Ale však - však ale v dějinách češtiny

The subject of this study consists of two compound connectives, „ale však“ and „však ale“, (“but however” and “however but”) which were present in older forms of the Czech language and which persisted into the National Revival era, but which were eventually rejected by modern Czech. The study focuses on the order of the two components of the connectives. The author analyzed data from secondary literature, old grammars of Czech, diachronic corpora and a private corpus of Baroque Czech texts. On the basis of this analysis, it was found that the change in the order from „ale však“ to „však ale“ took place in the 18th century (after 1710). This change is connected to the fact that 1) „ale“ began to fill non-initial positions in the clause from the 18th century onwards, and 2) „však“ was not an enclitic. The rapid spread of „však ale“ dates from the 18th century and it continued during the National Revival period. This can be viewed as evidence of the uninterrupted continuity of Standard Czech between the Baroque period and the National Revival. If Standard Czech had experienced a hiatus between these two periods – as is traditionally assumed – only the form „ale však“ would have occurred in the language of the first half of the 19th century.