The World's Most Endangered Germanic Language - Wymysorys 

Have lots of kids. And try to get it taught in local school curriculum

Your comment needs to be pinned, please make it a hobby to teach about it in videos please and gain some attraction from other youtube channels

@leonardomontauti7072 You're doing a great job! Could you let me know how does "I love you" sound in your language? I write an article and have collected 860 language translations at the moment

My family members from my mothers side came from abruzzo in them mountains I wonder if they met any speakers 🧐

Can you give a few phrases or sentences of Pretarolo?

I always thought Dutch sounded like a person speaking a mix of German and English.

Dutch is a German dialect lol

@@BajanEnglishman51 Nope

@@BajanEnglishman51no, no it isn’t, even if you want be that idiot who says flemish or scots or whatever are dialects, you unequivocally cannot say that dutch is a dialect of german.

@@BajanEnglishman51Dutch is very different from German and English in a lot of ways

*stares in Indigenous North American* yup

​@@lowwastehighmelaninyeah, my kids are Native American through their father and talking to his mom about the murderer of the language has always broken my heart. It was her first language and she can no longer speak it 😢 Her fluent elders have passed. Sadly, my kids didn't have the opportunity to learn it and IDK if they are interested.

Thats a common narrative but its not true for a ton of dying language and in someways harmful (in the sense that it promotes the Idea that a language needs to be attacked to die off). lots of Languages are dissapearing without ever having overt goverment pressure. I mean there are languages dying to tok pinsin in places in New Guinea where they don't even have schools.

​@@guppy719yep

​@@guppy719I'd say there are 2 or 3 main ways languages can die out: 1. Conquest 2. State surpression and bans 3. Higher mobility and conectivity I'd say in the mentioned case the added mobility of modern times leads to more contacts between "tribes" for no better word and thus the need for a mutual language... And why bother to keep the old one alive if it only works in my village but I regularely travel between 3 or 4? (At least that's my train of thaught what is happening)

have you heard of elfdalian , gatudansk and jamska? if not, then you have another 3

A lot of countries have smaller minority languages most people in the world do not know about, so im not suprised I didnt know about this german minority langauge, when I only know about Frisian and German language, that are spoken in Germany.

@@Felixxxxxxxxx I have not and thoese are propably some more small minority languages I could not care less about.

​@@jout738 That's a bit rude

Ey ever heard of Bayrisch, Östereicherisch, Schwäbisch, Fränkisch, Plattdeutsch, Switzerdütsch, Sudetendeutsch, Ich würde auch gerne kritisieren, dass sie die Niederländischen Sprachen außerhalb der Hochdeutschen Sprachfamilie platzieren, die letzte große Sprachverschiebung während des Frankenreichs passiert ist, mit dem Versuch eine vereinte Germanische Identität zu bilden, die sich leichter kontrollieren lassen würde. Was leider zur fasst vollständigen Ersetzung der Niederdeutschen Sprachen im heutigen Deutschland führen würde, zu denen Englisch, Friesisch und Sächsisch gehören, mit jeweiligen Dialekten und Regionalsprachen. Niederländisch ist für mich als Franke auch signifikant leichter zu verstehen als Friesisch/Plattdeutsch/Nederdütsk/Platdütsk/Platt. English, würde ich es nicht fließend sprechen, würde mir signifikante Schwierigkeiten bereiten, da es so unglaublich viel von den Franzhosen entlehnt anstatt das Latein direkt zu Germanisieren. Von dem was ich bis jetzt auch gehört habe fällt diese Sprache auch eher in den Continental deutschen Sprachraum und weniger in das Niederdeutschen/Inselwahnsinn Sprachkontinuum. Im generellen ist Hochdeutsch von den Deutschen Dialekten sprachlich so weit entfernt wie anderen germanischen Sprachen gegenüber. Das aussterben von kleinen Regionalsprachen ist dem Deutsch auch ehrlich gesagt nichts neues und wurde auch für sehr lange Zeit gefördert um Deutschland und die Deutsche Bevölkerung gefügig zu machen, ob das jetzt die Preußen, die BRD oder die DDR war ist auch nicht sonderlich wichtig, da es eher gilt den Tod der Sprachdiversität aufzuhalten und nicht einen Schuldigen zu finden.

If you are not a professional linguist, you made a very excellent observation! Yes, I agree with almost all of your arguments. The 'dialectal difference' stands out much more when it is a small exclave abroad. In many services which aim to be 'exhaustive catalog of the languages in the world' (like Glottolog and Ethnologue), you can clearly see this phenomenon. Many 'exclave languages' appear on the list as 'sister languages' of a 'major (national) language', while the domestic 'dialects' (even when have very low mutual intelligibility) are just lumped together as 'dialectal varieties'. Of course the linguists try to apply the 'mutual intelligibility' criteria as consistent as possible (often against the national policies), but it cannot be completely free from the observation biases. Actually the 'mutual intelligibility' cannot be precisely measured, so even the linguists feel hardships about drawing uncontroversial boundaries. I don't disagree that such 'exclave languages' can be recognized as a language independent from the 'major' language. They tend to be heavily affected by surrounding foreign languages while also developing their own characteristics, especially when they have been a neglected minority in terms of school education and mass media. I just wanted to point out that the social environment affects the language a lot.

I suppose the important part is whether or not the process is consensual. When it happens naturally and without any forced prompting, they call it 'dialect levelling', when the state decides one particular register of the language is the correct one and proceeds to beat it into the peasant folk, it's not as cool...

Same in Italy. Neapolitan, Sicilian and North Italian languages are technically distinct Romance languages, but they're labeled as dialects nonetheless.

It's the natural progression of languages to merge or splinter based on connectivity between peoples. If a people group spread across a landscape in one generation, but don't maintain strong contact with each other, natural changes in the language will occur in different areas, and the changes won't spread throughout the region because people don't spend enough time in contact with distant peoples. Over time these differences can be seen as a dialectal difference, and over even more time fully separate, mutually unintelligible languages. This can also happen in reverse. Increasing contact causes increasing convergence, as constant interaction with a language barrier causes speakers to learn each other's languages and maybe even mix the languages to reduce that language barrier. If one has greater relative weight, whether that be cultural, political, or economic, then it typically replaces the other. Sometimes though hybrids are created, such as modern English being really a hybrid of old English and old French plus several hundred years of evolution. It's still structurally Germanic, but so much Romance language influence has radically altered the vocabulary.

@@TheSpecialJ11 When are we going to tell King Louis that he should have just learned the language of the Troubadours? It's not too late ... is it?

I am also from polish origin, I heard about this language and also another language called "wasser polnisch" in the 1970s. I am glad to see this video, because no one ever believed me before.

@@davidtkocz8356 wasserpolnsich may be reffered to as etiher: 1. the silesian language (unrecognized), 2 the silesian dialect of polish or 3. the silesian dialect of german. One of those three.

@@BartoszSewerynWilk Thank you Bartosz for this information. I spoke a little Silesian when I was young, but now I dont have anyone who knows it to speak to. I live in Scotland where I have lots of Polish contact, including my partner Kasia, but nobody speaks Silesian.

Give German lands back, then okay.

I never heard of this Germanic Language before,either.

As a Dutch person I did and was quite surprised by it. There were whol parts that were fully understandable to me, but then I do also have the advantage of speaking English and German also and my German seems to sound more Pommeranian.

Yes, I could see some similarities with Slovak pronunciation, and this explains some of the stuff I did not get.

Great comment! As a Pole I was criminally unaware of this stuff!

It shifted earlier and the reason you hear it in movies was because actors had to learn to speak like that.

That's why I love old movies, they're a source of historical information.

Yes, it used to be an L.

@@DogDogGodFog A "dark L" as it is called, and actually appears as a variant of L in some dialects of English, including American English.

@@brumm3653 yes exactly. In fact Ł used to be the same sound as English "L" (like in the word "Bald")

I am on the opposite side, except for the subtitles for the old lady, the written texts were easy to me, like 80%. Yet the old lady I did not understand speaking nor reading, only "45" and "communists".

Got to agree there. Then again I got the same issue with "regional" spellings within germany as well. Much easier to understand what someone is saying in their strong regional dialect, if I don't have the written version there.

An unnecessary divide? These people have lived in Polish lands for centuries, of course they will be more integrated into Polish spelling than other Germanic languages. Their alphabet is an essential part of the culture that we should preserve, not change, just because it stands out

@@hiram1096this German here thinks these people should have their unnecessary divide with their neighbours

@@hiram1096 my understanding is that this official spelling is a new phenomenon and part of the revitalisation efforts. Thus, I would certainly question if it’s an integral part of their culture. In fact, some older texts shown in the video are much closer to German spelling conventions. In the end, it comes down to the question whether to prioritise somewhat easier learning (given that almost all learners are bilingual or L2 speakers) or keeping ties with the sister language German (the great degree of mutual intelligibility is strongly diminished by this kind of spelling).

