Modern Czech History of the Czech language

sample (1846)

the period 1780s 1840s. abolition of serfdom in 1781 (by joseph ii) caused migration of country inhabitants towns. enabled implementation of ideas of czech national awakeners renewal of czech language. however, people s language , literary genres of previous period strange enlightened intelligentsia. literary language of end of 16th century , of komenský’s work became starting point new codification of literary czech. of various attempts @ codification, josef dobrovský’s grammar accepted. purists attempts cleanse language of germanisms (both real , fictitious) had been occurring time. publication of josef jungmann’s five-part czech-german dictionary (1830–1835) contributed renewal of czech vocabulary. enthusiasm of czech scientists, czech scientific terminology created.

step step, orthography liberated relics of brethren orthography. according etymology, si, zi or sy, zy came written, cy replaced ci. antiqua introduced instead of fractura in printing, , led removal of digraph ʃʃ , replacement letter š. long í replaced j, , j replaced g (gegj > její, hers). in 1840s, double w replaced v , ou replaced traditional au. thus, orthography became close contemporary appearance. according german model, punctuation leaves pause principle , respects syntax.

the artistic literature resorted archaisms , did not respect natural development of spoken language. due attempts reach prestige literal styles.

literary czech has not been exclusive matter of intellectual classes since 1840s. journalism developing , artistic works got closer spoken language, in syntax. in 1902, jan gebauer published first rules of czech orthography, contained overview of morphology. these rules still preferred older forms in doublets.

during 20th century, elements of spoken language (of common czech especially) penetrated literary czech. orthography of foreign words germanized respect german pronunciation, writing z instead of s , marking vowel length (e.g. gymnasium > gymnázium, grammar school). social changes after world war ii (1945) led gradual diminishing of differences between dialects. since second half of 20th century, common czech elements have been spreading regions unaffected, consequence of media s influence.