Orthographia Bohemica

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edition by Alois Šembera, 1857

Orthographia Bohemica (German: Czech spelling ) is an anonymously created Latin script from the beginning of the 15th century, in which a diacritical spelling is proposed for the first time for the Czech language . The Czech reformer Jan Hus is considered a possible author . The writing has a great importance for the history of Slavic philology .

Author and dating

The exact author and the time of origin are not known. The Bohemian reformer Jan Hus is generally accepted as the author , the date is given as 1406 or 1412. Both information are based on historical and philological analyzes, the sources do not contain this information. Researchers who doubt Hus' authorship put the origin in the 30s of the 15th century.

Discovery and Publication

Jan Hus is considered to be the author of the font

The Czech historian Frantisek Palacky discovered the manuscript in 1826 in an archive in Trebon Castle in South Bohemia Trebon (Trebon) , he called Jan Hus as an author. He made this find known a year later in the first edition of his newly founded journal Časopis společnosti vlastenského Museum v Čechách (“Journal of the Society of the National Museum in Bohemia ”).

But it wasn't until 30 years later that Palacký made a copy of the manuscript and sent it to Alois Šembera , Professor of the Czech Language at the University of Vienna , for publication . Šembera published the Latin text together with a Czech translation in the Slavic Library in Vienna in 1857 . A year later, Václav Flajšhans published a Czech translation with a short foreword in the fifth volume of Mistra Jana Husi sebraných spisů ("Collected Works of Magister Jan Hus") in Prague . It is the last Czech translation to date. The Latin text appeared twice: first the unchanged Šembera edition in a new edition of the Slavic Library in Amsterdam in 1965, and then a new edition together with an annotated German translation by J. Schröpfer in Wiesbaden in 1968.

The Latin text by Šembera is based on the copy by Palacký, the edition by Schröpfer is based on the Wittingau manuscript. Both editions are not flawless.

content

The abecedarium from Orthographia Bohemica in the edition by Alois Šembera, 1857

The author wants to simplify and unify the Czech spelling so that the language can be read and written more clearly and easily. Instead of using digraphs and trigraphs - where a sound is represented by several letters - he suggests the use of diacritical marks. According to the principle of “one sound - one letter”, each sound should be represented with only one letter, related sounds should be distinguished by additional diacritical marks. Only in the case of “ch” does he deviate from this principle.

In the introduction he says:

“ Since the Latin alphabet cannot be sufficient for the spelling of the Czech language, because those who write in Czech are divided, spell incorrectly and thus make it difficult to pronounce correctly when reading, I have made what seems to me to be a useful decision to use the Latin alphabet To shorten the purposes of spelling Czech somewhat, to fill in its shortcomings and to specify the various values ​​of the characters; therefore the alphabet is first given in its characters and only then explained with words as examples. We Czechs would not need such an alphabet if we had our own characters that are adapted to our language. "

- From Orthographia Bohemica, German translation by Johann Schröpfer 1968

The script is preceded by an abecedarium that contains all the letters required by the author. A sample word is attached to each letter; these words one after the other result in mnemonics to help you memorize the alphabet.

The main proposed changes can be summarized as follows:

  • Simple Latin letters (including the Latin digraph “ch”) should be used to write those Czech sounds that sound in Latin like the corresponding sounds in medieval Czech. The author makes the only difference with "c". This letter should only be used for the sound "ts" [pronounced like z. B. German in “fence” or “cat”], never for the sound “k” [pronounced like z. B. German in "Korb"].
  • Czech consonants that have no equivalent in Latin should be written with related Latin letters with a dot (Latin punctus rotundus ) over them: ċ, ḋ, l̇, ṅ, ṙ, ṡ, ṫ and ż. At the time, the Czech language had seven soft consonants and the hard "l" in addition to Latin. The punctus rotundus is supposed to denote the soft pronunciation over c, d, n, r, s, t, z , the punctus rotundus over "l" the hard pronunciation. Without the diacritical mark, the letters should be pronounced as in Latin.
  • Long vowels (which Latin has but not denoted with diacritical marks) should, according to Orthographia Bohemica , be written over the related short vowel with a line ( acute ) (Latin gracilis virgula ). These are: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý .

A comparison with the spellings used until then shows the paramount importance of this spelling reform . For the Czech consonant ř z. For example, according to the historical grammar of Czech (“Historická mluvnice jazyka českého”) by Jan Gebauer, the following spellings were used in various manuscripts: rz, rrz, rs, rzs, rzss, zr, sr, rzs, rzz . The word čas (in today's spelling), pronounced in German like “tschas”, in German “time”, could be written as: chzazz, czas, czass or czzas . Long vowels were e.g. Sometimes doubled: the word komár (in today's spelling), in German "Mücke", was z. B. written "comaar". In other manuscripts, the length of the vowels was indicated with other characters or not at all. One could not assume that the same writer always used the same spelling, the spelling varied e.g. Sometimes even in the same manuscript.

Importance and Influence

The historian František Palacký, discoverer of the manuscript

Orthographia Bohemica is the first known script that proposes such a spelling reform for a Slavic language. It is still unknown where Jan Hus, if he was the author, got inspiration for his work from. His good knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, and Glagolitic scriptures will have played a role. Glagolitic was used by monks in the Emmaus Monastery in Prague. As a preacher and teacher, he also had a good knowledge of contemporary language and spelling. The importance of his spelling reform lies in its good applicability and in the simple logical structure of his alphabet.

Diacritical spelling took a long time to gain acceptance. It only became more widespread with book printing and especially after the appearance of Náměšťská mluvnice (“Grammar of Náměšť”), the first Czech grammar from 1533, which was printed in Moravia. The reform caught on more slowly among writers than in printed books . But even in the 16th century, some book printers or scribes ignored the rules in Orthographia Bohemica and used the old digraphs, e.g. B. "ss" for today's "š" [pronounced like z. B. German in "Schuh"], but the spelling was more uniform at the time.

Preserved manuscripts

The original manuscript of Orthographia Bohemica has not survived. The only completely preserved copy, the Wittingau manuscript, comes from the monk Oldřich Kříž from Třeboň, who wrote it in the second half of the 15th century. Palacký discovered this copy in 1826. It has no title, the title Orthographia Bohemica comes from Palacký. The age of the original manuscript cannot be precisely determined. At the end of the Wittingau manuscript is "In die Leonardi" (= November 6th), without the year. It can mean both the date of the original writing and the date on which Kříž completed the copy.

In addition to the Wittingau manuscript, there are also excerpts from Orthographia Bohemica in the archive of the Prague cathedral chapter, and there are a few surviving copies of the Abecedarium alone. Both the Wittingau manuscript and the manuscript of the Prague cathedral chapter contain grammatical and stylistic errors. The original author of Orthographia Bohemica must have mastered the Latin language flawlessly. He correctly recognized the differences between the Latin and Czech sounds, he described the pronunciation of the Czech sounds and he was also familiar with the peculiarities of other languages. It is therefore assumed that the linguistic quality of the original was better than that of the copies we received. A critical edition and a comparison of all surviving manuscripts are still pending.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The authority of the renowned historian Palacký was most likely decisive for the fact that, despite the lack of evidence, Jan Hus was later generally accepted as an author.
  2. ↑ The original punctus rotundus over the soft consonant later became so-called hooks (Czech háček ). The current notation of soft consonants is: č, ď, ň, ř, š, ť, ž . Punctus rotundus above "l" disappeared.
  3. ↑ The acute acute (Czech čárka ) over the vowels has remained unchanged to this day. The distinction between long and short vowels is important in Czech, as this can change the meaning of the word. z. B. byt = apartment, být = to be.

