History of the Slovak language
The
Theories about the origin
Older hypotheses and theories
Centrist hypothesis
The centrist hypothesis was popular in the 19th century when it played a positive role in the Slovak national movement.
Nonhomogeneous origin
The theories about the nonhomogeneous origin of Slovak assume its late integration in the 13th to 14th centuries or even after the 16th century. They claim that the Proto-Slavic basis of Slovak emerged on the border of early Western, Southern and Eastern Slavic macro dialects or that Slovak emerged from early or late mixing of neighboring languages.
Homogeneous origin
This theory was proposed in the interwar period by Czech linguists František Trávníček and Václav Vážný. Its proponents believed that Slovak and Czech emerged from a common Proto-Czech-Slovak (Proto-Czech). Trávníček explained unique features of Central Slovak dialects by later differentiation, Vážný, by expansion from the south.[3] Trávníček's attempt to explain the origin of Slovak from Proto-Czech-Slovak is now thought to be erroneous, and the creator of the theory abandoned it already after World War II.
Modern theories
Modern theories are based on a nonhomogeneous
Migration-integration theory
Rudolf Krajčovič suggests three phases of development:[6]
- post-migration period (5th–7th centuries): the Slavs came to present-day Slovakia from various locations; Western and Eastern Slovakia was settled by people who spoke Northwestern (West Slavic) Proto-Slavic dialect, Central Slovakia by speakers of the Southeastern (non-West Slavic) dialect.
- integration period (8th–9th centuries): several language features (both West and non-West Slavic) spread across the borders of the initial linguistic regions; these changes are best explained by the integration process of the Slavs before and during the existence of Great Moravia.
- constitutive period (10th–11th centuries): After the extinction of Proto-Slavic, Slovak began to evolve as a separate Slavic language.
Koine theory
This theory was proposed by a Slovak linguist Martin Pukanec. According to Pukanec, the migration-integration theory does not explain the presence of old isoglosses around Nitra, one main old political center. The main idea of the theory is koineization, a formation of a super-dialect (koiné) on the border of the West Slavic and the South Slavic dialects. The koineization on the border of two dialects may have been very rapid with many dramatic changes, possibly even two or three in one generation.[5]
The author suggests the following chronology:
- an early integration period (6th century–833)
- koineization (833–907): The four phases of koineization correspond with the phases of development of Great Moravia.
- constitutive period (907–1110): The koiné was disintegrated, and the tribal system finally became extinct.
The arguments for this theory are mostly indirect.[7]
Emergence and development
Heterogenous Proto-Slavic basis of Slovak
The Proto-Slavic basis of Slovak included both West Slavic and Non-West Slavic features.[8] Some West Slavic features are common for all Slovak dialects, but there are also Non-West Slavic features that are distributed over 70–75% of the territory. The Central Slovak dialects exhibits major deviations from what is generally thought of as West Slavic.[9]
Territorial distribution | Feature | Example | Comparison |
---|---|---|---|
common feature | preserved Proto-Slavic kv-, gv- before old Slavic ě | kvet, hviezda (flower, star) | Czech: květ, hvězda, Polish: kwiat, gwiazda vs. Serbian: cvet, zvezda, Russian: cvet, zvezd'a |
missing epentetic l | zem (earth) | Czech: země, Polish: ziemia vs. Serbian: zemlja or Russian: zeml'a | |
c, dz instead of tj, dj | svieca, medza (candle, boundary) | Czech: svíce, mez, Polish: świeca, miedza vs. Serbian: sveća, međa, Russian: sveč'a, mež'a | |
mainly West and East, nowadays partly also the Central Slovakia |
dl, tl preserved in nouns | šidlo (awl) | Czech: šídlo, Polish: szydło vs. Central Slovak dialects: šilo |
rot-, lot in place of Proto-Slavic ort-, olt- | rožen/rožeň, loket/lokec (grill, elbow) | Czech: loket, Polish: łokieć vs. Central Slovak dialects: lakeť | |
š in place of Proto-Slavic ch' | Češi, ženíši (Czechs, bridegrooms) | Central Slovak dialects: Česi, ženísi | |
and others | |||
