Relatiwne pronomeny w spisownej a wobchadnej hornjoserbšćinje

Abstract

Relative Pronouns in Standard and Colloquial Upper Sorbian

The article concentrates on attributive relative clauses introduced by the relative pronoun kotryž from kotry ‘which’, competing with the relative particle kiž. The third relativiser štóž from štó ‘who’, is restricted to animate reference in the singular and will be considered only marginally. The relative pronoun kotryž is fully inflected for case, number, and gender, whereas kiž is completely indeclinable. The article focuses on the different rules for their mutual replacement in the two Upper Sorbian varieties in question. Relevant factors are, among other things, the subgenders [+animate/human] and several syntactic functions like subject or direct-object position, the role of possessive pronouns and genitive objects. The prescriptive rules of standard Upper Sorbian are compared with the actual usage in the everyday vernacular, with the most evident difference being found in the distribution of kotryž and kiž. In addition, the colloquial usage of the special relativiser štož, derived from što ‘what’, is dealt with, by comparing it with the role of German was as a relative marker in the German regional variety.