DBWI: Save the Czech language

As we know, today in the Republic of Bohemia Czech is an official language alongside German, however it is only spoken by a small minority. How can the Czech langauge be saved from being replaced by German?
 

Gian

Banned
Maybe the Habsburgs won the Battle of White Mountain could be a start.

In our world, they lost, leading to a Protestant Kingdom that turned towards the northern German states for its cultural influence. Once Bohemia invited other Protestants from Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century to replace the fleeing Catholics, the seeds for its Germanization began (In fact, only the Moravian Catholic activists are monolingually Czech; with most being bilingual anyway due to govt. programs in the 1950s)
 
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As we know, today in the Republic of Bohemia Czech is an official language alongside German, however it is only spoken by a small minority. How can the Czech langauge be saved from being replaced by German?

OOC: You're inspired by the status of Irish in OTL?
 
See, the big issue with the Czech language surviving is all of the cultural and demographic pressure from the Germanies around Bohemia. I think that you'd need an even earlier POD and just not have Bohemia become a part of the HRE.
 
I think having Bohemia become independent at just the right time could do the trick. Maybe have an earlier wave of nationalism that happens when the region is majority Czech.
 
I'm not really sure how it could happen; German was the prestige language, of government, church and education. Even if the White Mountain mentioned below was used, then Bohemia would simply fall into the Habsburg orbit. Since the language of the Habsburg court and intelligentsia was German, nothing has really been accomplished. I think the only way you save Czech is to have Bohemia somehow gain its independence at an earlier time (which, I suppose, isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, although I'm not sure of a good POD) or have it fall into the orbit of a non-German speaking nation such as Poland. I know there was some ties between Poland and Bohemia throughout history; could there be a union of the two crowns?
 
There's an even smaller minority language in the neighboring part of northern Hungary called Slovak that's closely related to Czech--Maybe if it were somehow united with Bohemia, that could strengthen the "Czech-Slovak" identity?
 
If Silesia had not become German then Czech would not be surrounded by German. A stronger Poland is probably the best POD here. After Silesia was Germanized it was inevitable that the same would come to Bohemia, being part of the HRE and all.
 
There's an even smaller minority language in the neighboring part of northern Hungary called Slovak that's closely related to Czech--Maybe if it were somehow united with Bohemia, that could strengthen the "Czech-Slovak" identity?

You know; weird thought, after I read your comment about the Slovaks. What if we stopped some of the racial policies of the Russian Pan-Slavists during the Global War? I remember reading that the Russians, after occupying Bohemia and Hungary tried to set up Slavic and Czech speakers as the new aristocracy since they came from 'pure' slavic stock. We all know about the atrocities the Russians committed during the war, but it was these new elites that had to carry out the programs and is caused a backlash against Czech and Slovak after the regions were liberated.

Probably not enough to 'save' either language, but it might mean that there would be more efforts to preserve and expand the languages later on. Just a random thought, but figured I would give it a go. I'm sure there are people on this board that know a lot more about the topic than I do.
 

B-29_Bomber

Banned
You know; weird thought, after I read your comment about the Slovaks. What if we stopped some of the racial policies of the Russian Pan-Slavists during the Global War? I remember reading that the Russians, after occupying Bohemia and Hungary tried to set up Slavic and Czech speakers as the new aristocracy since they came from 'pure' slavic stock. We all know about the atrocities the Russians committed during the war, but it was these new elites that had to carry out the programs and is caused a backlash against Czech and Slovak after the regions were liberated.

Probably not enough to 'save' either language, but it might mean that there would be more efforts to preserve and expand the languages later on. Just a random thought, but figured I would give it a go. I'm sure there are people on this board that know a lot more about the topic than I do.


Wai- what?!:confused:
 
Wai- what?!:confused:

OOC: at some point during the ATL, there is a massive war where Russia develops a racially tinged Pan-Slavic ideology. They conquer Bohemia and *Slovakia and draw the occupational leadership from those communities that still speak Czech and Slovak. Eventually they are pushed back.

In DBWIs one doesn't neccarily have to have their 'character' focus solely upon the period 'we' know they should.
 

B-29_Bomber

Banned
OOC: at some point during the ATL, there is a massive war where Russia develops a racially tinged Pan-Slavic ideology. They conquer Bohemia and *Slovakia and draw the occupational leadership from those communities that still speak Czech and Slovak. Eventually they are pushed back.

In DBWIs one doesn't neccarily have to have their 'character' focus solely upon the period 'we' know they should.

OoC: Didn't realize this was a DBWI. I is stupid. *puts on dunce hat*
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
The Global War is way too late, the Czech and Slovak languages had already weakened considerably then. The Russian occupation lasted, what, three months roughly and they could barely find any Czech or Slovaks to raise up to leadership (most of the local backers of the occupation were ethnic Ukrainians).

Russia could never win the Global War, it was a foolish war launched by a foolish government. The Czech language can be saved with an earlier PoD I think, something that stops the Germanization process of northeastern Europe, maybe stop the rise of Brandeburg- Prussia. Today we have german speaking Republics of Böhmen, Schlesien, Posen and Preussen mostly because of the success of the Prussian kingdom.
 
Maybe Hungarians and Germans reach an agreement and all Slovaks are evicted and settled in Czech-speaking villages on the other side? I dunno, this seems pretty hard.
 
There's a local historical figure among descendants of Roman Catholic Bohemians living in Moravia named John Huss, and it was said that he was currently working on an orthography for his mother tongue when he was assassinated. If he lived longer, I thought, his legacy would possibly felt on the Czech language.
 
To be completely selfish, I'm okay with this outcome. You ever seen Czech? There's words without vowels, letters that are a pain to try to pronounce, and the assimilation can be nightmare. It's been much easier getting by in Prague with a spattering of German.

(OOC: Czech isn't as bad as they make it out to be, but I can definitely see why people "fear" it.)
 
The Global War is way too late, the Czech and Slovak languages had already weakened considerably then. The Russian occupation lasted, what, three months roughly and they could barely find any Czech or Slovaks to raise up to leadership (most of the local backers of the occupation were ethnic Ukrainians).

Russia could never win the Global War, it was a foolish war launched by a foolish government. The Czech language can be saved with an earlier PoD I think, something that stops the Germanization process of northeastern Europe, maybe stop the rise of Brandeburg- Prussia. Today we have german speaking Republics of Böhmen, Schlesien, Posen and Preussen mostly because of the success of the Prussian kingdom.

I generally agree with you with what you say here; as I said, I felt that Global War was a bit too late, but figured it was worth discussion. One quick thing though; I've heard a lot about the 'Republic of Posen' lately, especially due to the recent political troubles the region has been having. Part of my family comes from out that way (well, a few generations ago), and Posen has been really misrepresented as of late. First of all, the 'Republic of Posen' is an autonomous Republic within the Polish-Lithuanian Union, its not independent. Secondly, it isn't fully German speaking; it has a large German speaking minority, largely in the urban centers, any of whom are Protestants and a Polish majority who are largely Catholic. I think the split is about 45%/55% at the moment. Hence the tension and conflict at the moment. Don't believe the German media on this one!!!
 
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