Orthography and Group Identity A Comparative Approach to Studying Orthographic Systems in Early Modern Czech Printed and Handwritten Texts (c. 1560-1710)
Abstract
The chapter sets out to investigate selected orthographic variables perceived as characteristic of Czech printers' and scribal spelling systems between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries and documents them with examples from selected printed and handwritten texts. The author re-evaluates the character and mutual relations of the two orthographic systems and discusses them with reference to selected material characteristics of extant handwritten and printed books and the social context of their creation and circulation.
The chapter assesses several possible explanations for the long-time coexistence of the two systems, assessing a range of new and older ideas. In doing so, the author combines traditional philological and (socio)linguistic approaches with methods commonly used to study the history of the book, focused on the materiality and the social role of texts.