only Záhorie (the westernmost region of Slovakia) and Eastern Slovakia |
rъ, lъ in place of r̥, l̥ | kref (blood – Proto-Slavic krъvь) | Czech: krev, Polish: krew vs. other Slovak dialects: krv |
suffix -ъmь in place of -omь | s hadem (with snake) | Czech: s hadem vs. other Slovak dialects: s hadom | |
only Záhorie | transformation iь > jь | jehua (needle) | Czech: jehla, Upper Sorbian: jehła vs. other Slovak dialects: ihla |
long vowels in place of old acutes | kráva (cow) | Czech: kráva vs. other Slovak dialects: krava | |
short suffix -a in nominative plural of neutral grammatical gender | ramena (shoulders) | Czech: ramena vs. other Slovak dialects ramená |
Territorial distribution | Feature | Example | Comparison |
---|---|---|---|
only the historic central area of Proto-Slavic basis of Slovak | simplified l instead of Proto-Slavic dl, tl | šilo (awl) | šilo, Russian: šilo vs. other Slovak dialects šidlo |
rat-, lat in place of Proto-Slavic ort-, olt- | lakeť (elbow) | lakat vs. other Slovak dialects loket, lokec | |
s in place of Proto-Slavic ch' | Česi, ženísi (Czechs, bridegrooms) | other Slovak dialects Češi, ženíši | |
preserved suffix -mo | nosímo ([we] bear) | Serbian: nosimo vs. other Slovak dialects nosíme | |
also outside of the historic central area of Proto-Slavic basis, but mainly in the neighbouring areas | |||
transformation iь > i | ihla (needle) | Serbian: igla, Russian: igla vs. jehua in Záhorie | |
syllabic r̥, l̥ in words like kr̥v | krv (blood) | like Serbian: krv vs. Western and Eastern Slovak kref | |
short vowels in the place of old acutes | krava (cow) | in Záhorie kráva | |
long suffix -á in nominative plural of neutral grammatical gender | ramená (shoulders) | in Záhorie ramena, in Eastern Slovakia ramena (from the initial ramená) | |
suffix -omь | s hadom ([with] snake) | in Záhorie s hadem |
Main changes in the Proto-Slavic basis
In the 10th century, Proto-Slavic ceased to exist, and Slovak began to emerge as an independent language.[10][11] The most important early changes were the contraction, the loss and vocalization of yers[12] and the denasalization of ǫ and ę. These changes affected the word structure and phonemes.[11] The loss of yers differentiated future Slovak, Czech and Polish from neighboring Slavic regions, and the denasalization differentiated Slovak and Czech from Polish. Slovak was not affected by old Polish dispalatization in the 10th century, causing differences between the two languages such as žena vs. Polish żona (a woman, a wife), kvet vs. Polish kwiat, etc.[6] It was also not affected by the old Czech syllabic depalatization before hard syllables, with differences such as priateľ vs. Czech sg. přítel, pl. přátelé (a friend). Slovak preserved a difference between dz/z (from Proto-Slavic */dj/ */gtj/), i.e. medźa (medza, a boundary), vítäź (víťaz, an elite warrior, a winner) whereas both phonemes were transformed to ź in old Czech and dź in old Polish.[6] Contrary to Czech, a vowel mutation from à to e did not occur in Slovak,[13] i.e. ulica vs. Czech ulice (a street). The differences between Slovak and Czech like ťažko/těžko, cudzí/cizí became stable later.[14] Slovak developed only single r in contrast with Czech pairs r/ř and Polish r/rz.[15] Slovak evolved as an independent language already from the 10th century, and there is strong evidence against theories of its early or late formation from other languages.[15][a]
Contraction
Contraction was a change caused by a loss of j between vowels and their merging into one long vowel, for example dobroje → dobré (good) and bojati sę → báť sa (to be afraid). The contraction originated in the territory of Great Moravia in the last years of its existence and divided the Slavic territory into contraction and non-contraction areas. In Proto-Slovak, the contraction occurred before the disappearance and vocalization of yers, but not uniformly. In later Western and Eastern Slovak dialects, the change was similar to other West Slavic languages. The Central Slovak shares some old features with the South-Slavic contraction peripheral territory. The Central Slovak preserved more non-contracted forms (i.e. moja, moje vs. má, mé, bojati sa /dialect/ vs báť sa). The different process of contraction oje → oe → ô probably resulted also to the characteristic neuter adjective ending -ô (i.e. dobrô vs. dobré).
