New book: Slovak historical linguistics

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Genesis of the
Slovak Literary Language

KONSTANTIN VASILIEVICH LIFANOV
Lomonosov State University of Moscow

Contrary to Slovak historical linguistics, the Slovak Literary Language
did not arise in the 18th century as a result of Anton Bernolak's
codification of the West Slovak dialect. It developed gradually, over a
much longer period of time from the Old Czech Literary Language, which
was adopted by the Slovaks as their own written medium as early as by
the end of the 14th century. As a result of its interaction with mainly
the West Slovak dialect, its specific Slovak version arose in the 15th
century. By the 1630s, this written standard acquired the features of an
original literary language, separate from the literary language based on
the Prague standard.
However, since the first decades of the 17th century, a further
development of this written standard was complicated by the
Counter-Reformation. The use of the literary language followed different
paths among the Lutherans and among the Catholics. The Old Slovak
Literary Language attained a high degree of development among the
Catholics. Rich and varied spiritual literature was written in this
language, including a translation of the Bible in 1750, high-quality
secular baroque poetry, etc. In the 1780s, this standard was codified by
Bernolak.
Diglossia emerged among the Lutherans. They used both the Czech Literary
Language and the Old Slovak Literary Language. However, they did not
perceive the latter one as a literary norm and considered it acceptable
only in the "low" kinds of literature -- e.g., in popular poetry -- and
in administrative and legal documents. This diglossia was not abolished
until the 1820s, which opened the way for Ludovit Stur's codification of
the Modern Slovak Literary Language based on the Central Slovak folklore
koine.

Contents: Introduction. Chapter 1. The main thesis of the general theory
of literary language. Chapter 2. The formation of specific idiom
functioning in Catholic spiritual literature of the XVIth - XVIIIth
centuries and Bernolak's codification. Chapter 3. Interrelation of
Catholic "high" poetry language of the XVIIth - XVIIIth centuries and
the language of spiritual literature. Chapter 4. The character of
territorial differentiation and the evolution of the language of Slovak
administrative-legal documents.  Chapter 5. Central Slovak koine and the
language of poetry from the end of XVIIIth to the beginning of the XIXth
centuries. Chapter 6. A new concept of the genesis of the Slovak
Literary language. Conclusion. [written in Russian]

ISBN 3 89586 442 0.
LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 21.
Ca. 220pp. USD 70 / DM 128 / # 44.




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