Distinguishing between Upper and Lower Sorbian

Upper and Lower Sorbian are related and bear great resemblance to one another on the printed page. For this reason, persons who are unfamiliar with these languages run the risk of confusing them. The aim of this page is to provide help to the cataloger to distinguish between the written forms of the two languages, even if one does not have reading knowledge of them.

1. Letters Used in Newer Publications:

There are different possibilities to find out if the language of a recent publication is Upper or Lower Sorbian. The easiest way is to look for specific letters. While both languages use mostly the same letters, the following letter(s) is/are only found in:

Upper Sorbian: ř (letter R with a háček above it).

Lower Sorbian: ŕ, ś (letters R and S with an acute accent above it).

This rule applies only to publications after 1948 for Upper Sorbian and after 1952 for Lower Sorbian.

2. Letters Used in Older Publications:

The usage of letters and the grammatical rules of older publications are more varied, especially those of the 19th century or older. Most pre-WWII publications were printed in the old German Fraktur typeface (or a similar font). Upper Sorbian had two different sets of orthography rules (including partially different letters and grammar rules), depending whether the publication was intended for a Catholic or a Lutheran audience. Lower Sorbian did not have set grammar rules until the late 19th century. Also, Lower Sorbian used several multigraphs (mainly trigraphs and tetragraphs, see tables below) as well as the German letter ß (called eszett or scharfes s). Multigraphs are still used today in both Sorbian languages. See the following two tables for examples of older versions of Sorbian letters. The first table is for Upper Sorbian, the second, for Lower Sorbian.

Upper Sorbian letters (pre-WWII)

Lower Sorbian letters (pre-WWII)

* only pronounced “w” if the “h” was followed by the letters o or u

** only if this is preceded by the letters p, t, or k

3. Other Ways to Distinguish Between the Upper and Lower Sorbian Languages

The terms hornjoserbšćina and horjoserbska rěč refer to Upper Sorbian, dolnoserbšćina and dolnoserbska rěc refer to Lower Sorbian.

The publication locality cannot be used as an indicator to find out which Sorbian language is used in the publication, especially not for works created after World War II. While print materials in Upper Sorbian were always printed in Upper Lusatia, Lower Sorbian materials were printed in both Lower and Upper Lusatia.

In some cases, the author’s name can provide a clue about the identity of the language, but only if the author is female, unmarried, and has chosen to use the Sorbian version of her name. In this case the endings of the family name –ec or –ic refer to an Upper Sorbian publication, while –ojc or –ejc refer to a Lower Sorbian publication. There is no differentiation for the two Sorbian languages for endings in married female family names or for males.

For more detailed information about the usage of Sorbian names see the chapter Sorbian Personal Names.

Please also consult the page Sorbian Languages and Literatures that addresses cataloging issues related to both languages.

For a listing of classification numbers on these topics please consult the chapter Sorbian LC Classification Numbers for History and Ethnography.

For a listing of classification numbers on language-related topics please consult the chapter Sorbian LC Classification Numbers for Literature and Language.

Submitted by Milan Pohontsch, July 2023