According to historians, after the desolation of Polish lands by the Mongol invasion in 1241, the then Silesian Piast rulers of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz decided to bring settlers from the West to the deserted and destroyed lands around the Silesian Foothills, to revive agriculture, industry and trade.[3] The area was settled in the course of the German eastward colonization of Slavic lands. In this way, around 1250, a group of colonists from the area of former Flanders came to the region, specifically from Friesland, near Bruges and established the settlement Wilamowice.[3]
The settlement was first documented in 1325, in the Peter's Pence register as the parish Novovillamowicz (New-Wilamowice) in medieval Latin, among the Catholic parishes of Oświęcimdiaconate, in the Diocese of Kraków.[2] The place name is seen as a demarcation to the older settlement Antiquo-Willamowicz (Old-Wilamowice, today named Stara Wieś).[2][4] In 1529, the two place names were recorded respectively in medieval Latin as Vilamovice Nova and Antiqua Vylamovicze.[2]
1910 census map identifying Wilamowice as a majority ethnic German settlement.
In the 15th century, Jan Długosz lists the settlement in the diocese of Kraków benefactors register Liber beneficiorum dioecesis Cracoviensis in Old Polish languageWylamowycze, in allodial lordship of the nobleman Andreas of Wilamowic (aka Wilamowski) and the heirs Johannes and Nicolaus Wilamowski.[5][6][7][8] From 1527, owners of the lordship mentioned include: the nobleman Jakob Saszowski of Gieraltowic and Wilamowic,[9] and in 1533: the nobleman and chief judge of Oświęcim Nicolaus Saszowski of Gieraltowic (aka Gierałtowski),[7] in 1633: Christopher Korycinski (castellan of Wojnicz), between 1707 and 1719 Władysław Morsztyn and his wife Helena née Kalinowska; to the end of the 19th century the owner Psarski sold his land and rights to residents, and from there on Wilamowice became a small rural town.[7]
In 1457, duke Jan IV of Oświęcim agreed to sell the Duchy of Oświęcim to the Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the settlement was mentioned in Old Polish language Wylamowycze.[10] It was not, however, until 1564, at the General sejm, that King Sigismund II Augustus issued privileges of incorporation, recognizing the Duchy of Oświęcim as part of the Polish Crown into the Silesian County of the Kraków Voivodeship.
Today, the Wymysorys dialect is spoken by less than 70 native speaking residents—the elderly being the majority.[2] The status of the Wilamowice ethnolect is complex, because according to the traditional classification it is broadly understood as an East Central dialect of High German. Nevertheless, based on the self-identification of its users as a separate group from the Germans and the existence of a literary Wymysorys language (or, to be more exact, micro-language), this ethnolect can be considered a separate language.
^ ab"Historia Parafii" [Parish History]. Parafia Przenajświętszej Trójcy (Parish of the Most Holy Trinity) (in Polish). Parafia Przenajświętszej Trójcy (Parish of the Most Holy Trinity).
^Długosz, Jan (1470–80). Liber beneficiorum dioecesis cracoviensis [Benefactors Register Diocese of Kraków] (in Latin). Vol. 7. Kraków: Jan Długosz, Diocese of Kraków. p. 85.
^Długosz, Jan (1470–80). Liber beneficiorum dioecesis cracoviensis [Benefactors Register Diocese of Kraków] (in Latin). Vol. 8. Kraków: Jan Długosz, Diocese of Kraków. p. 291.
^Prokop, Krzysztof Rafał (2002). Księstwa oświęcimskie i zatorskie wobec Korony Polskiej w latach 1438-1513. Dzieje polityczne (in Polish). Kraków: PAU. p. 151. ISBN83-88857-31-2.
