Language variation, language myths, and language ideology as constructive elements of the Wymysiöeryś ethnolinguistic identity

Wymysiöeryś is a highly endangered language spoken today the last few speakers
and a growing number of new speakers in the small town of Wilamowice After
two generations of language decay and attrition, the language (community) has
recently undergone intensive revitalisation processes.

In the past, the town Wilamowice formed a part of the so-called Bielsko-Biała
linguistic enclave (Bielitz-Bialaer Sprachinsel), which had its roots in the massive
German colonisation in the 12/13th century and created and/or populated several
villages and towns in the border areas of Silesia and Galicia. In modern times,
Wilamowice has constituted either a peripheral or an entirely distinct exclave (out)
of the Sprachinsel.

The Wymysiöeryś language has been classified as a colonial variety of East
Central German. Both sociolinguistic research and historical records indicate, however,
that at various periods, different ideas on the origin and identity of the commu-
nity have been shared and uttered by and on the Wilamowiceans and
Wymysiöeryś. Such ethnotheories of provenance, including some folk linguistic evidence and
myths, referred to various Germanic countries as places of origin of the first
settlers.

From a contact linguistic perspective, the microlect of Wilamowice has certainly
undergone interactions of various types and intensities with Polish (and its
varieties) and standard High German. The evidence of such contacts, shift or even
hybridisation can be found in all subsystems of the microlanguage; however, it is a
rather perceptual dialectology and ethnoscience perspective of language variation
which has been adopted in the present outline.