The Wendish Research Exchange - Mahling, Madlena, Fabian Kaulfürst: Two Sorbian Letters by Johannes Jacobæi. Historical and Linguistic Insights.

Lětopis Abstract 2021 2: Madlena Mahling, Fabian Kaulfürst: Two Sorbian Letters by Johannes Jacobæi. Historical and Linguistic Insights.

This article deals with two texts from 1745: They comprise two of the oldest known letters in the Sorbian language. The sender, Johannes Jacobæi, was born in the former Austro-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 pastor 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 terms used in the texts perhaps indicate that Jacobæi was the sole author.