Gottscheerish is a West Germanic language spoken in southern Slovenia, and also in the USA, Canada, Austria and Germany. The area of Slovenia where the language is spoken was formerly known as Gottschee, or Kočevsko in Slovenian. It is now known as the Municipality of Kočevje. It was settled between 1330 and 1400 by farmers from Carinthia and East Tyrol who spoke Southern Bavarian dialects and were known as Gottscheer Germans. Gottscheerish has much in common with Bavarian dialects of Carinthia in Austria, and also with Cimbrian, a Germanic language spoken in the northeast of Italy.
During the 19th century many Gottscheerish speakers emigrated to the USA, and many more were obliged to leave after Gottschee was occupied by Germans in 1941. After the Second World War, the Gottschee region became part of Yugoslavia, and the Gottscheerish language was banned.
Today the majority of Gottscheerish speakers live in Queens in New York City. There are also a few speakers in Slovenia, Canada, Austra and Germany. Most speakers are elderly, and the language is not being passed on to children in families anymore. The number of speakers is unknown.
Gottscheerish was not written until the 19th century, when collections of folk songs and stories were published in the language. There are a number of spelling system for the language developed by different writers.
Download an alphabet chart for Gottscheerish (Excel)
Bie wrüe işt auf dar Hanşel junc,
ar stéanot şmóaronş gûr wrüe auf,
ar legot şih gûr schíander ån,
ar géanot ahin of es kîrtàgle.
How early young Johnny is up,
He got up very early this morning,
He put on his fine clothes,
He went to the parish fair.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottscheerish
Information about Gottscheerish | Numbers in Gottscheerish
Information about Gottscheerish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottscheerish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottschee
http://www.gottscheenewyork.org/lessonsintro.html
http://tinyurl.com/yb95j6uv
http://tinyurl.com/ycybnmse/
Songs in Gottscheerish
http://www.gottschee.de/Dateien/Musik/Musik%20Y.htm
Afrikaans, Alsatian, Bavarian, Cimbrian, Danish, Dutch, Elfdalian, English, Faroese, Flemish, Frisian (East), Frisian (North), Frisian (Saterland), Frisian (West), German, Gothic, Gottscheerish, Gronings, Hunsrik, Icelandic, Limburgish, Low German, Luxembourgish, Mòcheno, Norn, Norwegian, Old English, Old Norse, Pennsylvania German, Ripuarian, Scots, Shetland(ic), Stellingwarfs, Swabian, Swedish, Swiss German, Transylvanian Saxon, Värmlandic, Wymysorys, Yiddish, Yola, Zeelandic
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 23.04.21
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