Evolution of Czech Language throughout the years

By all0g4
  • Period: 600 to 1500

    Medieval/Old Czech

    In the the Middle Ages.
  • 900

    First written slav language

    Old Church Slavonic, brought into Europe by Cyril and Methodius, two Bizantine missionaires. Despite this, the main spoken language in that time, was Latin.
  • 1200

    Ancient surviving Czech texts

    There is knowledge of ancient texts from this age.
  • 1300

    Blossom of the Czech Language

    Thanks to the 14th century emperor, Charles IV, the Czech Language started to become more popular, but later on, it faced some problems because of the Hussite wars (a religious protestant movement that caused a war).
  • 1400

    The Czech's Language decline

    Due to a rule imposed by the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, this written language started to be substituted by German as the official elite language. It kept being the countryside's language. In fact, now a days, we can see a lot of German influence in modern Czech Language.
  • Period: 1500 to

    Early Modern Czech

    In the Modern Age.

  • The revival of the Czech Language

    In the half of the 18th century, some attempts began to suceed in the mission of reusing Czech. With the national revival movement of the 19th century, Czech was starting to be used in educational and social areas. Prague's National Theatre was the most iconic symbol of this revival, that culminated in 1918 with the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic. Although Czechoslovakia was a multi-lingual country, Czech was the main language of the nation.
  • Period: to

    Modern Czech

    From the Modern Age until nowadays.
  • Period: to

    The Second World War

    During the Nazi occupation in the Second World War, German again became the official language, although Czech was still in use. For example, all street signs, official documents and banknotes were first in German, then in Czech. The mainly German-speaking border regions were annexed by Germany. After the war Czech again started to be used.
  • Period: to

    Communist rule

    Under communist rule - from 1948-1989 - the authorities often used the Czech language as a political tool, putting great stress on its similarities to Russian. Since the fall of communism the pendulum has swung the other way. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Anglicisms in modern Czech, many connected with the world of business, retail, computers or popular culture.