[1] See G. A. Grierson, “On Pronominal Suffixes in the Kāçmīrī Languages,” and “On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the Modern Indo-Aryan Languages,” in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxiv. (1895), pt. i. pp. 336 and 352.
KASHUBES (sing. Kaszub, plur. Kaszebe), a Slavonic people numbering about 200,000, and living on the borders of West Prussia and Pomerania, along the Baltic coast between Danzig and Lake Garden, and inland as far as Konitz. They have no literature and no history, as they consist of peasants and fishermen, the educated classes being mostly Germans or Poles. Their language has been held to be but a dialect of Polish, but it seems better to separate it, as in some points it is quite independent, in some it offers a resemblance to the language of the Polabs (q.v.). This is most seen in the western dialect of the so-called Slovinci (of whom there are about 250 left) and Kabatki, whereas the eastern Kashube is more like Polish, which is encroaching upon and assimilating it. Lorentz calls the western dialect a language, and distinguishes 38 vowels. The chief points of Kashube as against Polish are that all its vowels can be nasal instead of a and e only, that it has preserved quantity and a free accent, has developed several special vowels, e.g. ö, œ, ü, and has preserved the original order, e.g. gard as against grod. The consonants are very like Polish. (See also [Slavs].)
Authorities.—F. Lorentz, Slovinzische Grammatik (St Petersburg, 1903) and “Die gegenseitigen Verhältnisse der sogen. Lechischen Sprachen,” in Arch. f. Slav. Phil. xxiv. (1902); J. Baudouin de Courtenay, “Kurzes Resumé der Kaschubischen Frage,” ibid. xxvi. (1904); G. Bronisch, Kaschubische Dialektstudien (Leipzig, 1896-1898); S. Ramult, Stownik j̢ezyka pomorskiego czyli kaszubskiego, i.e. “Dictionary of the Seacoast (Pomeranian) or Kashube Language” (Cracow, 1893).
(E. H. M.)
KASIMOV, a town of Russia, in the government of Ryazañ, on the Oka river, in 54° 56′ N. and 41° 3′ E., 75 m. E.N.E. of Ryazañ. Pop. (1897), 13,545, of whom about 1000 were Tatars. It is famed for its tanneries and leather goods, sheepskins and post-horse bells. Founded in 1152, it was formerly known as Meshcherski Gorodets. In the 15th century it became the capital of a Tatar khanate, subject to Moscow, and so remained until 1667. The town possesses a cathedral, and a mosque supposed to have been built by Kasim, founder of the Tatar principality. Near the mosque stands a mausoleum built by Shah-Ali in 1555. Lying on the direct road from Astrakhan to Moscow and Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kasimov is a place of some trade, and has a large annual fair in July. The waiters in the best hotels of St Petersburg are mostly Kasimov Tatars.
See Veliaminov-Zernov, The Kasimov Tsars (St Petersburg, 1863-1866).