Language and Literature Society

Text

At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, both Czech and German were spoken in the Czech lands.
German appeared after German colonisation and spread mainly to towns, higher social strata, love poetry, and bureaucratic language. Czech developed from Old Church Slavonic and was used by poorer inhabitants, becoming the official language only during the reign of Charles IV.
In addition to these two languages, Latin was also present, used for writing books, chronicles, scholarly treatises, official documents, and records. Latin was the ecclesiastical and biblical language and served as an international means of communication.
From the early Middle Ages, monasteries such as Sasau cared for the development and emancipation of the Slavic language. A pioneer in the cultivation of the Czech language in our region was Jan Hus.
In literature, Czech became fully established from the early 14th century. Various genres existed: spiritual and secular lyrics (love poetry), epic poetry, and plays. Among the oldest examples of prose were legends, such as those about Judas, Pilate, the lives of saints, as well as chivalric epics, chronicles, and satires. Besides official documents in Latin, correspondence was written in Czech from the late 14th century.

Artwork