LITERARY SLOVAK LANGUAGE BEFORE AND AFTER REVOLUTION 1848/1849 (EPISODE WITH THE SO-CALLED OLD SLAVONIC SLOVAK) (Spisovna slovencina pred a po revolucii 1848/49 (epizoda s tzv. staroslovencinou))

Slovak evangelical intellectuals, leaded by Ludovit Stur, made a decision to establish the Middle Slovak language as a new nationwide literary language at the Evangelic lycee in Bratislava on 14th February 1843. Nevertheless, some Slovak intellectuals, either Catholic or Evangelic ones, disapproved new Slovak literary language from the very beginning. They were headed by J. Kollar. Despite of his authority, the new Slovak language has spontaneously been accepted within the Slovakia region already before the Revolution in 1848 - 1849. The situation has been gradually changed after the Revolution, when J. Kollar became to be the governmental secretary for the Slovaks in Vienna. On the initiative of him, the Austrian government, after the Revolution, did not implement, as it was generally expected, the Middle Slovak language of Ludovit Stur as an official and literary language for all Slovaks; it implemented so-called Old Slavonic language, which, factually, was the Czech language with some small variations of the Slovak language (especially in the field of grammar and lexis). This artificial, unnatural language was used officially and in the teaching process only to the year 1859. Then it was officially cancelled by the Austrian government in 1861.