I have seen Frisian change in the last 50 years, also the dialects. It's a natural thing (although not always a good thing)

Brilliant: they will create new words and revitalise it.

@@YnseSchaap Adapt or die

@@benjaminbittle8192 😁

What language is it, if I may ask?

@@gustavttt4148 Why on earth would you think Gaelic? It's hardly a seriously at-risk language, with tens of thousands of active users, thousands of books and resources, being taught in schools, supported by local governments...

@@chukstristan3605 Is there a term for this phenomenon of people being taught that their heritage language is inferior and having internalized the indoctrination?

@@randallb2179 I have no idea. I was just curious to know what language it was exactly but I suppose that's private for you.

When my family visited Canada in the 90s, we actually met some Alsatian speakers. They actuslly had a club meeting at a cafe we were visiting and when they noticed we struggled with English and were talking German amongst ourselves, they approached us and invited us to their table. Eveb though the dialect was very different to Standard German and our own dialect, we could actually understand each other as long as we spoke slowly. They were as interested in our lives as we were in theirs and it was one of the best experiences of our trip.

In case that "Wendisch" you talk about is just an other word for "Sorbisch", then yes, it still exists. Wikipedia says there are around 20k speakers, lower Sorbisch seems to die out rather soon, while upper Sorbish "probably will survive the 21 century".

Dude from Saxony here. The Sorbians live here in the eastern part. Most of them are catholic, while while in in Brandenburg they have been Lutherians. If I remember right, you can study the Language in Leipzig.

Thanks for you reply and interest.@@KurtKind

It sounds like a Dutch with heavy Polish influences and uses the Polish alphabet, so it is like a language from an alternative reality, that we Poles actually would like for obvious reasons ;) BTW. German has an auxiliary language status in Poland

@@Pandzikizlasu80 I'm not surprised that German has an official status. In many people's minds in that part of Europe WWI & II were regarded as anomolies. For centuries being regarded as an educated/cultured person pretty much required study of German as it was the most popular second langoage through most of Europe. Even today struggnig wiith German is a good way to avoid the 'dumb American tourist' classification.

​@@ak5659 french was the most common 2nd language in europe till ww2, english has taken that place..

@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 German has been a rather important language in things of science, also I could imagine it being way more popular in eastern Europe than French - for obviuos reasons.

@@aramisortsbottcher8201 no french was dominant until really the spread of communisim in the ussr. Germany was 2nd after french but right up until ww1 french was king. The russian educated classes and even german ruling elite spoke french, it was a standard topic in many schools, germany was common because of german migrant populations in eastern europe. People even went to german states to study french, greek and latin. Thwts why your passport use to be in french... German was like a trade and business language in these eastern lands but any educated person knew french.. If for nothing else that to show they could.

Totally argree

Yes. Before the post-WW2 relocations, such dialects and languages were generally a smooth west-to-east gradient (west = more german, east = more polish). Same for Polish and Ukrainian/Belarusian - in the border regions, there used to be tons of dialects that mixed the languages together (west = more polish, east = more ukrainian/belarusian).

it’s not really a seperate language

I think, W and CH is where the resemblance with German stop. :) And at that, CH is not limited to German. An average German will hardly be able to read a short Polish sentence.

@@williammkydde there's more similarities actually. Poland imported Germanic people by millions for half of its history, there's lots of loan words, similar conventions in grammar, etc. Regarding orthography - Polish script uses "j" for English "y" sound - just like German. The letter "y" works like in German - it's a vowel and it's pronounced the same. In fact when I think about it - all vowels that we share - are pronounced the same as in German. The only exceptions are umlauts (we don't have them) and nasal ą/ę (you don't have them). Speaking German is much easier for Poles than English - I'm using English for over 25 years at this point and my pronuciation still sucks, I only learned German for 3 years in high school 20 years ago, and I almost never used it in practice, but my German pronunciation is much better than my English pronuciation. I lack vocabulary and at this point probably wouldn't be able to talk about anything other than hi/bye but I can pronounce anything German you throw at me :) BTW the importing of Germanic people (we called them niemcy = "mutes" - now it's the word for Germans, but back then anybody not Slavic was "mute") is very visible still. Near my city of Lublin there's a town called "Niemcy" and near it there's a village "Dys" :)

@@williammkydde I was also like that, until I started archive studies on the uni. And boy, oh boy, do these late medieval/early modern writing practises on documents in German have the obvious influence on Polish ortography. Like, did you know that Germans used to spell their current "tsch" as "cz" (well, it visually looks closer to c3 than cz, but still)?