See also

literature

  • Orthographia Bohemica . Ed. Kateřina Voleková, Czech translation Ondřej Koupil, English translation Marcela Koupilová and David Livingstone. Praha: Akropolis, 2019. ISBN 978-80-7470-234-1
  • Vidmanová, Anežka: Ke spisku Orthographia Bohemica . In: Listy filologické (= Philological sheets) . No. 105, 1982, pp. 75-89 (Czech, JSTOR [accessed on January 17, 2017] with a German resume).
  • Schröpfer, Johann: Hussens treatise "Orthographia Bohemica" - The origin of the diacritical system in the writing of Slavic languages ​​and the oldest coherent description of Slavic sounds . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968 (142 pages, contains the treatise in Latin with an annotated German translation).
  • Šembera, Alois: Mistra Jana Husi Ortografie Česká (Magistri Joannis Hus Orthographia Bohemica) . Vienna 1857 (Latin, Czech, available online [accessed January 17, 2017]).
  • Bartoš, FM: K Husovu spisku o českém pravopise . In: Jihočeský sborník historický . No. 18 . Tábor 1949, p. 33-38 (Czech).
  • Hus, Jan: Pravopis český . In: Mistra Jana Husi Sebrané spisy. Svazek V. Spisy české, díl II. Praha 1858, p. 105–113 (Latin, Czech, Přel. Milan Svoboda, úvody a vysvětlivkami opatřil prof. Dr. Václav Flajšhans).
  • Gebauer, Jan: Historická mluvnice jazyka českého. Díl I, Hláskosloví . Československá Akademie Věd (ČSAV), Praha 1963 (Czech).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Vidmanová, Anežka: Ke spisku Orthographia Bohemica . In: Listy filologické (= Philological sheets) . No. 105, 1982, pp. 75-76 (Czech, JSTOR [accessed on January 17, 2017] with a German resume).
  2. ↑ Palacký, František: zprávy Literní . In: Časopis společnosti vlastenského Museum v Čechách (= Journal of the Society of the National Museum in Bohemia). První roční běh. Svazek první. České Museum . Praha 1827, p. 132-140 (Czech).
  3. ↑ Schröpfer, Johann: Huss treatise "Orthographia Bohemica" - The origin of the diacritical system of Slavonic in the case of Slavic languages and the oldest coherent description sounds . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 59 (142 p., Contains the treatise in Latin with a commented German translation).
  4. ^ A b Schröpfer, Johann: Hussens treatise "Orthographia Bohemica" - The origin of the diacritical system in the writing of Slavic languages ​​and the oldest coherent description of Slavic sounds . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 18, 25–27 (142 p., Contains the treatise in Latin with an annotated German translation).
  5. ↑ Šembera, Alois: Mistra Jana Husi Ortografie Česká (Magistri Joannis Hus Orthographia Bohemica) . Vienna 1857, p. 5-6 (Latin, Czech, available online [accessed January 17, 2017]).
  6. ^ Gebauer, Jan: Historická mluvnice jazyka českého. Díl I, Hláskosloví . Československá Akademie Věd (ČSAV), Praha 1963 (Czech).
  7. ↑ Schröpfer, Johann: Huss treatise "Orthographia Bohemica" - The origin of the diacritical system of Slavonic in the case of Slavic languages and the oldest coherent description sounds . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 20–21, 46–47 (142 p., Contains the treatise in Latin with an annotated German translation).
  8. ↑ Schröpfer, Johann: Huss treatise "Orthographia Bohemica" - The origin of the diacritical system of Slavonic in the case of Slavic languages and the oldest coherent description sounds . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 13 (142 p., Contains the treatise in Latin with a commented German translation).
  9. ↑ a b Vidmanová, Anežka: Ke spisku Orthographia Bohemica . In: Listy filologické (= Philological sheets) . No. 105, 1982, pp. 75, 79, 88 (Czech, JSTOR [accessed on January 17, 2017] with a German resume).

Web links

  • Jan Hus and Hatschek Jitka Mládková on Radio Prague on June 20, 2015. Accessed on January 17, 2017