{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "two-cluster-of-slavs-in-germany-it-is-all-what-was-left-of-polabians", "title": "Two cluster of Slavs in Germany, it is all what was left of Polabians", "author": "Dominik Bąkowski", "author_handle": "dominik-bakowski", "author_initials": "DB", "covertext": "The Sorbs, who reside in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany, are a population isolate defined by their use of a West...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><strong>The Sorbs</strong>, who reside in the <strong>Lusatia region</strong> of <strong>eastern Germany,</strong> are a population isolate defined by their use of a West Slavic language (<strong>Sorbian</strong>) in an area with a majority of Germanic speakers.</p>\n\n<p>The degree of isolation is more remarkable when one considers the more eastward distribution of Germanic territory and people before World War I.</p>\n\n<p>There are presently <strong>25 000 Sorbian speakers</strong>, with <strong>18 000 being speakers of Upper Sorbian</strong> (which is closer to the Czech language) residing in the federal state of Saxony and <strong>7000 speakers of Lower Sorbian</strong> (closer to the Polish language) in the more northerly state of Brandenburg.</p>\n\n<p>One study of Sorbian populations describes their presence in present-day Germany as the result of an initial spread of <strong>numerous Slavic groups </strong>(collectively termed<strong> Polabians</strong>) westward from <strong>at least the 1st Century C.E.</strong></p>\n\n<p>The geographical origins of these Polabians are essentially unknown, but various authors have placed them in present-day Ukraine, southern Belarus, parts of Russia, southern Poland, and the Czech Republic.</p>\n\n<p><strong>From the 9th century forward</strong>, <strong>eastward expansions of Germanic populations </strong>resulted in the<strong> displacement</strong> or<strong> absorption </strong>of virtually all Polabians, <strong>with the exception of the ancestors of modern Sorbs.</strong> Sorbs remain culturally distinct from their Germanic-speaking neighbors, <strong>preserving much of their Slavic language and traditional customs.</strong></p>\n\n<p> <em>European Journal of Human Genetics (2011) <strong>19</strong>, 995–1001</em> </p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 5, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Two cluster of Slavs in Germany, it is all what was left of Polabians | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/two-cluster-of-slavs-in-germany-it-is-all-what-was-left-of-polabians", "og:title": "Two cluster of Slavs in Germany, it is all what was left of Polabians | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399124/conversions/image-cover.jpg" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Dominik Bąkowski", "handle": "dominik-bakowski", "author_initials": "DB", "total_books": 2, "total_clips": 4, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "map-of-slavs-500-ce", "title": "Map of Slavs 500 CE", "author": "Dominik Bąkowski", "author_handle": "dominik-bakowski", "author_initials": "DB", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399131/image.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399131/conversions/image-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 12, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Map of Slavs 500 CE | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/map-of-slavs-500-ce", "og:title": "Map of Slavs 500 CE | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399131/conversions/image-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "r1a-is-a-slavic-haplogroup-3969-1680055417", "title": "R1a is a Slavic haplogroup", "author": "Dominik Bąkowski", "author_handle": "dominik-bakowski", "author_initials": "DB", "covertext": "According to genetics studies on haplogroups, the population of eastern Germany, as well as the eastern part of Austria,...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>According to genetics studies on haplogroups, the population of eastern Germany, as well as the eastern part of Austria, is largely composed of Germanised Slavs ( R1a haplogroups ).</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399152/main-qimg-d21346af11daf270febd3e1a61a7785b-lq.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399152/conversions/main-qimg-d21346af11daf270febd3e1a61a7785b-lq-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 16, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "R1a is a Slavic haplogroup | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/r1a-is-a-slavic-haplogroup-3969-1680055417", "og:title": "R1a is a Slavic haplogroup | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399152/conversions/main-qimg-d21346af11daf270febd3e1a61a7785b-lq-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "how-conversion-to-judaism-once-saved-sorbs-lives-and-contributed-to-the-emergence-of-yiddish", "title": "How conversion to Judaism once saved Sorbs lives and contributed to the emergence of Yiddish", "author": "Dominik Bąkowski", "author_handle": "dominik-bakowski", "author_initials": "DB", "covertext": "Relexification [of the language] takes place exclusively when a speech community is seeking a new identity A plausible a...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><span><span><span>Relexification [of the language] takes place exclusively when a speech community is seeking a new identity</span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>A plausible answer is that numbers of pagan Sorbs identified themselves as Jews when they became household slaves of local Jewish owners or in order to avoid being sold into slavery by the Germans and Scandinavians. </span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>Those pagan Sorbs (a.k.a. Wends), who lived for centuries in the area of Saxony, were being totally crushed by the forces of Charlemagne, specifically by those of his son Charles, who even burned Bautzen, the historic capital of the Sorbs. </span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>The first of their foreign conquerors was Charles, one of Charlemagne's sons, who defeated the Wends and burned Bautzen in 806. </span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>: Charles… was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there (Czechs). He subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe, forcing a tribute on them. So what, would those pagan Sorbs do in terms of their own language when they, to survive, were trying to appear as the