Lifanov on literary Slovak

[Martin Votruba]

Info about a book published in February 2001.


K. V. Lifanov (2000) Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackix katolikov 16-18
vv. i kodifikacija A. Bernolaka.  Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo
universiteta.  118 pp.  ISBN 5-211-03910-1


In the 1950s, Slovak historical linguists, agreeing with earlier Czech
research, concluded that literary Slovak was first established by Jesuit
priest from Orava Anton Bernolak in the 1780s.  Before him, the written
norm was literary Czech with varying degrees of regional Slovak
influences.  Relatively little research into literary standards before
Bernolak was carried after that, and the conclusions from the 1950s have
been maintained since.

Extensive analyses of any pre-Bernolak norms and standards did not
reappear until the 1990s and, interestingly, they were carried out by
authors from outside Slovakia -- Lubomir Durovic at the University of
Lund, Sweden; Mark Lauersdorf now at Luther University, Iowa; and
Konstantin Lifanov at Moscow State University.

In February 2001, Moscow University published Lifanov's book on the
language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the 16th
through the 18th centuries.  His conclusion is that, contrary to the
earlier assumptions, Slovak authors had a written standard separate from
the written standard of Prague since the 16th century.  After the 1530s,
ongoing changes in the Prague written standard gradually ceased to be
picked up by Slovak writers.  They began to rely on their own traditions,
first in religious writing and later in administrative texts, as well.
The developing standard involved both a retention of grammatical features
obsolete by that time in the written standard of Prague, as well as an
establishment of Slovak features in many instances when the two languages
differed.  This was the written standard of both the Catholic and Lutheran
authors.  While Slovak works from the 1950s said that three regional
written varieties were developing -- western, central and eastern, Lifanov
concludes that there was essentially only one recognized literary standard
which mainly relied on western Slovak features.

According to Lifanov, Bernolak's grammar from the 1780s was not a new
standardization, but a codification of the Slovak written standard which
had been in place since the early 17th century.  Only the Lutheran
ecclesiastical writing and poetry (but not necessarily their other texts)
took a different path during the counter-Reformation, but they did not use
the contemporary Prague written standard, either.  Rather, they followed
the archaic style of an earlier Czech Protestant translation of the Bible.
-- It is worth noting that although his research may not converge with
Lifanov's, Durovic showed in a recent paper that Bernolak drew on a
grammar book from the 1740s by Lutheran minister Pavel Dolezal. -- Lifanov
says the pre-existing Slovak written standard was well established to the
point that even those who welcomed Bernolak's codification respected it
where it agreed with the existing norm, but often went along with the
traditional standard where Bernolak's grammar diverged from it.

To sum up, the Slovaks adopted the Czech written norm in the 14th century.
Lifanov argues that it diverged from the Prague standard after the 1530s.
According to his new book, a Slovak written standard developed by the
1610s and lived on through the major standardizations in the middle of the
19th century.



Martin Votruba,  votruba+ at pitt.edu
Slovak Studies Program
University of Pittsburgh

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