The World's Most Endangered Germanic Language - Wymysorys

Sources/Further reading:
- Awakening the Language and Speakers’ Community of Wymysiöeryś. 2017. Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ,Tymoteusz Król and Justyna Olko. Cambridge University Press.
- A grammar of Wymysorys. 2016. Alexander Andrason & Tymoteusz Król. Duke University. Slavic and East European Language Resource Center - SEELRC
- Some considerations on the origins of Wymysorys. 2012. Carlo Ritchie. The University of Syndey.
- Central Europe’s Most Mysterious Language. 2016. Mikolaj Glinski. Culture.pl.
- Revitalization1 KZbin Channel (kzbin.info...)
- Endangered languages. Comprehensive models for research and revitalization project.
(www.revitalization.al.uw.edu.pl)
+ Omniglot.com + Wikipedia

[@leonardomontauti7072]

Let me introduce you to another endangered language which I happen to (kind of) speak and that I'm trying to save from extinction: pretarolo, a language spoken in a small town of (not joking) 28 residents in the mountains of Abruzzo (Italy). The only proficient speakers are 70+ years old and being one of the youngest (if not the youngest) speaker of the language, (which is almost not documented at all on the internet apart from a couple of videos and two books) I feel like I must at least try to save my language, but I don't have much experience, so I try as best as I can with the tools I have, which now are just practice and a notebook. I hope that I'll be able to find more people that speak endangered languages like mine that could share some of their tips on how to try to save languages like pretarolo from complete extinction, and maybe this comment could help Edit: thanks to everyone who gave tips or just took the time to read my comment! I really appreciate every single one of you and I'll try as best as I can to answer to your questions regarding my language!

[@oldtimetinfoilhatwearer]

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

[@vladivostok853]

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

[@user-dv7nm4dj2f]

@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

[@epicguy2717]

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

[@Gaizaz]

Can you give a few phrases or sentences of Pretarolo?

[@MrSuperwim]

I speak both Dutch and German and the language sounds like a Flemish person trying to speak Low-Saxon, this is truly a fascinating language!

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

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

[@BajanEnglishman51]

Dutch is a German dialect lol

[@roddbroward9876]

@@BajanEnglishman51 Nope

[@Sqk.]

@@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.

[@robert9016]

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

[@CookieFonster]

Whenever I read about an endangered language, it almost always turns out that the language didn't naturally decline, but instead its speakers were forced at one point or another to speak a different language, and were punished for using their own language. From then on, it's a monumental task to undo all the damage. This is even true in places like Ireland, where the government heavily encourages speaking Irish. But it seems like there is hope for this obscure language!

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

*stares in Indigenous North American* yup

[@decgal81]

​@@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.

[@guppy719]

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.

[@Dragoncam13]

​@@guppy719yep

[@headstanding_Penguin]

​@@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)

[@Embassy_of_Jupiter]

The only reason why this is getting a status as a language is because it is an enclave in Poland. If it was in Germany it would just quietly die out as a "dialect". In Austria we have many such ""dialects"" that are in reality just completely different languages. We have a village that has a completely different unintelligable dialect to everyone else. All of them are slowly and quitly dying out for the last 100 years or so. Once the last generations that were born before the end of WW2 die out, most of them will be virtually extinct, because most of us young people speak "TV Standard German" or English most of the time. I guess it is the same all over Germany and really just the world.

[@kwj_nekko_6320]

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.

[@rorychivers8769]

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...

[@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite]

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

[@TheSpecialJ11]

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.

[@rorychivers8769]

@@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?

[@user-zz7gi2fj9h]

The world keeps coming up with surprises. I never thought that I'd discover a living Germanic language I didn't heard of. Wow

[@Felixxxxxxxxx]

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

[@jout738]

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.

[@jout738]

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

[@cerebrummaximus3762]

​@@jout738 That's a bit rude

[@cedrickropp]

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.