Loss and vocalization of yers
The disappearance of weak yers and the change of strong yers is reconstructed by Havlík's law. The back yer (ъ) was vocalized as e in the Proto-Slavic basis of Western and Eastern Slovak (pętъkъ → pátek: Friday) and as o in the Central Slovak area (piatok). The weak yers did not disappear in one syllable words, but the back yer changed to a, and the front yer, to ä. This change occurred already in the 10th century like in other West Slavic languages, contrary to the neighboring East Slavic area.
Denasalization
The Proto-Slavic nasal vowels ǫ and ę were denasalized in the 10th century.[12] The nasal vowel ǫ was replaced by u and ú, i.e. zǫbъ > zub (a tooth), lǫka > lúka (a meadow) probably through an extinct nasal vowel ų: ǫ > ų > u/ú. The denasalization of ę was similar: ę > ą̈ > ä/a̋. These forms from the 11th–12th centuries have been preserved in some Slovak dialects until the modern age (Orava, Gemer and Sotak dialects). The central Slovak dialects preserved only the short form ä. In other dialects, they changed to wide range of monophthongs and diphthongs.[16]
Phonology
Changes in prosodic features
The Proto-Slavic quantity was associated with specific vowels (long a, u, i, y, ě, ę, ǫ vs. short o, e, ъ, ь). The original quantity has disappeared or changed, creating pairs of short and long vowels a/á, e/é, etc.[17]
The spirantization of Slavic /g/ to /h/
Early Slovak inherited the velar g from Proto-Slavic. The velar was preserved in the early stage of development, but it changed to h approximately in the 12th century. Unlike Czech, this change was not complete, and the original g has been preserved in the -zg consonant group at the end of words and on the border of morphemes, e.g. mozgy vs. Czech mozky (brains).[18] The partial preservation of g in the phonetic system allowed Slovak to adopt g in later loanwords, for example gombík (a button).[18]
Morphology
Grammatical numbers
In contrast to modern Slovak, early Slovak had three grammatical numbers inherited from Proto-Slavic,
Grammatical tenses
Simplification of grammatical tenses had been an overall trend in the development of Slovak. Old Proto-Slavic past tenses, the
Noun declension
Unlike neighbouring Slavic languages, Slovak retained only six out of seven Proto-Slavic grammatical cases. The
History of standard language
Pre-standard period
The earliest written records of Slovak are represented by personal and place names, later by sentences, short notes and verses in Latin and Czech documents.[23] Latin documents contain also mentions about a cultivation of the vernacular language. The complete texts are available since the 15th century.[23] In the 15th century, Latin began to lose its privileged position in favor of Czech and cultural Slovak.[24]
Early pre-standard period
Old Church Slavonic
The
Older and younger pre-standard period
Slovak in Latin Documents
From the 10th century onward, Slovak began to develop independently. Very few written records of Old Slovak remain, mainly from the 13th century onwards, consisting of groups of words or single sentences. Fuller Slovak texts appeared starting from 15th century. Old Slovak and its development can be research mainly through old Slovak toponyms, petrificated within Latin texts. Examples include crali (1113) > kráľ, king; dorz (1113) > dvorec; grinchar (1113) > hrnčiar, potter; mussenic (1113) > mučeník, martyr; scitar (1113) > štítar, shieldmaker; zaltinc (1156) > zlatník, goldmaker; duor (1156) > dvor, courtyard; and otroč (1156) > otrok, slave, servant. In 1294, the monk Ivanka from Kláštor pod Znievom wrote: "ad parvam arborem nystra slowenski breza ubi est meta".[25] It is important mainly because it contains the oldest recorded adjective Slovak in Slovak, whose modern form is slovensky. Up until this point, all adjectives were recorded mainly in Latin, including sclavus, slavus and sclavoniae.
