Serbskej listaj Johannesa Jacobæija
Two Sorbian Letters by Johannes Jacobæi

Historical and Linguistic Insights

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with two texts from 1745: They comprise the two oldest known letters in Sorbian language. The sender, Johannes Jacobæi, was born in the former Habsburg-Hungarian town of Modra, and had studied in Wittenberg. He was a resident of Dresden at the time of writing these letters. These documents were created in the context of his, in the end, unsuccessful application to obtain the post of the Sorbian diaconate in Lübben. Certain linguistic features contained in both documents are discussed in the article. The question of whether Jacobæi composed these letters in Lower Sorbian/Wendish himself, or whether he received help from someone proficient in the language cannot be answered definitively. Certain Czech and Slovak linguistic features used in the texts perhaps indicate that Jacobæi was the author himself.

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