Czechs, Slovaks, and the Slovak Linguistic Separatism of the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

When a small group of Slovaks, meeting at the Evangelical lyceum in Bratislava early in 1843, decided that from thenceforth they would write only in the Slovak language, they were in effect publicly declaring their existence as an independent nation in Central Europe. Though only some six students and their leader, L’udovít Štúr, were present, their decision was quickly accepted by most active Slovak patriots; and in spite of some difficulties during the Bach era of the 1850s, the language of these patriots codified established itself as the separate literary language of the Slovak nation.¹ This decision was to have far-reaching consequences, for it proved to be a decisive break with the tradition of ‘Czechoslovak’ cultural and linguistic unity, previously subscribed to by practically all Czechs and most Slovaks. The ‘Czechoslovak’ idea proved quite hardy however, surviving to become fundamental to the state ideology of the Czechoslovak republic between 1918 and 1938; and although contemporary thought in the Czech and Slovak federative republic no longer claims the existence of a single ‘Czechoslovak nation’ with two ‘branches’, the prickly issue of relations between these two kindred peoples remains politically significant.²