Latin | Slovakisms |
---|---|
...in piscina, que vocatur Mortva... De villa Boencza sive in silva in terra, quantum habent castellani Golgociesis, tantum habet sanctus Ypolitus. De Locupolt inca nunc due incunta in aqua Vvac... De villa Vvederat, in villa Dobet est quendam aqua, que vocatur Dumbo.... (1111) | Toponymes Mrtvá, Bojnice, Glogovec (Hlohovec), Koplot(ovce), Vag (Váh), Voderad(y), Dobräta, Dǫ(bova). |
...in fluvium Lubula..., inde tendit circa magnum Gozd et valit ad pratum ad arborem jauor cruce signata(m) et ipse arbor dividit a terra populorum Maioris Paluga et Minoris. Deinde ascendit ad unum berech et vadit ad arborem scemerek cruce signata(m) (1284) | Toponymes Ľubeľa, Paludza, nature-related nouns gvozd (deep forest), breh (river bank), javor (maple), smrek (spruce) |
...ad parvam arborem nystra slowenski breza ubi est meta... (1294) | slovensky breza (in Slovak breza /birtch/) |
Czech and Slovakized Czech
Written
The usage of Czech in a Slovak environment resulted in Slovakized Czech, a variant of cultural Czech with Slovak elements. This variant existed from the penetration of Czech to present-day Slovakia and was used in city books and official correspondence. Early writings had a varying frequency of Slovak elements caused by a poor knowledge of standard Czech among many Slovak native speakers and the influence of vernacular language and cultural Slovak.[27] The normalized form of Slovakized Czech existed from the 17th century. In it, Czech letters and words were systematically replaced by their Slovak equivalents (e.g. ř by r, ě by e, au by ú, ou by ú, etc.).[28]
Slovakized Czech | Slovakisms |
---|---|
Vitaj milý Spasiteľu, |
|
Biblical Czech
Czech was recognized as an official language of the Lutheran Church by the councils in 1610 and 1614[29] and was used as a liturgical language even until the early 20th century. The official form was biblical Czech used in the Czech Bible of Kralice. The orthography of Hussite "Brothers in the Law of Christ" was used also in Catholic publications but often adjusted to cultural Slovak.
Kollár's "Old Slovak"
Slovak humanist Ján Kollár and Andrej Ľudovít Radlinský attempted to standardize a new standard language called Old Slovak (staroslovenčina), a version of Slovakized Czech. According to the contemporary Pan-Slavic views, the Slavic nation consisted of four tribes, the Czechoslovak, the Polish, the Russian and the Illyrian (Southern Slavs). Kollár assumed a common origin of Czechs and Slovaks. The original language, he claimed, is closer to Slovak, with Czech allegedly losing its beauty due to contact with German. After the suppressing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Kollár got an approval of the government in Vienna to use "Old Slovak" as an administrative and educational language.[28] The trial to create a common standard language for Czechs and Slovaks failed. Czechs had difficulties understanding Kollár's "improvements" of Czech by Slovakisms, and the younger Slovak generation preferred standardization of Slovak.
Cultural Western, Central and Eastern Slovak
My fojt Gal i boženíci, mister Andreas, Benediktus Nozer, Martin Messer, Zighel a jinší boženici vyznavame všem, ktož toto bude čisti a neb čtuce uslyše, (...) I jest nam Boh pomohol, že jsme učinili uplnou umlovu z Niklošem Polakem i z jeho synen Martinem a Miklošem Noskem a dal jest nam Polak summu penez 67 zlatych v zlate uhorskej vahy za ty všicky braky tisove, co mali činiti z bratrem našim z Hanesom Frolichem a o jinše všicky veci, což mali v jedno činiti. Prejednané a vykonané roku Pána 1451 v piatok pred sviatkom obratenia sv. Pavla. A dale my Peter Frulych a Peter Fyuger zlubujeme Polakovi 16 zl. zastupiti od Gloza s Tešina, tak, že ma Polak teho prazen byti.
