Josef Jungmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Josef Jungmann (born 16th July 1773 in Hudlice, near Beroun, died 14th November 1847 in Prague) was a Czech poet and linguist, and a leading figure of the Czech National Revival. Together with Josef Dobrovský, he is considered to be a creator of the modern Czech language.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Jungmann was the sixth child of a cobbler. Originally, he intended to become a priest. After he completed a grammar school in 1788-1792, he studied Philosophy and Law. Since 1799, he started teaching at a Gymnasium in Litoměřice, which had a German majority at that time. In 1815, he moved to Prague, where he worked since 1845 in Old Town Academic Grammar School as a Professor of the Czech language. He earned a doctorate in Philosophy and Mathematics in 1817, he was a dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1827 and 1838. In 1840, he became a rector of the Charles University of Prague.
[edit] Work
Jungmann was a rigorous advocate of the rebirth of written Czech language. In contrast to his teacher, Josef Dobrovský, 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, Friedrich Schiller and John Milton. 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 5 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effect, and in order to expand the lexical resources of Czech, Jungmann revived archaic words, for which he studied historical documents, or borrowed from other Slavic languages, and created neologisms.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.
[edit] Literature
- Antibohemia, 1814
- Historie literatury české aneb Soustavný přehled spisů českých, s krátkou historií národu, osvícení a jazyka, 1825
- Krok
- Nepředsudečné mínění o české prozódii, 1804
- O jazyku českém, 1806
- O klasičnosti literatury a důležitosti její
- Oldřich a Božena, 1806
- Rozmlouvání o jazyku českém
- Slovesnost aneb Sbírka příkladů s krátkým pojednáním o slohu, 1820
- Slovník česko-německý, 1834-39 (5 dílů)
- Slovo ke statečnému a blahovzdělanému Bohemariusovi, 1814
- Zápisky, 1871
[edit] Biographies
- Emanuel Chalupný: Jungmann, Prag 1909
- Julius Dolanský: Jungmannův odkaz (Z dějin české slovesnosti), Prag 1948
