The slow death of Sorbian

Trawling through Technorati, I was pleased to discover this interesting insight into Sorbian-German relations in Lusatia. With just 70,000 speakers, this Slavic language, most closely related to Polish, is near the point of no return for a living tongue. Within a couple of generations expect it to be the preserve of small groups of enthusiasts, in the same way that Walloon is in Belgium. As my friend, David Ferguson, has said by way of explanation for Esperanto's failure to become the modern-day lingua franca, a language without a state to support it is fighting an uphill battle. Sorbian, like Esperanto, needs an army.