[@ekesandras1481]

From a Transylvanian German point of view, what this woman spoke in the clip sounded somehow similar to Transylvanian Landerlish, an old Austrian dialect spoken only in three villages here in Romania. I didn't hear the Flamish/Dutch part, which would be closer to Transylvania Saxon.

[@telebubba5527]

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.

[@emilsoberbro36]

I'm from Poland and I never heard of this!! Keep it alive .. what an interesting story

[@davidtkocz8356]

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.

[@BartoszSewerynWilk]

@@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.

[@davidtkocz8356]

@@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.

[@SchmulKrieger]

Give German lands back, then okay.

[@derlingerardclair6252]

I never heard of this Germanic Language before,either.

[@void6623]

10:56 Because A) Polish L-vocalization of Ł i.e. Ł shift from /ɫ/ to /w/ fully became standard speech in XIX-XX century (some Poles did use it earlier - but it was considered "peasant speech"). Before that common realization (and until middle of XX century proper realization - although often mixed alongside improper /w/) was /ɫ/ (i.e dark Ł vs light L). B) Polish writing of Ł dates to XV-XVI century. C) Polish case system often shifts L and Ł. And in case of Wymysorys: A) German also uses W as /v/ B) Look how Wymysorys uses Ł - eng.alone vs ałan - it is etymologically more sensible to use Ł.

[@annepoitrineau5650]

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

[@yoghass]

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

[@BartoszSewerynWilk]

Ł used to be a different sound - same as east slavic Л. It only shifted in 20th century. Some elder people still pronounce it differently and you can hear it in older movies etc.

[@ohajohaha]

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

[@WedsleyFelix]

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

[@DogDogGodFog]

Yes, it used to be an L.

[@brumm3653]

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

[@BartoszSewerynWilk]

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

[@niknitro8751]

For my Austrian Ears this sounds like a mix of an Austrian(Bavarian) and Allemannic dialect. Very similar to Jiddish and quite easy to understand if I listen closely.

[@loveandmercy9664]

I just discovered this channel today and I am hooked. It would be interesting to a video on German speakers in Canada. The Alsatian dialect of German in Eastern France and spoken by many in Ontario for generations. Aramaic spoken in Detroit from the Assyrian and Chaldean Christian communites. I recently interview a Chaldean poet from there who gave us interesting history lesson and its use within the local community.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

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.

[@ak5659]

Have you looked at the revival of Frisian? Apparently it's been fairly successful but the young folk talking among themselves have caused a major dialect implosion.

[@YnseSchaap]

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

[@annepoitrineau5650]

Brilliant: they will create new words and revitalise it.

[@benjaminbittle8192]

@@YnseSchaap Adapt or die

[@YnseSchaap]

@@benjaminbittle8192 😁

[@schmitzkatzewupper]

Das war echt interessant. Wuppertaler-platt, ist auch ein Dialekt der verloren geht.

[@randallb2179]

"For some, this has resulted in lifelong fear of speaking their native tongue." That resonates with me. Let's just say I have a friend. His ancestral and native tongue, while nowhere near extinction at this moment, has been... let's just say facing some pressures. He grew up regularly told that his native tongue is "vulgar" or "unfit for the educated". Now he's working to help preserve it, studying to become a linguist and having produced over one million words of writings in his native tongue (writing in this language has been discouraged). Yet, sometimes, when outsiders ask about his heritage language and culture, he feels discomfort and doesn't want to talk, as if his native tongue is something to be ashamed of.

[@chukstristan3605]

What language is it, if I may ask?

[@hellfirepictures]

@@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...

[@randallb2179]

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

[@chukstristan3605]

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

[@baumgrt]

As a German speaker, the orthography is probably the most crazy part about this language for me. With the Germanic languages I don’t speak, like Dutch or Norwegian, it’s usually easier to understand the written language than hearing it spoken. Here, it’s the complete opposite because they use basically Polish spelling conventions, maybe inspired by other regional languages like Kashubian or Silesian. I could follow the elderly lady to a large extent, but was completely lost once I looked at the captions. While this makes the language more accessible to bilingual speakers or Polish languages learners, it certainly also creates an artificial and unnecessary divide, and more or less cuts the speakers off from the rest of the German-/Germanic-speaking world.