slaves of the small local population of Jews, who in turn were also trying to speak German as it was the language preferred for trade? They, keeping their Sorbian grammar, would have the tendency to certainly relexify it, not just to High German but also to old Hebrew –and by doing so, Yiddish would emerge in its first form, as a relexification to High German and Hebrew (or a type of Hebrew) from their native Sorbian. This tendency must have been, not so much out of choice but instead out of the necessity to survive, as the Carolingian campaign against pagan customs and religion was fierce and cruel indeed. Once more, from Wikipedia (Ibid), we learn about the brutality of Charlemagne against the Saxons: Charlemagne allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practicing their native paganism after conversion to Christianity, known as the Bloody Verdict of Verden or Massacre of Verden. But there is much more. Why would a few pagan Sorbs not be tempted to become Jewish slaves in order to avoid being forcibly Christianized? Again, neither Shamir, nor both, Koestler and Wexler, illuminate us, but the author can do so. Why the pagan Sorbs felt compelled to become Jewish slaves and also adopt Judaism was due to: The Carolingians tremendous tolerance towards Judaism and the Jews! And the reason for the latter once more comes through the author and from no other than one of the best scholars of Arthur Zuckerman: Joaquim Javaloys.</span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>Yes, it is Javaloys (Ibid), that in his groundbreaking work based on the unique discovery of Zuckerman (Ibid), that would show us why, since the times of the Carolingian Pepin The Short (714 – 768), father of Charlemagne, the Carolingians were not just tolerant but even protective of the Jews and Judaism. The reason for this is that when Thierry/Theuderic IV (the last relevant Merovingian king, in contrast to his successor Childeric III who was powerless), died in 737, Charles Martel (the first Carolingian) became the de facto royal power. The fact that Martel and then his son Pepin the Short helped the Popes against the threats of the Lombards, made it so that Pope Esteban II practically ended the reign of the Merovingians, and founded a new dynasty: The Carolingians, starting with Pepin the Short, were not just going to become the new kings but also ones that would rule by the grace of G-d (Javaloys, Ibid, pp 52-53). Yet, despite the latter:The Carolingians were sensitive to the accusation that they had usurped the crown and that they had obtained the power through conquest. The succession of the biblical kings of Antiquity could legitimize their royal authority (translated by CAU)] (Ibid, p 54). How did they accomplish the latter? Javaloys and Zuckerman (Ibid) brilliantly figured this out. Pepin sent a diplomatic mission to Bagdad in 765, which had a double mission: to, not only complete a circle of alliances with the Abbasid Caliphate but also to get allies against the Umayyad that ruled Spain. The solution to this became the creation in 768 of a Princedom in Septimanie (which included Southern France, especially Narbonne and Toulouse) in which a Jewish Nasi (i.e., Prince) of the House of David would rule. That Prince was no other than the erudite Exilarch of Bagdad and proven descendant from King David, Makhir Natronai David (730- 793), who, in turn, married Charlemagne´s aunt, Auda Martel. Thus through marriage the Carolingians united the House of David with their dynasty, and now legitimately could claim that they ruled by divine right. Incidentally the royal houses of Europe to date have ascendancy from that Davidico-Carolingian union (including the present day Hapsburgs and Bourbons –something that has been kept as one of the biggest secrets in European history, especially from the Crusades on). It was from that convenient union that the Carolingians developed their tolerant attitude and behavior towards the Jews: Definitely, as a result of the permanent blood alliance between the Carolingians and Prince Makhir, chief of the Royal House of David, from then on, in the kingdom of the Franks the Jews were treated in the same manner as the Christians with their rights being recognized as the same. That is why, the historian W. Keller concludes… the following: “ Under the ruling of Charlemagne and Ludovicus Pius the Jews enjoyed a happy epoch of tolerance like they never had before in Central Europe and like they have not had since…. In Germany the Jews lived in peace untilthe Crusades. The Emperors of the Saxon dynasty showed them the same benevolence that was shown before to them by the Carolingians….” (translated by CAU)] (Ibid, pp 96-97). It was thanks to such tolerance that the pagan Sorbs who were being devastated by the Carolingians, instead of converting to the Carolingian´s Christianity, decided to convert to the Carolingian broadly tolerated Judaism, or assume themselves as Jews. In doing so, while still using their Sorbian grammar, they attempted to relexify it to the lexicon of the preferred tongue of their new Jewish masters: High German mixed with old Hebrew –hence the first emergence of Yiddish. Paul Wexler (1993): On the basis of an analysis of the component structure of Yiddish, I argue that the language began originally as a dialect of Sorbian that became re-lexified to High German by the 13th century at the latest, but probably several centuries earlier in some locales (p 57). Five centuries is what I suggest that were those “… several centuries earlier…” that Wexler talks about, and the reason being: the brutal invasion of the Carolingians in the Saxony area. After this first relexification, a 2nd one, as proposed also by Wexler (2002), would happen around the time that the Khazars had to migrate west, most likely due to the advance of Genghis Khan at the beginning of the 13th century. However, an analysis of it, would deserve a separate work –which of course will have to take into account the one of Koestler (Ibid).</span></span></span></p>\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 7, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "How conversion to Judaism once saved Sorbs lives and contributed to the emergence of Yiddish | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/two-cluster-of-slavs-in-germany-it-is-all-what-was-left-of-polabians", "og:title": "Two cluster of Slavs in Germany, it is all what was left of Polabians | Passover haggadah by Dominik Bąkowski", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/399124/conversions/image-cover.jpg" } }