New books: Slovak Literary Language

[890003149593]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
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.




New: A Students' and course discount of 40% is offered to the above
     title.

Free copies of LINCOM's newsflashes 24 and 25 are now
available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany;
FAX +49 89 62269404;
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.