Hi
My family the Serk/ Serkowski lived around Kartuzy (Karthaus) for the past 320 years and some still live there .
As a child when, visiting my grandparents on there farm in Prokpwo about 10 km from Kartuzy , there place (farm ) was known as Serkowski's on SPITZBERG by the locals.
The family spoke Kaszubien, German and Polish, but at home mostly Kaszuby and still today my Uncle Franciszek living in Z~ukowo new 85 years of age prefers to speak in Kaszubien rather then Polish , (except for my grandmothers sister, Marianne Bikowski / von Richter she lived in Danzig (Gdansk) she spoke mostly German and a bit of Kaszubien)
As a child I was confused to hear a lot of German words used in the Kaszubien language for example: Hast du gewidziec~ jak ten zaja~c ist über das pole gelaufe.
Did you see how the hare ran across the field?
My grandfathers explanation was that the Kaszubien language was amongst other reasons a bit crude and it lacked a lot of words in it, to be able to express ones self properly and that's why they spoke a lot of German or used German words in there Own language.
There is an old saying about the Kaszubiens and roughly translated it is: When the Kaszub is hungry he is angry, but when you feed him he will give you his shirt of his back.
For those interested in Kaszubia I have two books that are worth reading but they are in Polish, BARWY KASZUB -Colorful Kaszubia by Edmund Szczesiak ISBN 83-902904-0-5
The second is : SZWAJCARIA KASZUBSKA - Swiss Kaszubia by Izabella Trojanowska , printed by POLNARD WYDAWNICTWO .OSKAR. GDANSK 1994
The verse that I used is not necessarily how all Kaszubiens spoke but is one that I remember from my childhood.
TNT Andy Ben .ö¿ö .