[@aramisortsbottcher8201]

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".

[@lamename2010]

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.

[@hiram1096]

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

[@Zzzooooppp]

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

[@baumgrt]

@@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).

[@mastercrazyyyd7699]

I haven‘t thought of Wymysorys language in a long time, I hope their language can survive.

[@orglancs]

Many years ago I used to live in a house in London where there was an elderly couple in a flat upstairs who spoke Yiddish together. These short extracts sound quite like their Yiddish. I am familiar with Germanic languages, but have not heard of this one before. Another language enclave I know of but rarely hear mentioned is Wendisch, a slavonic language spoken in eastern Germany. Does that still exist? Thanks for this very interesting bit of history.

[@aramisortsbottcher8201]

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".

[@KurtKind]

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.

[@orglancs]

Thanks for you reply and interest.@@KurtKind

[@oreoresti6265]

Για σου μεγάλε! I just finished going through your backlog after discovering your channel from Reddit, fascinating stuff! You have a good attitude and a lot of potential. I’m excited to see what’s to come!

[@magebrin]

So glad to have found your channel mate, thank you kindly

[@paulbennett7021]

I hope Wymysorys has a future.

[@dylanmosley6237]

I just watched your video about Elfdalian, then remember that there was a video floating around about an obscure German dialect that I had been meaning to watch. It was such a pleasant surprise to realize that you were the one who posted that video as well ! I love that you produce some of the best language content, in my opinion !

[@theChaosKe]

If you look at all the east central german dialects they kind of form a spectrum between germanic and slavic influences from west to east, with thuringian having the least slavic influences, upper saxon having a few and silesian german having quite a bit. This seems to be even one step further from silesian german on that spectrum.

[@KurtKind]

Totally argree

[@DogDogGodFog]

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).

[@sethaniel1]

And I thought Texasdeutch was the most endangered of the German languages! I am glad to have learned something today.

[@tirididjdjwieidiw1138]

it’s not really a seperate language

[@JorgeGarcia-lw7vc]

Beautiful. A treasure to keep alive. Great video.

[@forademapapodcast8381]

Congrats for the video and your content!

[@howtoappearincompletely9739]

That was absolutely enthralling. Subscribed.

[@osiekoskowska]

I had no idea about this language and im from Poland 🤦 I hope it'll become more popular knowledge especially amog Poles.

[@ak5659]

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

[@modmaker7617]

Dopiero dziś o tym języku słyszałem.

[@user-yb8nv3sb6u]

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

[@henningbartels6245]

The part about the word order @9:30 is not quiet true: Having a lot of grammar (cases and endings) showing the relation between words German is far less strict with word order than e.g. English. The examples shown in Wymysorian make perfect sense in standard German and do not necessarily reflect Polish. These types of sentences could be easily found in other spoken German dialects.

[@aminadabbrulle8252]

10:55 Simple. Polish alphabet is heavily based on the German one, and in there, w also means the "v" sound. Also, ł was initially a "dark l" sound, like in Eastern Slavic languages, and only changed into the "w" sound later.

[@williammkydde]

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.

[@MrOdrzut]

@@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" :)

[@aminadabbrulle8252]

@@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)?

[@williammkydde]

@@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.

[@williammkydde]

@@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.

[@valerjanus]

Excellent research!

[@yantar1279]

Polish not being French and preserving a language that reminds of German wow :o

[@Pandzikizlasu80]

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

[@ak5659]

@@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.

[@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367]

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

[@aramisortsbottcher8201]

@@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.

[@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367]

@@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.

[@j.d.4697]

As descendant of Celts who is fluent in German, I am happy to see the revival of the language and culture. And I have to say, to me, the German dialect it phonetically sounds the most similar to, would be from somewhere in the south, such as Bavarian.

[@silphonym]

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.

[@henningbartels6245]

@@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).

[@bernhardschmalhofer855]

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

[@63hunky]

Wonderful. Thank you!

