Approaching the Rise of Spoken Standard Language: The Case of Polish, Czech, and Slovak, 1800-1918

Abstract

THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume 8o, Number 4-October 2002 Approaching the Rise of Spoken Standard Language: The Case of Polish, Czech, and Slovak, 800- I9I8 KAREN GAMMELGAARD Introduction A FUNDAMENTAL difference exists between linguistic communities wherethe standardlanguageexistsonly in itswrittenvariety,and those where the written standardhas been adapted to serve as a norm for speaking.The emergence of thisspokenvarietyis a turningpoint in the history of linguistic stratification: the dichotomy situation (written standard versus dialects) moves to a trichotomy situation (written standard spoken standard dialects). Several variables cause the adaptation. In the process of analysis, the paramount difficultylies in identifyingthe factorsand determiningtheirrelativesignificance. This paper proposes an approach to the rise of the spoken standard where focus on five extra-linguisticfactors is advocated. By applying the approach to Polish, Czech, and Slovak, we may evaluate the adequacyof the approach.Using theproposedmethod on severalcases is required:attention to a single language may result in exaggerating the importanceof singlevariables. Firstof all, it shouldbe stressedthat the very term 'spokenstandard' is problematic. It is used here only of the spoken reflection of an establishedwrittenstandard,not of the formalregisterof speech that is Karen Gammelgaard is associate professor of Czech language and literature at the Department of East European and Oriental Studies at the University of Oslo. 602 THE RISE OF SPOKEN STANDARD LANGUAGE most often the basis of the written standard. The term will be readdressedin section eight.' Polish,Czech, and Slovakare geneticallyand typologicallyadjacent. Includedin theWesternsubgroupof the Slavoniclanguages,proximity has been defined on the basis of old phonological developments. Morphology, lexicon and syntax, however, show considerable differences , especiallybetween Polishon the one hand and Czech and Slovak on the other.2The decisivereasonwhy thesethreelanguageshave been selected for discussion here is their modern polyfunctionality: only these West Slavonic languages are today used in all standardlanguage functions, including those linked with statehood which Polish, Czech, and to a somewhatlimited extent, Slovakgained in I9I 8.3 In the century leading up to I9I8, the Poles, the Czechs, and the Slovakswere subjectsof largemulti-ethnicempires.The term 'national revival'coversthe diverseprocessesin the nineteenth centurywhen the Slavonic nations struggledto restoretheirculturaland politicalvigour. 1 Since they lack common definitory criteria, Polish, Czech, and Slovak terms more or less covering the phenomenon of the spoken standard will not be used here. Some equivalences between Slavonic and English terms used in the study of standard language are listed in A. Jedlicka (ed.), Slovnikslovanske lingvistickiterminologie, 2 vols, Hamburg, 1977, I,pp. 22-27. 2 For a traditional survey of phonological differences between the three main groups of Slavonic languages, see e.g. Karel Horalek, Uvoddostudiaslovanskjch jazyku, Prague, I 955, pp. 56-59. Modern scholars tend to use a less rigid classification of the Slavonic languages, see, for example, Arnost Lamprecht, Praslovanstina,Brno, I987. Recent surveys of contrastive studies of Polish, Czech, and Slovak are Eduard Lotko, 'Cestina a polstina', in J. Korensky (ed.), NJajnowsze dziejejCzyk6w stowianiskich, Ceskjj'azyk,Opole, I998, pp. 33-43 (Polish versus Czech), and J. Korensky, 'Cestina a slovenstina', in ibid., pp. 20-33 (Czech versus Slovak). Contrastive studies of Polish and Slovak appeared in the series Studia Linguistica Polono-Slovaca, 4 vols, I988- I994. Standard Polish and standard Slovak morphology have recently been compared by Ferdinand Buffa, 'K pol'sko-slovenskym jazykovym vztahom (na tvaroslovnom a slovotvornom materiAli)', Slavica slovaca, 33, I 998, 2, pp. I09-I6. A survey of morphological systems of the Slavonic standard languages is provided in Helena BelicovA, Ncstinporovndvaci morfologie spisovnjchjazyku slovanskjch, Prague, I998. 3 No attention will be paid here to West Slavonic languages that have never reached polyfunctionality. In the period under scrutiny, several attempts were made to transform West Slavonic languages into fully-fledged standard languages. This concerns Kashubian, see, for example, Zuzana Topolifiska, 'Kashubian', in A. M. Schenker and E. Stankiewicz (eds), The SlavicLiteraryLanguages,New Haven, CT, I980, pp. I83-94, and Upper and Lower Sorbian, see, for example, Helmut Faske, 'Der Weg des Sorbischen zur Schriftsprache ', in I. Fodor and C. Hagege (eds), LanguageReform.History and Future,6 vols, Hamburg, I983- I994, 6, pp. 257-83. Written East Slovak continued to be used in a set of standard language functions: see, for example, Ernst Eichler, Geschichte der Slowakischen Sprache,Leipzig, I982, pp. 68-69. Additionally...