At the peace of Prague, A.D.
1636, it was allotted to Saxony. At the congress of Vienna in 1815, it
was assigned, with the exception of the smaller half of Upper Lusatia,
to Prussia, to which monarchy it still belongs.
1. _Language of the Sorabians in Upper Lusatia_.
The cities of Bautzen, Zittau, Kamenz, Loebau, and their districts,
form the Saxon part of Upper Lusatia. Of its 195,000 inhabitants,
about the fourth or fifth part still speak the Vendish language. In
the north-eastern part of Upper Lusatia, which belongs to Prussia,
there is about the same proportion of Vendish inhabitants. In both
territories the whole number of Vendes is about 100,000. Their
language is very nearly related to the Bohemian; where the Sorabians
of Lower Lusatia and the Poles pronounce the letter _h_, the Upper
Lusatians and Bohemians give the sound of _g_. Both Lusatian dialects
have of course lost very many of their original peculiarities; thus
both have adopted the article from the German language.
The Reformation exhibited here, as every where, its favourable
influence on the vernacular language. The bishops of Meissen, to
whose diocese Lusatia belonged, had indeed repeatedly admonished the
priests and curates, to whose care the spiritual welfare of the poor
Slavic Lusatians was intrusted, to learn the language of the people;
but no particular pains was taken; and the Romish clergy, who spoke of
the natives with the utmost contempt, were quite satisfied to hear the
people say _Amen_ and _Kyrie Eleison_ after their own Latin prayers.
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