[@mysteriousDSF]

Love your channel. I'm extremely enthusiastic about endangered languages. I'm the Hungarian guy who commented your videos a number of times already. I'm extremely concerned about Nganasan as I see them as the forefathers of the Hungarians and other language revitalisation efforts I also cherish because I'm sti hoping that Nganasan won't go extinct and its numbers will restart growing 💗💕😗😙😘💋😚

[@varjovirta3085]

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

[@dactylntrochee]

I'm new to you, but this is sure a wonderful find. Thanks. I hope there will be others.

[@PaulVegan]

Very interesting. Thank you for making this video.

[@billbirkett7166]

It was probably confused with other East Prussian Low German dialects, and not recognized as being apart from any type of German, in the same way that Elfdalian/älvdalska in Sweden was not recognized as apart from the other Dalarna dialects until VERY recently. The fact that the elderly woman speaker said words like 'dö', 'grod', and 'dos' reminds me that it's more likely that this was from the contact with standard German as a dachsprache, not that it was particularly closer to High German than say, High German is to Frisian. If it were in any way related to Low German, it would likely have words like 'dat/dot' and 'wat/wot', rather than words ending in 's'. We also shouldn't discount the possibility that there may have been an old substrate of lost East Germanic dialects descended from Gothic, as was the case with the old Gutnish language spoken on the island of Gotland in Sweden.

[@xxxxxx400]

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

[@PalCabral]

Really interesting. And I was so close to the town last year. Had I known! Thanks.

[@WasaWasabiWasa]

The way the grammar is constructed reminds me a little bit of Kashubian which is also a bit in-between being Germanic and Slavic.

[@MrOdrzut]

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

[@sturlamolden]

Proto-Germanic also has a relative free word order, as is also seen in Old Norse. It might not be slavic influence but an archaism.

[@Hild1]

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

[@DeusExDraconian]

To say relocated to Germany around WW2 is an understatement. Approximately 12 millions Germans were forcibly expelled across Eastern Europe into the modern day borders of Germany and only about 8 million of them are accounted for. It's a miracle the Soviets and their ilk missed these people.

[@polishgigachad7097]

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.

[@dittmannrudolfrohr2149]

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

[@misiek_xp4886]

They deserved it. No regrets.

[@dittmannrudolfrohr2149]

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

[@swagkachu3784]

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

[@Hild1]

Very fascinating, thanks for sharing! One thing I'd like to clarify is that German doesn't have a rigid word order. That's because German has retained its case system which allows for a rather free word order that makes it possible to put emphasis differently on a certain part of the sentence. For example you could say: "Ich esse gerne Käse." Or: "Ich esse Käse gerne." Or: "Käse esse ich gerne." Or: "Gerne esse ich Käse." Any of those sentences means: "I like to eat cheese." So it's very similar to, e.g., Russian (but if you put the predicate on the beginning, that declarative sentence becomes a direct yes-no-question in German while in Russian this still could be a declarative sentence and turning it into a question solely depends on intonation. In German you can do yes-no-questions both ways, via word order or intonation. Instead of a question it can also be a strong exclamation when accentuated accordingly: "Esse ich gerne Käse!" But it can't be a regular declarative sentence with the predicate on the first place of the sentence). Since Wymysorys is also a case based language, this in itself - and not some Polish influence - seems to be the reason why Wymysorys has a freer word order than most other modern Germanic languages.

[@cuprite3430]

This is so interesting, great video

[@saskiaviking9447]

Great video

[@zalba5710]

The fact this got recommended to me is really funny as I once met tym in a bar and never realized how important he was for his language.

[@katii1997]

As a nativ german speaker. i was a bit confused with the woman talking. first time i listend i only understood some words here and there. second time i listend i understood some sentences. and the context of what they were talking about. reading the subtitles also helped a little bit. in generall it sounds like a non native speaker with a very strong accent that doesn't know german well is trying to speak german. but not standart/high german but a german dialect that i myself don't speak/ don't hear often. (if that makes sense)

[@AlbySilly]

I wish my mom's parents were still alive, they spoke a dialect of Swedish called "bondska" (not sure if it's a dialect or a separate language) which roughly translates into the language of the farmers. I just remember a few words like "nalta" meaning "a little" of something, and "vors jer" which means "where is..." and "fuse" which means a stable or barn. This is most likely not the way to spell these things as I only heard it as a spoken language, but if they were alive for 5 or 10 more years, I would've tried learning their dialect

[@user-fc7is6jo2e]

Very interesting! Thank You!

[@michealmacgearailt8232]

Another great vid

[@panadocoughsyrup]

As an Afrikaans speaker, I’m always very interested to know about other lesser known Germanic languages

[@GreoGreo]

Why is it called "Afrikaans"? 😂😂😂😂

[@panadocoughsyrup]

@@GreoGreo Dunno google it

[@goodiesohhi]

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

[@fredericjanelle]

Très intéressant, merci!

[@onlyagermanguy]

East Frisian Language is also extremly endagered only being spoken by around 2000 Thousand People in the Saterland.

[@kacperwoch4368]

Do you have a problem with how Polish uses the letter W? Or German for that matter? Is there really a legit reason why English usage should be the correct one?

[@MatthewsPersonal]

It's just better. Cope and seethe ;)

[@user-yb8nv3sb6u]

​@@MatthewsPersonalno it's not

[@MatthiasPilz]

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

[@arrow4749]

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

[@dungcheeseMORK999]

I now have a reason to visit Poland, besides to just see the country.

[@davidtkocz8356]

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

[@rafalkaminski6389]

The thing is you look on the polish orthography from the english perspective, but you forget that once in english w was pronounced just like w :)

[@SgtRocko]

Yiddish is my first/native language, and we speak it at home. Thanks to my mother being from Danzig, I also speak Kashubian. Thanks to those 2 languages, when the lady was speaking, I could catch a few words, but admit I couldn't understand even the gist of what she was saying.. The SOUND of the language, though - it sounds just like Yiddish, not German. Like if someone is speaking in another room and you hear them speaking but can't hear what they're saying. This is fascinating, I would love to learn more about it.

[@haraldharaldson1563]

1:56 Fun Fact, Wilamowian isn't most endangered. There's still few people who know Halcnowian, wchich you can see in this map, one i have met in personal. If you think language that isn't used to communication no more but still are people who know it then you should be interested. By the way i'm from Hałcnów and have family in Wilamowice.

[@julesgosnell9791]

I very much enjoyed this - you have my subscription :-)

[@jahanas22]

I think it's a fascinating language. I had read about it online and looked at that grammar.

[@mastercrazyyyd7699]

Wow, listening to that was so interesting. I speak German and could pick up words that shared many similarities, it was just nearly intelligible. Yet what put me off was the script being so unlike any Germanic language I have studied.

[@pxolqopt3597]

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

[@mastercrazyyyd7699]

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

[@kekeke8988]

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

[@telebubba5527]

@@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.

[@asaasa7900]

​@@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)

[@ppenmudera4687]

'Germanic languages tend to have a rigit word order' Dutch be like 'yeah I pretend to have SVO word order but in reality you can kinda do whatever, specifically turn it into OVS when you feel like it'

[@arandomanvil5989]

I love when a language can prevail over tyranny and oppression.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

a lot of words in the poem are common in west flemmish but then again most are also common in german so it seems to indeed be a bit of everything, but there are quite a few such mixed languages in europe

[@ajrollo1437]

Polish history is.....interesting.

[@ak5659]

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.

[@5eA5]

The ban lasted up to the 1980'ies, it was forbidden to speak any german in Poland. My granddads brother was in jail for shit like this.

[@amadeosendiulo2137]

The Polish Ł used to represent the dark L sound. It's audible in older films.

[@MrOdrzut]

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

[@amadeosendiulo2137]

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

[@Felixxxxxxxxx]

very interesting!

[@Fidwor]

For me as a North German speaker, it sounds like Bavarian or South German. The articles are also the same as in German for example Der Hals = Der Hałc. Also S´kni for das Knie is a very typical southern German style. They often use just S for the article Das like s´ Mädcha for das Mädchen. Surprisingly, some, albeit few, North German words also appear like Het for Head instead of the standart german word Kopf. I understand a lot, when its writen even almost all, but funny to me is that it seems like they dont have a word for toe, instead they use "der fyngjer ym füs", what means the finger on the feet.I think this was taken from Polish, as there is no word for toe there either. The Polish alphabet is a bit confusing so a C is spoken like a Ts, which would be a Z in German or Y would be an U but once you get this out, you understand everything that is written. As an example Heijn an cyryk would be Hin und zurück in german.

[@EinDeutscherPatriot620]

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

[@DogDogGodFog]

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

[@EinDeutscherPatriot620]

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

[@DogDogGodFog]

@@EinDeutscherPatriot620 Nah.

[@wantokamerica4105]

Fascinating! The number of speakers is similar to Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German) of Papua New Guinea, but the level of language revitalisation seems to be much more robust.

[@williammkydde]

That "Jasiu" in the lullaby is so Polish! BTW, "Król" reads as [krul] = könig. Another polonism. He's a hero.

[@persallnas5408]

Goog work dude

[@DerEchteBold]

That poem very much reminded me of how the stepmother of a friend of mine spoke. I have to ask my mother if she remembers were that woman came from.

[@euromayan]

Fascinating, as a history buff, I love obscure almost extinct languages and their history and present status. Can you look into old baltic prussian, not brandenburg German prussian. Who were they, who were they related to, writing system, and did it survive into today in some small village

[@Rockgamen]

this was really cool. An amaing story about how ordinary people have managed to save a piece of culture. And hearing that old woman speak was really interserting. As a native swedish speaker it sounded like someone with a smålänsk dialect and a german accent at the same time. I did not understand much but it felt like i should. it almost felt psycadelic.

[@Ennocb]

Considering the fact that Wymysorysz seems to have undergone the second Germanic consonant shift/High German consonant shift (slöf, not *slöp or skomma, not *tkomma, as would be expected in Ingvaeonic varieties) and its other features, Wymysorysz is probably most closely related to various Central German dialects. English and Frisian would appear a stretch to me. They may have migrated from there but it doesn't seem many distinct Ingvaeonic features have been retained. It is unlikely that this consonant shift is a Wymysorysz-specific innovation that played out just like the second Germanic one, though it could be a possibility. Notably, the "p" in "arpułn" has not shifted, but the etymological "p" in "kiöefa" has. The shift is not complete or only happened for specific sound constellations; something also found in Central German dialects or Luxemburgish for example. The examples of special word order in Wymysorysz are identical to regular word order found in Standard German. I would also like to point out that German word order is not rigid, although not as flexible as many Slavic word order systems. Yta ej der nökwer grod gykuma. Es ist der Nachbar gerade gekommen. Zy zuła arpułn kiöefa. Sie sollen (werden) Äpfel kaufen. [s] having shifted to [z] in "zy" and "zuła" reminds me of Low German and Dutch. This didn't happen in either Frisian nor English. Maybe a Central German dialect with Low German/Dutch influence. One has to consider that it has been situated there for some time. It would be interesting to know what was spoken around the municipality before Polish took over to compare some developments.

[@English-Mark]

Very Interesting.

[@gal749]

I thought this was a prank in the beginning, holy shit how have I not heard of this before. Thank you for bringing this language to light!

[@patrykn.5971]

I've been to Wilamowice many times making shopping, dining in restaurant or filling my car but I've never heard this language live. Moreover, few kilometres away lies Hałcnów with germanic Alzenauer language which was widely used before 1945. I heard that only 5 elder inhabitants can speak it today.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

OMG I'm so excited I found a new language nerd channel 😁. I never heard of this language...crazy

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

Thank you for showing a recording of living speakers

[@FynnDynamite]

Sehr spannend! Ich möchte diese Sprache lernen. Grüße ausm Erzgebirge. ❤️

[@kofgrep]

Of all Germanic dialects in Poland, I think that Silesian German and Kashubian have the largest percentage of native speakers.

