National Romanticism: The Formation of National Movements

Ľudovít Štúr: The Slovak dialect, or the necessity of writing in this dialect

ĽUDOVÍT ŠTÚR: THE SLOVAK DIALECT, OR THE NECESSITY OF WRITING IN THIS DIALECT Title: Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí (The Slovak dialect, or the necessity of writing in this dialect) Originally published: Pressburg, Wigand, 1846 Language: Slovak The excerpts used are from Ľudovít Štúr, Dielo v piatich zväzkoch, vol. V, (Bratislava: SVKL, 1957), pp. 24–114. About the author Ľudovít Štúr [1815, Uhrovec (Hun. Zayugróc, present-day Slovakia) – 1856, Modra (Hun. Modor, Ger. Modern, present-day Slovakia)]: poet, politician, linguist and journalist. He was born into the family of a Lutheran teacher. He attended grammar school in Győr, and later enrolled at the Lutheran lyceum in Pressburg (Hun. Pozsony, Slo. Prešporok, today Bratislava). Later, as deputy professor at the ‘Department of Czecho-Slavic Language and Literature’ at the Pressburg lyceum he taught the history of Slavic literature and founded the ‘Institute of the Czechoslovak Language’ there. In 1838 he went to the University of Halle in Germany, where he came under the influence of the ideas of Herder and Hegel. In 1842 he initiated the first Slovak petition (Slovenský prestolný prosbopis) to the Court in Vienna, demanding that the government prevent the Hungarians from persecuting the Slovaks. One year later, Štúr and his friends decided to codify a standard Slovak language (based on the central Slovak dialect), for which in his Náuka reči slovenskej (Theory of the Slovak language) Štúr elaborated a grammatical and orthographic system. After he was deprived of his lecturership at the lyceum, he became a private scholar and founded the first Slovak political newspaper, Slovenskje narodnje novini (Slovak national newspaper), which included an important literary supplement, Orol tatransk ý (The eagle of Tatra). From November 1847 to April 1848 he was a member of the Hungarian Diet in Pressburg. In 1848 he was active in organizing the Slavic Congress in Prague and initiated the foundation of Slovanská lípa (The Slavic limetree ), an association aimed at promoting mutual cooperation among the Slavs. During the early phase of the 1848 revolution, he supported the program of the democratization of Hungarian political life and the federalization of the Empire, which should bring Slovakia autonomous status. In May 1848 he was among the initiators of the official petition Žiadosti slovenského národa (Requests of the Slovak Nation), demanding Slovak autonomy within Hungary. From September 1848 till November 1849, Štúr took part in the political and military activities of the Slovak uprising ĽUDOVÍT ŠTÚR: THE SLOVAK DIALECT 149 against the Hungarian government, hoping that the Habsburgs would make it possible for an autonomous Slovak entity to be created. However, the neo-absolutist regime introduced by Vienna after the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1849 proved to be equally unwilling to implement his demands. Prevented from public activity, he moved to Modra near Pressburg, where he lived under police surveillance . He continued his work on the codification of the Slovak language, while his political position radicalized in the direction of pan-Slavism, as witnessed by his book Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft, published posthumously in Russia in 1867. Štúr was the main creator of the political program of the Slovak national movement and modern Slovak national ideology, which was closely connected with the issue of the separation of the Slovak language from Czech. To this day he is referred to as the central personality in Slovak national ideology. Main works: Dumky večerní [Evening thoughts] (1838–1840); Die Beschwerden und Klagen der Slaven in Ungarn über die gesetzwidrigen Übergriffe der Magyaren [Complaints and grievances of the Slavs in Hungary regarding the illegal encroachments of the Magyars] (1843); Das neunzehnte Jahrhundert und der Magyarismus [The nineteenth century and Magyarism] (1845); Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí [The Slovak dialect, or the necessity of writing in this dialect] (1846); Náuka reči slovenskej [Theory of the Slovak language] (1846); O národních písních a pověstech plemen slovanských [On the national songs and myths of the Slavic races] (1853); Spevy a piesne [Hymns and songs] (1853); Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft [Slavdom and the world of the future] (German original 1931, Russian translation 1867, Slovak translation 1993). Context During the Hungarian Reform Age (1825–1848), the Magyar political leadership sought to reformulate the traditional natio hungarica—referring originally to the...