<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper aims at giving a retrospective view of the presence of Czech in Slovakia through prism of the concepts <italic>language situation</italic>, <italic>communication situations</italic> and <italic>standardness</italic>.

Within the conditions of the feudal heterogeneity of the Hungarian Monarchy and without any distinct cultural and political centre of the Slovaks, in a situation of considerable dialectal variety, the Czech language fulfilled the role of a comprehensible and within the whole society (among educated Slovaks) valid and relatively unified written form of the “local language” (<italic>lingua vernacula</italic>). In the 14th and the 15th centuries this Czech got only relatively little Slovakized. During the 16th and the 17th centuries two mutually overlapping tendencies of the development of the written language of the Slovaks were being formed: 1. <italic>Slovakized Czech, or a Slovak-version Czech</italic>, and 2. <italic>Regional Variants of Cultural Slovak.</italic> Both tendencies found their place in the Catholic as well as in the Protestant environment. In the 2nd half of the 18th century, with continuation into the beginnings of the 19th century, two directions that started to be formed already in the previous period, became crystalized: 1. Under the influence of the progressing re-Catholicization, the Slovakized Czech of the Protestants undertook the <italic>direction from diglossia towards “pure” Czech</italic> (at least in the sense of an intention), and the Protestant circles unequivocally accepted it as their standard language, sometimes denoting it as <italic>reč československá</italic> (Czechoslovak language) or <italic>českoslovenčina</italic> (the Czechoslovak); 2. In the Catholic environment, the <italic>cultural Western Slovak</italic> of the southern type and called <italic>bernolákovčina</italic> (Bernolák‘s Slovak) was codified, with the status of an autonomous standard language – <italic>a development away form diglossia towards Slovak</italic>. It was <italic>a period of two standard languages</italic> to which Štúr’s codification of Slovak put an end. His codification was based on the northern Central Slovak dialects, and after its modification in the so called <italic>opravená slovenčina</italic> (“corrected Slovak”) it was accepted by the representatives of both confessions.</abstract>

The paper aims at giving a retrospective view of the presence of Czech in Slovakia through prism of the concepts language situation, communication situations and standardness.

Within the conditions of the feudal heterogeneity of the Hungarian Monarchy and without any distinct cultural and political centre of the Slovaks, in a situation of considerable dialectal variety, the Czech language fulfilled the role of a comprehensible and within the whole society (among educated Slovaks) valid and relatively unified written form of the “local language” (lingua vernacula). In the 14th and the 15th centuries this Czech got only relatively little Slovakized. During the 16th and the 17th centuries two mutually overlapping tendencies of the development of the written language of the Slovaks were being formed: 1. Slovakized Czech, or a Slovak-version Czech, and 2. Regional Variants of Cultural Slovak. Both tendencies found their place in the Catholic as well as in the Protestant environment. In the 2nd half of the 18th century, with continuation into the beginnings of the 19th century, two directions that started to be formed already in the previous period, became crystalized: 1. Under the influence of the progressing re-Catholicization, the Slovakized Czech of the Protestants undertook the direction from diglossia towards “pure” Czech (at least in the sense of an intention), and the Protestant circles unequivocally accepted it as their standard language, sometimes denoting it as reč československá (Czechoslovak language) or českoslovenčina (the Czechoslovak); 2. In the Catholic environment, the cultural Western Slovak of the southern type and called bernolákovčina (Bernolák‘s Slovak) was codified, with the status of an autonomous standard language – a development away form diglossia towards Slovak. It was a period of two standard languages to which Štúr’s codification of Slovak put an end. His codification was based on the northern Central Slovak dialects, and after its modification in the so called opravená slovenčina (“corrected Slovak”) it was accepted by the representatives of both confessions.

Prítomnosť češtiny na Slovensku a aspekt spisovnosti

Jazykovedný ústav Ľ. Štúra Slovenskej akadémie vied, Bratislava

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Prítomnosť češtiny na Slovensku a aspekt spisovnosti"}

The paper aims at giving a retrospective view of the presence of Czech in Slovakia through prism of the concepts language situation, communication situations...

Prítomnosť češtiny na Slovensku a aspekt spisovnosti

Published Online: Sep 23, 2016

Page range: 5 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jazcas-2016-0008

Keywords
standard language, Slovakized Czech, Cultural Slovak, diglossia, normalization, codification

© 2016 Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra, SAV, Bratislava

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Prítomnosť češtiny na Slovensku a aspekt spisovnosti

Published Online: Sep 23, 2016

Page range: 5 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jazcas-2016-0008

Keywordsstandard language, Slovakized Czech, Cultural Slovak, diglossia, normalization, codification

© 2016 Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra, SAV, Bratislava

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
standard language, Slovakized Czech, Cultural Slovak, diglossia, normalization, codification