Johann Wenzel Pohl

Johann Wenzel Pohl , in the Czech form of the name in January Václav Pól , (* 1720 in Hradec Kralove , † 23. June 1790 in Vienna ) was a Czech he grammarian of the 18th century.

Life

The origins of Pohl and his education are in the dark - he himself stated that he was born in Königgrätz , but his baptism cannot be documented there in the church records. From 1746 he was a teacher of the “Bohemian language” at the Theresianum , and around 1755 he also taught Czech to the heir to the throne and later Emperor Joseph II . In 1756 he published under the title Grammatica linguae bohemicae or Die Böhmische Sprach = Art consisting in four parts ... a Czech grammar that went through four further editions (1764, 1773, 1776 and 1783), from the third edition under the title Newly improved Bohemian grammar all necessary good principles… .

The first two editions were still largely based on the older grammar of Václav Jan Rosa , later Pohl suggested several changes to the spelling , but above all he tried to expand the Czech vocabulary through numerous neologisms . Especially because of the last point he was sharply criticized by Josef Dobrovský , who accused him of lack of knowledge of Czech and in fact caused Pohl's suggestions to not be accepted in the actual Czech language area. A large dictionary planned by Pohl finally did not appear in print after Dobrovský František had Jan Tomsa prompted him to speed up the publication of his dictionary. Also an orthography treatise published in 1786 under the title True founded Bohemian spelling with basically proven evidence of the necessary use of the K. K. noble academies, and all lovers of this language and its Czech equivalent were hardly considered.

From the early 19th century, Pohl's grammar was considered the epitome of bad Czech and the memory of it was invoked again and again in numerous linguistic histories without ever having been examined more closely (the only exception are the polemical articles by A. Lisický). It was not until the 1990s that a somewhat more positive evaluation of Pohl's work became established.

literature

• Berger, Tilman (2000): Czech lessons in the Habsburg family from 1526. Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch 46, 61–71.
• Newerkla, Stefan Michael (1999): Johann Wenzel Pohl - linguistic purism between late baroque and Czech renewal. In: The Czech Baroque. Language, literature, culture (edited by Jiří Holý & Gertraude Zand), Frankfurt a. M. & Vienna: Peter Lang, 49–67.
• Newerkla, Stefan Michael (2000): Czech lessons in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt until 1775. Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch 46, 73–84.
• Pavkovič, Aleksander (2011): Czech and Slovenian in comparison of their written and standard language development (Slavic articles, 478), Munich: Otto Sagner, 61–146.

Web links

• Literature and other media by and about Johann Wenzel Pohl in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic