page_title: Saxony
section_title: Languages
hierarchical_section_title: Saxony / Culture / Languages
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Dvojjazyčná, německo-lužickosrbská cedule označující město Budyšín v Horní Lužici, v Sasku. Na ceduli je napsáno: „Große Kreisstadt Bautzen, Wulke wokrjesne město Budyšin“. Deutsch: Zweisprachiges, deutsch-sorbisches Ortseingangsschild der Stadt Bautzen (am Ortseingang zum Ortsteil Seidau) in Sachsen, Deutschland. Die vollständige Beschriftung lautet: „Große Kreisstadt Bautzen, Wulke wokrjesne město Budyšin“. English: Bilingual, German-Sorbian place-name sign of the city Bautzen in Saxony, Germany. Español: Esta señal bilingüe anuncia el arribo a la ciudad de Bautzen, en Sajonia, Alemania, en alemán y sorbio septentrional. Hornjoserbsce: Dwurěčna němsko-serbska městna tafla Budyšina.
context_page_description: Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, and the sixth most populous, with more than 4 million inhabitants.
  The history of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic. The first Free State of Saxony was established in 1918 as a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. After World War II, it became part of the German Democratic Republic and was abolished by the communist government in 1952. Following German reunification, the Free State of Saxony was reconstituted with slightly altered borders in 1990 and became one of the five new states of the Federal Republic of Germany.
  The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons.
context_section_description: The most common patois spoken in Saxony are combined in the group of "Thuringian and Upper Saxon dialects". Due to the inexact use of the term "Saxon dialects" in colloquial language, the Upper Saxon attribute has been added to distinguish it from Old Saxon and Low Saxon. Other German dialects spoken in Saxony are the dialects of the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), which have been affected by Upper Saxon dialects, and the dialects of the Vogtland, which are more affected by the East Franconian languages.
  Upper Sorbian (a West Slavic language) is spoken in the parts of Upper Lusatia that are inhabited by the Sorbian minority. The Germans in Upper Lusatia speak distinct dialects of their own (Lusatian dialects).
caption: Boundary sign of Bautzen / Budyšin in German and Upper Sorbian. Many place names in eastern Saxony are derived from Sorbian.
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