— The Law Book of Žilina, an example of medieval cultural Slovak, this text, dated to 1473, is possibly the oldest document written in a Slovak language. (1451)
After the defeat of the Turks near Vienna in 1683, many Slovaks gradually emigrated to the Lower Lands, territories in present-day Hungary, Serbia (later to Croatia and Bulgaria), and Romania was depopulated after the Turkish occupation. They have preserved their particular Slovak dialects until today. In eastern Slovakia, a Slovakized standard Polish is used sometimes (besides Czech, Slovak and Latin) for the same purposes and reasons as Czech is used in the remaining Slovakia. Latin continues to be used, especially in state administration.
Efforts to establish Slovak as the standard language emerged as early as in the 17th century. For example, in The Czech Grammar (1603),
Standard period
Bernolák's standard
Anton Bernolák, a Catholic priest (1762–1813), published the Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum in 1787, in which he codified a Slovak standard based on the Western Slovak of the University of Trnava but contains also some central Slovak elements, e.g. soft consonants ď, ť, ň, ľ and many words. The orthography is strictly diacritical.[30] The language is often called Bernolák's language. Bernolák continued his codification work in other books in the 1780s and 1790s and especially in his huge six-volume Slovak-Czech-Latin-German-Hungarian Dictionary, in print from 1825–1927. In the 1820s, the Bernolák standard was revised, and Central Slovak elements were systematically replaced by their Western Slovak equivalents.[31]
This was the first successful establishment of a standard Slovak. Bernolák's language was used by Slovak Catholics, especially by the writers Juraj Fándly and Ján Hollý, but Protestants still wrote in Czech in its old form used in Bohemia until the 17th century.
Štúr's standard
In 1843, young Slovak Lutheran
In 1844, the
Hodža-Hattala reform
In 1851, the supporters of Bernolák and Štúr made a compromise and agreed on the reform of the Štúr's standard.[32] The new standard respected etymological principles instead of Štúr's phonetic-phonological transcription and used a Slovak orthography closer to other Slavic languages, especially Czech. The new grammar was published by Martin Hattala in 1852.[33]
Martin period, practice and Czambel's codification
The Martin period lasted from the abolishment of the Slovak national and cultural institution Matica slovenská until the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The name comes from Turčiansky Svätý Martin, the contemporary Slovak cultural center. The usage of Slovak in education and culture was significantly reduced during forced Magyarization after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.
The Martin practice (Slovak: martinský úzus) was a de facto standard partially formed already before the abolishment of Matica and influenced by the dialect spoken in Martin. In 1902, Samuel Czambel published new language standard. Czambel's codification favored the forms used in spoken language to archaisms from Hattala's codification and synchronized spoken and written language. Czambel's codification was partially revised and extended by Jozef Škultéty.
Czechoslovakia (1918–1939)
With the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovak became an official language for the first time in history along with Czech. The Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 and the constitutional law on minorities which was adopted alongside the constitution on the same day established the Czechoslovak language as an official language Since the Czechoslovak language did not exist, the law recognized its two variants, Czech and Slovak. Czech was usually used in administration in the Czech lands; Slovak, in Slovakia. In practice, the position of languages was not equal. Along with political reasons, this situation was caused by a different historical experience and numerous Czech teachers and clerks in Slovakia, who helped to restore the educational system and administration because Slovaks educated in Slovak were missing.
In 1931, the Matica slovenská published a new standard Slovak prepared by Czech linguist Václav Vážný, the head of the Department of Linguistics of Matica. In contrast with older works including those published in Czechoslovakia, the standard had an official character and was approved and recommended by the Ministry of Education led by Slovak minister Ivan Dérer. The standard was inspired by the official ideology of Czechoslovakism and tried to align both languages by the codification of numerous Czech words and forms not existing in Slovak.[34] It raised negative reactions, and the board of Matica promised its revision. Although a new official standard was not published before the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1939, a new standard of Matica was used along with Vážný's standard.
