Lexical Germanisms in the Biographies of the Czech Exiles Living in Berlin in the 2nd Half of the 18th Century
Abstract
The article deals with lexical Germanisms found in the manuscript autobiographies of Czech emigrants, who lived and died in the 2nd half of the 18th century in Berlin and Rixdorf and became members of the Unitas fratrum renewed by count Zinzendorf. Although these people spent in exile on average 30 years, their texts are not rich in words borrowed from German and, moreover, most of the borrowings detected are common also in Czech texts written in Bohemia and Moravia.
However, some new borrowings were noticed, referring mostly to phenomena not known to the emigrants before. On the other hand, some common borrowings are not used any more in the exile, as the Brethren endeavour to separate themselves from the life before their "awakeningˮ also on the level of terminology.