Akademické počátky české jazykovědné bohemistiky
Academic Origins of Czech Linguistic Bohemistics

Summary/Abstract: For more than three decades, Czech linguists strove to establish an institution devoted to Czech linguistic bohemistics in the area of theoretical research as well as the practical care of the Czech language. That did not happen until 1946, when Ustav pro jazyk cesky (‘Institute for the Czech Language’) was established, with the Kancelar Slovniku jazyka ceskeho (‘Office for the Dictionary of the Czech Language’) considered as its first direct predecessor. The Office, however, was primarily focused on lexicography (even though the concept of standardisation, regional dialects, orthography, orthoepy, stylistic characteristics of words, etymology and other disciplines also required attention, too, given the comprehensive approach to the preparation of an interpretative dictionary), and was included in the Institute as its Department of Lexicography. The establishment of the other departments of the Institute was then influenced by the – sometimes non-systemic – activities of the Class III. committees, and sometimes joint Class I, III and IV committees, of the Czech Academy which either wholly or in part dealt with the linguistic aspects of the matter. The Department of Dialectology at the Institute was able to build upon the earlier research carried out by the Committee for Dialectology, the Department for the Study of New Standardised Czech Language followed up on the activities of the Committee for Orthoepy, the Department of Language History used the materials produced by the Committee for the Study of the Old Czech Bible and the Committee for Photocopying Manuscripts and Old Prints. Work on gathering linguistic papers was transferred smoothly from the Committee for Bibliography to the Department of Bibliography at the Institute. The Cabinet of Phonetics, established at the Institute in 1953, directly based its work on the papers produced by the Committee for Phonography, Committee for Orthoepy and Committee for Phonetics. The Department of Onomastics, included in the Institute for the Czech Language no earlier than in 1969, was a direct successor of the Committee for Topography.

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