The Language Act (1920): Czech Revenge, Reinforcement of the National Character of the State, Economic and Social Pragmatism, or the Refinement of the Tradition of Bilingualism? Comments on Opinions of the Czech Public of the Importance of the State Language
Abstract
The introductory subchapter deals with the unequal status of the Czech language on the Austrian state and in the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as with its identity - constituting (symbolic, integrative) importance. The unsuccessful fight for making the Czech language equal with the dominant (in fact state) - i.e.
German - had been strongly politicised since the 1870s. However, the Czech society entered the first Czechoslovak Republic with the experience of World War I, during which the Czech language diminished in importance even more.
The second subchapter analyses the official Czech thinking after a so-called coup. The third subchapter concerns two points of view of the Language Act as a part of a constitutional law (29 February 1920), which established the Czech and Slovak languages as the official state languages of the republic.
The fourth subchapter is dedicated to the Czech assessment of the new constitution, which was perceived as a great work of the young democracy and as the basis of the Czech state independence. The fifth subchapter points out how the new constitution was abused for a political fight in which all large political parties, except for the Social Democratic Party, got involved.
While the sixth subchapter deals with the negative attitude of Czech-German policy to the Language Act, the seventh subchapter analyses extreme Czech conceptions. The final subchapter then documents the discrepancy between the Czech-German policy of refusing the Czech language and the Czech-German practice of reasonable acceptance of learning Czech as an economic and social must.