
Anton Bernolák (; 3 October 1762 – 15 January 1813) was a
Slovak linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and
Catholic priest, and the author of the first
Slovak language
Slovak ( ; endonym: or ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script and formerly in Cyrillic script. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is ...
standard.
Life
He was born as the second child to a
lower noble family in the
Árva region. He studied at a grammar school (gymnasium) in Rózsahegy (present-day
Ružomberok) from 1774 to 1778, and later in Nagyszombat (present-day
Trnava
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...
) and
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, and graduated in theology at the general seminary in Pressburg (present-day
Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
) in 1787. In the very same year, he codified the first Slovak language standard, which he based on western Slovak dialects spoken around
Trnava
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...
, with some elements from the central dialects. The language, called ''bernolákovčina'', wasn't accepted as a national standard language, although it was a milestone on the way to the formation of the modern Slovak nation. From 1787 to 1791, he was a
curate
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...
in Cseklész (present-day
Bernolákovo), from 1791 to 1797 a secretary in the archbishopric vicar's office in Nagyszombat (present-day
Trnava
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...
), and from 1797 until his death in 1813, a priest in Érsekújvár (present-day
Nové Zámky
Nové Zámky (; ) is a town in Nové Zámky District in the Nitra Region of southwestern Slovakia.
Geography
The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km fr ...
).
His language was the basis for the activities of the Slovak Educated Brotherhood, established in 1787 in Nagyszombat (present-day
Trnava
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...
), and also for the movement of Bernolák's followers, which lasted three generations. Exhaustive literary and priestly work, concern about his close family and other circumstances undermined his health to such an extent that he died unexpectedly of a heart attack on January 15, 1813.
Works
* 1782
: ''Divux rex Stephanus, magnus Hungarorum apostolus''
* 1787
: ''Dissertatio-critica de litteris Slavorum''
* 1787
: ''Linguae Slavonicae… compendiosa simul et facilis Orthographia''
* 1790
: ''Grammatica Slavica'' (Slovak Grammar)
* 1791
: ''Etymologia vocum slavicarum'' (Etymology of Slavic words)
* 1825/1827
: ''Slowár Slowenskí, Češko-Laťinsko-Ňemecko-Uherskí'' (A Slovak, Czech-Latin-German-Hungarian Dictionary), a six-volume dictionary, supposed to be a vocabulary manual of the literary language, published after Bernolák's death in
Buda
Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...
by canon
Juraj Palkovič
See also
*
Anton Bernolák's Chapel
External links
Anton Bernolák
Works online
Slowár Slowenskí Češko-Laťinsko-Ňemecko-Uherskí(scan)
*
Ešče ňečo o epigrammatéch, anebožto málorádkoch M. W. P. Jozefa Bajza…"' (Vidané v Poli elízíském teho roku 1794). 15 p. - available at
ULB´s Digital Library
*
Ňečo o epigrammatéch...' vydané v Žiline r. 1794. 36 p. - available at
ULB´s Digital Library
* ŽAŠKOVKÝ, F.
Manuale Musico-Liturgicum in usum Ecclesiarum Cathedralium et Ruralium ...' Agriae: Typ. Lycei Archi-Episcopalis, 1853. 254 p. - available at
ULB´s Digital Library - Bernolak edited the slovak text of the songs according to the Slovak language standards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernolak, Anton
1762 births
1813 deaths
People from Námestovo
Slovak nobility
Slovak Roman Catholic priests
Linguists from Slovakia
18th-century Slovak people
19th-century Slovak people
18th-century linguists
19th-century linguists
Language regulators