Naše řeč v roce 1817
Our speech in 1817

Summary/Abstract: The text is devoted not to the journal Naše řeč [Our Speech], but to “our speech”, i.e. Czech, as mirrored in a handbook of Czech orthography (Hanka, 1817). This pamphlet was the initial part of the conflict between “iotists” (followers of Dobrovský and Hanka’s Czech orthography reform) and “ypsilonists” (their conservative opponents). Part (1) outlines the historical context of Pravopis český [Czech Orthography] from 1817 and its contents. Part (2) deals with the last part of Hanka’s pamphlet — the list of words for which speakers of Czech had to deal with the problematic transition from the spoken to the written form. Hanka recorded many orthographically incorrect forms of the words. An unintended result of his work was a kind of “recording” of contemporary spoken Czech (the most frequent examples of the recorded phenomena were cluster reduction, voicing assimilation and articulatory assimilation). Part (3) considers the theoretical importance of this list as a unique document of the Czech from Hanka’s time. The list reveals much about the actual pronunciation of Czech from that period, as well as the difficulties connected with the “translation” from spoken to written Czech.

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