Antonín Machek - Portrait of Josef Jungmann

Josef Jungmann (16 July 1773 in

Hudlice Hudlice is a municipality and village in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts Hudlice is made up of one administrative part. Geography Hudlice is situated in a ...

, near Beroun – 14 November 1847 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

) was a Czech poet and linguist, and a leading figure of the

Czech National Revival The Czech National Revival was a cultural movement which took place in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of this movement was to revive the Czech language, culture and national identity. The most prominent figures o ...

. Together with

Josef Dobrovský Josef Dobrovský (17 August 1753 – 6 January 1829) was a Czech philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech National Revival along with Josef Jungmann. Life and work Dobrovský was born at Balassagyarmat, Nó ...

, he is considered to be a creator of the modern

Czech language Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech R ...

Life

Jungmann was the sixth child (out of ten) of a cobbler. His father was of Bohemian German descent and his mother was of Czech descent. The children grew up speaking both languages at home, which contributed heavily to Jungmann's later role as a revivalist of the Czech language. In his youth, he wanted to become a priest. After he completed grammar school in 1788-1792 however, he went on to study Philosophy and Law. Beginning in 1799, he started teaching at the local

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

("Gymnasium") in Litoměřice (''Leitmeritz''), which had a German majority at that time. In 1815, he moved to Prague, where he worked until 1845 in the Old Town Academic Grammar School as a Czech professor. He earned a doctorate in Philosophy and Mathematics in 1817; he was the dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1827 and 1838. In 1840, he became the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of Charles University in

Work

Jungmann was a rigorous advocate of the rebirth of the written Czech language. In contrast to his teacher,

, he also wrote his works in Czech. In 1805, he published a translation of Chateaubriand's "Atala". By this, he intended to prove that the Czech language is suitable for complicated artistic texts. Later, he published translations of

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treati ...

, Friedrich Schiller and John Milton. His translation of ''Paradise Lost'' by Milton was called by Derek Sayer "the cornerstone" of the modern literary Czech language. Jungmann's original poems are few, but include two early Revival sonnets and the short narrative poem Oldřich a Božena. In following years, he published a series of polemic texts, most notably the "Talks on Czech Language". In 1820, he published "Slovesnost", which was a kind of a stylistic textbook. In 1825, a "History of Czech literature" followed. His most important work is the Czech-German dictionary in five volumes (1834–39). In this dictionary, he laid out the basis for the modern Czech vocabulary. In order to achieve the stylistic range of vocabulary he desired, for poetic effect, and in order to expand the lexical resources of Czech, Jungmann revived archaic words, for which he studied historical documents, or borrowed from other Slavic languages, and created neologisms. Many of his words became a permanent part of the language. Jungmannova Street and Jungmannovo náměstí (Jungmann's Square) in

are named after him; the square contains a large statue of Jungmann. There is also a Jungmannova Street named for him in the

Petržalka Petržalka (; german: Engerau / Audorf; hu, Pozsonyligetfalu) is the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Situated on the right bank of the river Danube, the area shares a land border with Austria, and is home to around 100,000 ...

district of Bratislava, Slovakia.

Literature

* Antibohemia, 1814 * Historie literatury české aneb Soustavný přehled spisů českých, s krátkou historií národu, osvícení a jazyka, 1825 **''History of

Czech Literature Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech, in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia, earlier the Lands of the Bohemian Crown), or by Czech people. Most literature in the Czech Republic is now written in Czech, but histori ...

, or Systematic Survey of Czech Writings, with a Short History of the

Nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

, Enlightenment and

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

'', 1825 * Krok * Nepředsudečné mínění o české prozódii, 1804 * O jazyku českém, 1806 **''On the Czech Language'', 1806 * O klasičnosti literatury a důležitosti její **''On Classical Literature and Its Importance'' * Oldřich a Božena, 1806 * Rozmlouvání o jazyku českém **''Talks on the Czech Language'' * Slovesnost aneb Sbírka příkladů s krátkým pojednáním o slohu, 1820 * Slovník česko-německý, 1834-1839 (5 dílů) **''Czech-German Dictionary'', 1834-1839 (5 editions) * Slovo ke statečnému a blahovzdělanému Bohemariusovi, 1814 * Zápisky, 1871 **''Notes'', 1871

Biographies

*Emanuel Chalupný: Jungmann, Prague 1909 *Julius Dolanský: Jungmannův odkaz (Z dějin české slovesnosti), Prague 1948

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jungmann, Josef 1773 births 1847 deaths 18th-century Bohemian people 19th-century Czech people 18th-century linguists 19th-century linguists 18th-century Bohemian poets 19th-century Czech poets Linguists from the Czech Republic Czech language activists Czech lexicographers Czech male poets People from Beroun District 19th-century male writers Language reformers 18th-century male writers Burials at Olšany Cemetery German Bohemian people