The are classified under the West
Slavic branch of the
Indo-European Languages . They are the native languages of the
Sorbian People , a Slavic minority in eastern
Germany . The language has also historically been known as '''Wendish''' or '''Lusatian'''. Their collective
ISO 639 -2 code is
wen.
There are two literary languages: (''hornjoserbsce''), spoken by about 55,000 people in
Saxony , and '''
Lower Sorbian ''' (''dolnoserbski'') spoken by about 14,000 people in
Brandenburg . The area where the two languages are spoken is known as
Lusatia (''Łužica'' in Upper Sorbian, ''Łužyca'' in Lower Sorbian, or ''Lausitz'' in
German ).
Both languages have
Dual Grammatical Number ; they are among the very few living
Indo-European Languages to retain this feature (the other being
Slovenian ). The dual is used when exactly two people or things are meant and is in addition to
Singular and
Plural .
In Germany Upper and Lower Sorbian are officially recognized and protected as minority languages.
The city of
Bautzen near
Dresden is a centre of Upper Sorbian culture. Notable is the fact that bilingual signs can be seen around the city including the name of the city itself at the railway station given as 'Bautzen/Budyšin'.
The city of
Cottbus (Chóśebuz) is considered the cultural centre of Lower Sorbian; here too bilingual signs are found.
Sorbian is also spoken in the small Wendish settlement of
Serbin in
Lee County, Texas , and until recently newspapers were published in Wendish there. It has been heavily influenced by surrounding speakers of
German and
English .