[@fabiowodczynski5602]

Kashubian is a distinct language and not a germanic dialect though

[@kofgrep]

@@fabiowodczynski5602 Thanks for this rectification and elucidation.

[@KimKhan]

Have you ever considered making a video on the dialect rich areas of Swedish Angermannia/Ångermanland?

[@jensschroder8214]

The order of words is not as fixed in German as it is in English. Der Mann reitet das Pferd nach Hause. Das Pferd, das vom Mann nach Hause geritten wird. Nach Hause, wird das Pferd von dem Mann geritten. Nach Hause, wird vom Mann geritten, das Pferd

[@Lampchuanungang]

The sounds of this lang remembers me sound of gothic and baltic langs.

[@El_Presidente_5337]

8:23 There are definetly a few words that sound familiar and some that are really close to actual German. She also said "interessieren" which means to be interested.

[@axisboss1654]

I understand some of it, especially at the end when I could recognize the numbers

[@durium3113]

In English, the song the kids were singing is known as "The Drunkard's Song" and was a hit for Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees in 1934.

[@qtluna7917]

I think it's a language a native German speaker can reach passive fluency relatively easy. (The mangled word order is a bit unusual, but most of the words sound just like another German dialect)

[@Chris-op7yt]

dont be confused, V in polish is only ever referred to by the alphabet pronunciation "fau", borrowed to be able to spell foreign names/words. it's not used in any polish words, because it has w for that sound. polish also has no letter Q, as you can construct the many Q usage variations using K, Kju for example. It's not an exact science but generally slavic language pronunciation is a lot easier than say english, as their letter patterns have consistent pronunciation, whilst english is a mess.

[@Humble_Electronic_Musician]

Wow 🙂 Very informative

[@a.v.j5664]

Please talk about livonian, my favorite uralic language, and possibly my favorite in the whole world

[@googleiscool2037]

Interesting, is it in Latvia?

[@a.v.j5664]

@@googleiscool2037 yes

[@imshawngetoffmylawn]

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.

[@nukkonyan]

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

[@lujowa90]

I'm Austrian and I am used to the many many different dialects of German in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and speak English, Swedish as well as Serbo-Croatian and some basics in other Slavic and Romance languages. I've talked to the elderly people from the German Sprachinseln (= language islands or linguistic exclaves) in Italy (Sauris/Zahre) and in Slovenia (Kočevje/Gottschee) who were still able to recall their mother tongues and after a few sentences of tuning in we were usually able to communicate quite well. Those sounded in fact very much like this dialect, although I have never heard about Wymysorys before. While it took me a short while to understand everything the lady said, with the written text it is more than obvious that it is simply German with some slightly shifted pronounciation features.

[@brennanceltic]

I looked the language up and found a couple of poems. If you know Middle German and Yiddish, it's quite easy to understand, actually. (I'm a native German and Yiddish speaker).

[@marklisiecki5790]

Very interested:)

[@Mnkskanal]

@12:20 For a person who is speaking/understanding southern German dialects, the nursery rhyme at the end of the video translates easily to: Schlaf mein Bübla(frankonian dialect) fest, es kommen fremde Gäst' es kommen Muhmen(old german word for Aunt) und Vettern sie bringen Nüssla(frankonian again) und Äpfel(n) Schlaf mein Jesus fest. So I think this is a nursey rhyme for the Christmas time.

[@chefkochmurat2550]

This Language sounds like my great grandmother speaking her german village dialect without her dentures.

[@roddbroward9876]

How have I never heard about this? And it's crazy that they date back all the way to the Mongol invasion. I was expecting them to be one of those Oleder/Mennonite groups in Poland, and those are super old already.

[@einbatixx4874]

nice

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

8:50 I see little hints of Breton and/or Welsh or some Celtic influence. If they were from the Low countries originally this may be why.