@@aminadabbrulle8252 Germany was not a political entity. I am no specialist in German, but there was no central authority and no standard spelling. Customs could vary from region to region, and between Hoch and Platt. I have a book printed in 1615, with "Teutsch" clearly spelled as such. I can't deny your experience or the German influence at large (e.g., the first evangelizing clerics in Poland must have been Germans or, maybe, Czechs - I don't know), but with Polish, the W seems like the only credible borrowing.

@@MrOdrzut But you know that Y in Polish marks the same sound as Ы and И in Russian and Ukrainian. In German, this sound does not exist, and Y is pronounced as in ancient Greek, like ü - and this ü sound does not exist in Polish. The J marks the "yot" sound [j] in all European languages, except English, French and Spanish. It's a medieval development of the "i" and until mid-17th century it alternated freely with the "i". And then J was confirmed as a separate letter and reintroducted into the modern Latin abc. CH was used in Latin long ago to transcribe the Greek [X]. So, apart from the W for [v], the rest of resemblances may not have German as sole source, and there are also numerous differences. It is true that I am not familiar with the Polish medieval or early modern orthography, but we are discussing the current status, and in the current status, W is all I can see. The W seems to be a Germanic creation, because it did not even exist in French printing shops in the 17th century.

I asked my cousins about it when I was in Poland. Only a few had heard of it.

Dopiero dziś o tym języku słyszałem.

Wątpię większość ma nawet problem żeby posługiwać się poprawnie ojczystym językiem. Co dopiero taki wymierający dialekt

Really? Forefaters of Hungarians? Not at all in any level.

They were lucky that they did not end up in Siberia, like the Poles who did not agree to the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, carried out by the Germans (Austria, Prussia) and Catherine (German Tsarina of Russia) in cooperation with Kosher Nostra and corrupt magnates in the 18th century.

They were lucky not to come under Hunnic rule, like the Germanic tribes native to that area since 2000 years ago.

They deserved it. No regrets.

@@misiek_xp4886 Everyone? Women , children too? Rapes were deserved?

​@@misiek_xp4886and you guys also deserve 0 reperations. Luckily every german agrees on that even our dumb politicians ❤😂

It's just better. Cope and seethe ;)

​@@MatthewsPersonalno it's not

@@MatthewsPersonal nah, the english W sound is just unnecessary.

@@MatthewsPersonali think the english W sound is better represented by a different letter, maybe the old english rune wynn (ƿ)

Yeah, I come from southern Germany and it really sounded somewhat similar to Austro-Bavarian, but also the east-prussian dialect I only know from old recordings.

@@silphonym interesting - because I had the same thoughts. As a German speaker I had propblems following the lady in the language sample, but some features reminde me of Bavarian and the intonation of people from former East Prussia ( I had neighbors born there).

Being a Bavarian, it did not sound Bavarian to me.

Right. German has a free word order aswell due to its retained case system. Has nothing to do with slavic influences.

Kashubian is like 90% intelligible with Polish tho, it's clearly a Slavic language. This is clearly Germanic.

Of course German dialects used in the province of East Prussia had nothing in common with the Prussian language.

Why is it called "Afrikaans"? 😂😂😂😂

@@GreoGreo Dunno google it

@@GreoGreo Cause it developed in Africa.....

Poland is fascinating, I hope you go there and have a great time.

Yes, it is. One thing about Poland is that for most of its history it was more liberal than most of its contemporaries. There were exceptions but generally: - The Polish language was a required subject in schools but otherwise there linguistic minorities were left alone. - When minorities were kicked out of other European countries, Poland welcomed them (Jews) or at least tolerated them (Roma). - Poland hired/recruited a large number of Tartar solders who were Muslim in the 1300/1400's to help them repel repeated Mongol invasions. In exchange for their service they were offered deeded land in sparsely populated eastern lands. Poland followed through and that's how Poland got such a large population of Muslims compared to other European countries. Fun facts: - There were enough Muslims in Poland that enough emigrated to the US that TODAY there's a still POLISH MOSQUE in Brooklyn, NY, established in 1928. - I've read speculaton that one of reasons Hitler had such hatred for Poland was that Poland had so many Jews, Roma, & Muslims and the society worked. Note: When I say these positve things I'm talking as compared to other countries and according to the standards of the time, NOT by today's standards.

