Phonetic slovakization of the Czech language by evangelical authors

As is known, Slovak Protestants generally considered Czech to be a model written language, the norms of which they sought to follow. At the same time, certain Evangelical texts reveal a trend for their slovakization, the object of this study. These texts, written in the XVII–XIX centuries by Evangelical authors, relate to high genres of writing: catechisms by Martin Luther, translations of J. A. Komenský’s works, and literary texts from the almanac “Zora”. A comparison of the language of these texts shows that they differ in the degree of their slovakization, significantly less pronounced in the catechisms. At the same time, the fiction texts of the almanac “Zora” (XIX century) are most closely resonate with the language of “Rosarium Animae” by D. Pribiš (XVII century).

The paper also shows that Evangelical texts reveal a different type of slovakization compared to Catholic religious literature and lower writing genres, common to both the Catholics and the Protestants. The language of Protestant authors was influenced by the Middle Slovak dialect, while the idiom used in Catholic writings originating from South-Western Slovakia shows predominantly Western Slovak traces. This explains the choice by Protestant Ľ. Štúr of the Middle Slovak dialect for the base of the literary language codified by him. Notably, however, the emerging Protestant tendency to slovakize Czech texts being rather weak and peripheral, the Protestants continued to focus on the Czech literary language until the codification by Ľ. Štúr.