Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
Abstract
In this translation, the regional language Wymysorys, spoken in the small town of Wilamowice in southern Poland, is introduced. Today, fewer than ten native speakers are proficient in this language. This decline can be attributed to post-war era efforts in Poland to expel Germanic elements, which led to persecution of its speakers. In 1945, the local government banned the use of Wymysorys and its culture, causing parents to stop speaking Wymysorys to their children. Consequently, the younger generation of that time cannot speak Wymysorys today. However, since 2010, the revitalization of Wymysorys has been undertaken by the Universities of Warsaw and Poznań in collaboration with some members of the local community. As a result, there are new younger speakers proficient in Wymysorys. This translation includes two titles from Ludwik Młynek's (1907) text, which is an older text written using a complex system and previously untranslated. The titles have been translated into both English and Japanese, with glosses provided in English, so that more people can read these texts. It is hoped that this work will spark interest in Wymysorys and its literature among a wider audience
