Where do the sorbish peoples and wendish peoples come from?
The history of the sorbian and wendish people reaches back up to the 6th century. In the time of the great migration of the people, large portions of the Slavonic tribe left their original area between the rivers Oder and Dnepr. They moved to the area between Baltic Sea and Erzgebirge (ore mountains). The approximately 20 Sorbian tribes settled an area of about 40 000 kmē.
The written testimony of the Franconian chronicler Fedegar from the year 631 reported of the sorbian people, here exactly of the sorbian people prince Derwan for the first time. He was prince of a tribe "Surbi" on which the naming sorbian people goes back settling between hall and hollow.
There were even further tribes, e.g. the western slavonic tribe of the "Lusici" in the Lower Lusatia and the tribe of the "Milceni". They described the descendants of the "Lusici" and the "Milceni" as sorbian people uniformly later.
The name wendish people arose in the early Middle Ages as a result of a misspelling of Roman officials. The non slavonic tribe of the "Vendi" or "Venethi" lived in parts of today's North Italy . The misspelling became the collective name for east and south European peoples which did not live in a state of their own. Sorbian people did not have their own state . So the double-barrelled name sorbish/wendish people arose.
Approximately 60 000 Sorbians live today in Saxony and Brandenburg with their native language. The Spreewald inhabitants call their language Wendish. In the Oberlausitz , the area around Bautzen, people speak upper Sorbian and in the Niederlausitz is spoken lower Sorbian or Wendish in the area around Cottbus. Therefore the name sorbian people became naturalized for the Oberlausitzer and the name wendish peoples for the Spreewald for the Niederlausitzer.
The lower Sorbian language is close to Polish and the upper Sorbian close to Czech. An example of the difference of the Sorbian language:
Like the differences in the language, there are also differences in history, customs and conditions of life. We only would like to discribe the Spreewald here.
The written testimony of the Franconian chronicler Fedegar from the year 631 reported of the sorbian people, here exactly of the sorbian people prince Derwan for the first time. He was prince of a tribe "Surbi" on which the naming sorbian people goes back settling between hall and hollow.
There were even further tribes, e.g. the western slavonic tribe of the "Lusici" in the Lower Lusatia and the tribe of the "Milceni". They described the descendants of the "Lusici" and the "Milceni" as sorbian people uniformly later.
The name wendish people arose in the early Middle Ages as a result of a misspelling of Roman officials. The non slavonic tribe of the "Vendi" or "Venethi" lived in parts of today's North Italy . The misspelling became the collective name for east and south European peoples which did not live in a state of their own. Sorbian people did not have their own state . So the double-barrelled name sorbish/wendish people arose.
Approximately 60 000 Sorbians live today in Saxony and Brandenburg with their native language. The Spreewald inhabitants call their language Wendish. In the Oberlausitz , the area around Bautzen, people speak upper Sorbian and in the Niederlausitz is spoken lower Sorbian or Wendish in the area around Cottbus. Therefore the name sorbian people became naturalized for the Oberlausitzer and the name wendish peoples for the Spreewald for the Niederlausitzer.
The lower Sorbian language is close to Polish and the upper Sorbian close to Czech. An example of the difference of the Sorbian language:
- English: Mountain
- German: Berg
- Upper Sorbian: Hora
- Lower Sorbian: Gora
Like the differences in the language, there are also differences in history, customs and conditions of life. We only would like to discribe the Spreewald here.
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