Beloved books and contested standards: Translations of “The Little Prince” into selected collateral languages of Poland

Abstract

Language standardisation is often closely connected with the literary process. Literary works, both original and translated, influence the language itself and how it is viewed inside and outside of the speakers' community. The paper discusses the possible influence of translated literature on minority languages on the example of three collateral languages of Poland: Kashubian, Silesian and Masurian. To do so, we are looking at the roles played in these linguistic communities by the translations of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's “The Little Prince”, usually one of the first books translated into minority languages around the world.