Верхносилезский этнолект: Язык или диалект?

West Slavic ethnolect
the West Slavic lect

Silesian, occasionally called Upper Silesian, is an ethnolect of the Lechitic group spoken by part of people in Upper Silesia. Its vocabulary was significantly influenced by Central German due to the existence of numerous Silesian German speakers in the area prior to World War II and after. The first mentions of Silesian as a distinct lect date back to the 16th century, and the first literature with Silesian characteristics to the 17th century. Linguistic distinctiveness of Silesian has long been a topic of discussion among linguists. Some regard it as one of the four major dialects of Polish, while others classify it as a separate regional language, distinct from Polish. According to the official data from the 2021 Polish census, about 500 thousand people consider Silesian as their native language. In the censuses in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, nearly 900,000 people declared Silesian nationality; Upper Silesia has almost five million inhabitants, with the vast majority in the Polish part speaking Polish and Czech in the Czech part and declaring themselves to be Poles in the former and Czechs in the latter.

Although the morphological differences between Silesian and Polish have been researched extensively, other grammatical differences have not been studied in depth. A notable difference is in question forming. In standard Polish, questions which do not contain interrogative words are formed either by using intonation or the interrogative particle czy. In Silesian, questions which do not contain interrogative words are formed by using intonation (with a markedly different intonation pattern than in Polish) or inversion (e. g. Je to na karcie? ); there is no interrogative particle.

Opinions are divided among linguists regarding whether Silesian is a distinct language, a dialect of Polish, or, in the case of Lach, a variety of Czech. The issue can be contentious, because some Silesians consider themselves to be a distinct nationality within Poland. When Czechs, Poles, and Germans each made claims to substantial parts of Silesia as constituting an integral part of their respective nation states in the 19th and 20th centuries, the language of Slavic speaking Silesians became politicized. Some, like Óndra Łysohorsky (a poet and author in Czechoslovakia), saw the Silesians as being their own distinct people, which culminated in his effort to create a literary standard which he called the "Lachian language". Silesian inhabitants supporting the cause of each of these ethnic groups had their own robust network of supporters across Silesia's political borders which shifted over the course of the 20th century prior to the large scale ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of World War II.

Some linguists from Poland, such as Jolanta Tambor, Juan Lajo, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, philosopher Jerzy Dadaczyński, sociologist Elżbieta Anna Sekuła, and sociolinguist Tomasz Kamusella, support its status as a language. According to Stanisław Rospond, it is impossible to classify Silesian as a dialect of the contemporary Polish language because he considers it to be descended from Old Polish. Other Polish linguists, such as Jan Miodek and Edward Polański, do not support its status as a language. Jan Miodek and Dorota Simonides, both of Silesian origin, prefer to see the preservation of the entire range of Silesian dialects rather than standardization. The German linguist Reinhold Olesch was greatly interested in the "Polish vernaculars" of Upper Silesia and other Slavic varieties such as Kashubian and Polabian. The United States Immigration Commission in 1911 classified it as one of the dialects of Polish. In their respective surveys of Slavic languages, most linguists writing in English, such as Alexander M. Schenker, Robert A. Rothstein, and Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley list Silesian as a dialect of Polish, as does Encyclopædia Britannica. On the question of whether Silesian is a separate Slavic language, Gerd Hentschel wrote that "Silesian can thus without doubt be described as a dialect of Polish" ("Das Schlesische kann somit ohne Zweifel als Dialekt des Polnischen beschrieben werden"). In Czechia, disagreement exists concerning the Lach dialects which rose to prominence thanks to Óndra Łysohorsky and his translator Ewald Osers. While some have considered it a separate language, most now view Lach as a dialect of Czech.

In 2003, the National Publishing Company of Silesia (Narodowa Oficyna Śląska) commenced operations. This publisher was founded by the Alliance of the People of the Silesian Nation (Związek Ludności Narodowości Śląskiej) and it prints books about Silesia and books in Silesian language. In July 2007, the Slavic Silesian language was given the ISO 639 3 code szl. On 6 September 2007, 23 politicians of the Polish parliament made a statement about a new law to give Silesian the official status of a regional language. The first official National Dictation Contest of the Silesian language (Ogólnopolskie Dyktando Języka Śląskiego) took place in August 2007. In dictation as many as 10 forms of writing systems and orthography have been accepted. On 30 January 2008 and in June 2008, two organizations promoting Silesian language were established: Pro Loquela Silesiana and Tôwarzistwo Piastowaniô Ślónskij Môwy "Danga". On 26 May 2008, the Silesian Wikipedia was founded. On 30 June 2008 in the edifice of the Silesian Parliament in Katowice, a conference took place on the status of the Silesian language. This conference was a forum for politicians, linguists, representatives of interested organizations and persons who deal with the Silesian language. The conference was titled "Silesian – Still a Dialect or Already a Language?" (Śląsko godka – jeszcze gwara czy jednak już język?). In 2012, the Ministry of Administration and Digitization registered the Silesian language in Annex 1 to the Regulation on the state register of geographical names; however, in a November 2013 amendment to the regulation, Silesian is not included. On 26 April 2024, the Sejm voted 236 186 with five abstentions to recognise Silesian as a regional language.