by Helmut Faska, Helmut Jenc, Anja Pohon6owa, Irena Serakowa, Manfred Starosta, and Sonja Wolkowa). The brevity of Chapter 3 attests to the relative young age of ethno- and sociolinguistics as applied in the study of Sorbian. Nonetheless, it contains valuable observations and statistical data on interference, purism, language maintenance and attitudes. Covering a wide range of phenomena `from orthographic changes to changes in grammatical structure and stylistic developments, Chapter 6 focuses on changes that have occurred in the Upper and Lower Sorbian literary languages since the end of World War I. Much of what is presented in this chapter reflects new and original research; thus it will become mandatory reading for Slavists engaging in descriptive-typological as well as contrastive-comparative linguistic research.

The remaining three chapters are of approximately equal length and together amount to a total of 134 pages. Chapter 2, entitled "The legal and social status of Sorbian," brings together information that was hitherto spread out in numerous hardto-get outlets on Sorbian in the GDR and post-GDR years, Sorbian in the school system and in church as well as in the press. Chapter 2 was authored mainly by Ludwig Ela with one sub-chapter each by Mercin Walda and Franc Sen. Chapter 4, entitled "Sorbian in everyday life," is the work of Ludwig Ela, Ines Kellerowa, Madlena Norbergowa, Ewa Rzetelska-Feleszko, and Mercin Walda. It provides samples of language socialization as well as of cultural and functional determinants of language use in a variety of contexts (e.g., nationally mixed marriages; an Upper Sorbian Catholic township; an Upper Sorbian Protestant district (Bautzen/Budysin); a Lower Sorbian village). It also deals with the practice of naming people and places in an officially bilingual region. Chapter 5, entitled "Stratification of language and of the linguistic community," contains contributions by Helmut Faska, Frank Forster, Helmut Jenc, and Tadeusz Lewaszkiewicz on a number of topics dealing with the social stratification of Sorbian society; problems of codification (literary language, colloquial language, dialect); and the pragmatics of language, including language propaganda.

The layout of Serbscina is very attractive, with a large Sorbian flag (blue-red-- white) on the cover, a 12-page bibliography, and two summaries, one in English (pp. 273-304) prepared by the Oxford Sorabist Gerald Stone, and one in Polish (pp. 305-337) prepared by the Polish Sorabist, and present acting head of the Leipzig University Sorbian Institute, Tadeusz Lewaszkiewicz. Unfortunately, there is no subject index or index of examples. Clearly, this feature has not as yet become standard practice in publications from the area formerly known as Eastern Europe. With the exception of three articles written in Lower Sorbian, all contributions in this volume are written in Upper Sorbian. The volume is not aimed at the beginning student of Slavic Studies but rather at specialists and scholars who know at least one (preferably West-) Slavic language very well.

The volume is part of a series called, in free translation, "Recent developments in the history of Slavic languages." Three earlier volumes on Serbian, Bulgarian, and Russian were published in Opole, in 1996-1997. At the time of Serbscina's publication, three additional volumes-devoted to Czech, Slovak, and Slovenian-were said to be in print. Another six-devoted to Belarusian, Croatian, Kashubian, Macedonian, Polish, and Ukrainian-were in preparation. For some reason, the editorial committee of the series has decided not to assign volume numbers, something that could prove to be a hindrance in future bibliographical searches and references.

[Author Affiliation]

Gunter Schaarschmidt, University of Victoria