Česká jazykovědná bohemistika v období 1939–1945 (k 80. výročí konce druhé světové války)
Czech linguistic studies in the period 1939–1945 (On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II)

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the state of Czech linguistic studies during the period 1939–1945. It poses the central question: What form did research take under the constraints of Germanization and Nazi terror? Its objective is to assemble a mosaic of the principal developments in wartime Czech linguistic studies. Methodologically, the study is grounded in rigorous heuristics of primary sources, while simultaneously engaging with and respecting the corpus of existing secondary literature. Fully cognizant of the tragic nature of the era, the article seeks to recontextualize contemporary sources and draws attention to several hitherto underexamined areas—such as the linguistic activities of German scholars and professors operating within the occupied territories. It highlights the inherent contradictions of linguistic life under wartime conditions: on the one hand, the occupying regime enacted unequivocally repressive measures, including the suspension of key scholarly journals such as Slovo a slovesnost and Slavia; on the other hand, certain overtly national projects were tolerated—albeit in a curtailed form. These included the uninterrupted publication of Naše řeč, the founding of the Czech Philological Journal, the sustained scholarly output of Section III (the Philological Division) of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, the gradual compilation of the Concise Dictionary of the Czech Language, and the educational and professional endeavors of linguistic societies, most notably the Prague Linguistic Circle and the Circle of Friends of the Czech Language. The period also witnessed the emergence of specialized studies and monographs, as well as the popularization of the Czech language through nationwide media channels. Such paradoxical phenomena are typically interpreted as manifestations of the occupying power’s strategic interest in cultivating and sustaining the illusion of political—and by extension, cultural—autonomy within the former Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In this context, philological activities were not merely tolerated but actively incorporated into the framework of official cultural policy.

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