Czechoslovakia (1945–1992)
The six-volume Slovník slovenského jazyka (Slovak Dictionary, SSJ) was written during 1959–1968. The
Slovak Republic
See also
Notes
- ^ Yet in the 1970's, such opinion was presented by a prominent Hungarian historian György Györffy.
References
Citations
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1988, p. 9.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 10.
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1988, p. 13.
- ^ Krško 2013, p. 121.
- ^ a b Pukanec 2013, p. 90.
- ^ a b c Krajčovič 1988, p. 16.
- ^ Pukanec 2008, p. 95.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, pp. 18–21.
- ISSN 0348-744X.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 15.
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1988, p. 22.
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1988, p. 32.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 17.
- ^ Krajčovič 1980, p. 13.
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1980, p. 51.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 33.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 35.
- ^ a b Krajčovič 1988, p. 63.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 84.
- ^ Majtánová, Marie (1976). "Postavenie duálu a používanie duálových tvarov v slovenčine predspisovného obdobia" (PDF). Slovenská reč. Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra Slovenskej akadémie vied: 83.
- ^ Krajčovič 1988, p. 86.
- ^ a b Letz, Belo. "Zjednodušenie v systéme skloňovania našich substantív" (PDF). Slovenská reč (8). Martin: Matica Slovenská: 206.
- ^ a b Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 29.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 32.
- ^ http://www.juls.savba.sk/ediela/sr/1986/2/sr1986-2-lq.pdf, p. 102
- ^ a b c Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 36.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 39.
- ^ a b Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 38.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 37.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 63.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 65.
- .
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 93.
- ^ Kačala & Krajčovič 2006, p. 128.
Bibliography
- Gabzdilová, Soňa (2014). Školský systém na Slovensku v medzivojnovej Československej republike (1918–1938) [The school system in Slovakia in the mid-war Czechoslovak republic (1918–1938)] (PDF) (in Slovak). Košice: Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach. ISBN 978-80-7079-813-3.
- Kačala, Ján; Krajčovič, Rudolf (2006). Prehlad dejín spisovnej slovenčiny [An Overview of the History of the Literal Slovak Language] (in Slovak). Martin: [Matica slovenská]. ISBN 80-7079-813-0.
- Kováč, Dušan; et al. (1998). Kronika Slovenska 1 (Chronicle of Slovakia 1). Chronicle of Slovakia (in Slovak) (1st ed.). Bratislava, Slovakia: FortunaPrint. ISBN 80-7153-174-X.
- Krajčovič, Rudolf (1980). Svedectvo dejin o slovenčine [History's evidence about Slovak] (in Slovak). Martin: Matica slovenská.
- Krajčovič, Rudolf (1988). Vývoj slovenského jazyka a dialektológia [The Development of the Slovak Language and Dialectology] (in Slovak). Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladeteľstvo.
- Krško, Jaromír (2013). "Niekoľko poznámok ku kontrakcii v slovenčine" [Comments on contraction in Slovak]. In Múcsková, Gabriela (ed.). Philologica LXXII (in Slovak). Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského. ISBN 978-80-223-3562-1.
- Pukanec, Martin (2013). Svätoplukovo kniežatstvo a stará slovenčina [The Principality of Svätopluk and Old Slovak] (in Slovak). Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre, Filozofická fakulta. ISBN 978-80-558-0363-0.
- Pukanec, Martin (2008). "Prečo nie je migračno-integračná teória o pôvode slovenčiny migračno-integračná" [Why is not the Migration-Integration Theory of the Origin of Slovak Migration-Integration]. In Gálisová, Anna; Chomová, Alexandra (eds.). Varia XV: zborník materiálov z XV. kolokvia mladých jazykovedcov (in Slovak). Banská Bystrica: Slovenská jazykovedná spoločnosť pri SAV, Katedra slovenského jazyka a literatúry FHV UMB v Banskej Bystrici. ISBN 978-80-89037-04-9.