I am jealous as an English speaker that you guys get all the fun at actually understanding other Germanic language

@@pxolqopt3597 I've spent the last 4-5 years studying German. It is worth it my friend.

@@pxolqopt3597 Then go listen to an Irishman, a Scotsman, or a Jamaican talking.

@@kekeke8988 It's quite weird with English speakers in general. They seem to hold on very vastly to their own dialect of speaking. I'm saying this as an Australian born English speaker. Well known are the disputes between 'American' English and 'English'. And then there's the Australian/New Zealand and Souyh Africans forms and above all not to forget all the regional differences which make some dialects nearly impossible to understand. If that is not enough, because of the international character of English, there's a whole host of non English speakers now speaking English and adding to the whole concoction. I have now learned to let go of holding on to the strict speaking rules and concentrate on what is being said, not on how it is said. That makes it much easier to understand others and opens up worlds that would otherwise be closed.

​@@pxolqopt3597 My man just study Dutch. It's actually one of if not the easiest languages for an English speaker, it's SO COOL and I love speaking it and reading it and even dreaming in it. I took it in university in the USA and now I live in the Netherlands. You really just have to take the plunge. All Germanic languages are beautiful (yes, even, no, especially Danish)

As another German, you certainly picked up more than I did 😂 I tried reading and listening at the same time but the foreign polish alphabet threw me way off. I listened to it for a second without reading and then I understood some more of it. I think if I focused more, I'd definitely grasp it because it does sound similar to German in its own way. I got the first part, was lost in the middle, and picked up again at the end. I'm happy some German languages still exist in Poland because up until now, I figured they were completely destroyed

Yup, we have no word for toe. It really is just 'foot finger'.

@@DogDogGodFog does that ever disturb you? I don't know, I find that vaguely disturbing 😂

@@EinDeutscherPatriot620 Nah.

An old priest in my parents' village still talks like that :)

@@MrOdrzut Cool, also Lithuanian Poles do that, even young ones.

His video is called "Who were the Olęders? / Dutch colonies in Poland" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-urdVabLDH1k.htmlsi=8pfyKHxDIlSdZx8Z

Wilamowice is not Podbeskidzie, it is part of the so-called Silesian Country or Land of Oswiecim.

​@@times4937it's a bit fluid. Duchy of Oświęcim area (encompassing most of what we now call "Podbeskidzie" or Bielsko-Biała area) was one of Silesian states and was still considered as Silesian during Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as it belonged to the Silesian County (powiat śląski) of Kraków Voivodeship. Nowadays however the "Silesian identity" is practically extinct in the area, and people consider themselves Góral or Lesser Polish. Some people from Żywiec are even offended when they are called Silesian.

Kashubian is a distinct language and not a germanic dialect though

@@fabiowodczynski5602 Thanks for this rectification and elucidation.

" Silezia...This region was german a long time ago. " For a long time, not ago; or are 115 (Upper) or 78 (Lower) years a long time in that context?

@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 : yeah...just rough estimates, i didnt look up...or have an idea of how the amount of years fares in context of language transitions. havent been back since i left....so i care just enough....but not much. thought it was worth sharing.

Yes, many Frisians and Flems settled Silesia and assimilated into Germandom, hence the Flemish influences in the language, but Silesia was always a diverse region, and where this village was located, they also got many Indigenous Silesians and Polish influcnes

@@heartsofiron4ever : Bytom in Silesia is where i was born and spent ten years before eloping to Austria and became refugees, and ended up in Australia. i remember that Bytom was a coal town. in kinder on coal miners day we'd dress up in kid sized fancy dress coalminers wore on that day. A nice day to celebrate coal miners, because probably every other working day in the year would have been dirty hard work below ground. i had no clue at that early age that i had a collapsed lung at age 2, treatments in salt mist rehabilitation centre, thanks to the pollution from coal. thankfully i fully recovered. as i later in life found out, whilst i was at salt mist rehab, at age 4, my parents were on their way to visit me, on a bus, which slipped and turned over (in winter) and almost went over a cliff. good old days..because we didnt die. life is like a box of chocolates, that ants got into.

Interesting, is it in Latvia?

@@googleiscool2037 yes

Sorry for replying only now, but hell yes, I absolutely love Livonian everything and I will eventually make a video about it, but it’s one of those things that I really want to put in the effort into and give it the quality it deserves. Coming in 3022.

@@imshawngetoffmylawn We'll be under the grave by that time💀💀