Informatologia, Vol. 50 No. 3-4, 2017.
Original scientific paper
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGE SITUATION IN THE SOUTH-BOHEMIAN BORDERLAND
Alena Jaklová
; Fakulty of Philosophy, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Abstract
Owing to intense contacts with German-speaking territories, Czech lands, and in particular their border areas, were bilingual from as early as the Middle Ages. Germans started to settle in Bohemia in the late 10th century and remained a substantial minority there until the end of WWII. In 1945-1946, on the basis of a decision adopted at the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945, they were moved out of the country. Nevertheless, the historical national structure of the population still has a bearing on the present language situation in the Czech Republic, especially in its border areas. Despite efforts of the Czechoslovak government in the second half of the 1940s to prioritise Czech national aspects, the Czech language retained a complete system of German surnames, whose frequency is strikingly higher in the border areas compared to the interior of the country. These surnames also show area-specific semantic motivation and phonological features, pointing to territories from which the ancestors of South-Bohemian Germans once arrived in Bohemia.
Keywords
Czech lands; Germans; Czech language; German surnames
Hrčak ID:
192049
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2017.
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