> Department of Language Development

Department of Language Development

Address:

Valentinská 1
110 00  Praha 1

Email: vyvoj at ujc.cas.cz

Scope of research:

The Department of Language Development researches the history of the Czech language in two main areas: lexicological-lexicographic and philological-editorial.
The lexicological-lexicographic team focuses on research on Czech vocabulary of the earliest period (from the earliest records of Czech history to the end of the 15^th century) and of the middle period (i.e. from the 16^th century to the end of the 18^th century). The two main outputs are the Electronic Dictionary of Old Czech and the Lexical Database of Humanistic and Baroque Czech.

The philological-editorial team focuses on comprehensive language research of Czech historical manuscripts and old prints (from the 13^th to the 18^th century) and presentation of these sources through critical editions, both printed and digital.

Department staff present their scientific work to both specialists and the general public through printed and electronic publications, scholarly as well as popular articles, academic lectures and conferences, media presentations and university teaching.

The department has also developed, and operates, the website Vokabulář webový. The department’s scientific work (dictionaries, electronic editions) as well as digitised historical sources (historical grammar books with academic descriptions, historical vocabularies, etc.) are published to increase knowledge of earlier Czech language. Vokabulář webový also presents Old Czech and Middle Czech corpora, which are continuously lemmatised and morfologically tagged.

Current projects:

Diabible

Principal investigator: PhDr. Kateřina Voleková, Ph.D.

The Diabible database provides access to Old Czech translations of biblical texts from the 14^th and 15^th centuries, based on selected manuscripts and incunabula. It offers detailed comparative analysis of individual verses across different texts as well as full-text search capabilities. The texts are being published sequentially, book by book; at present, the four Gospels, the Song of Songs, and the Book of Psalms are available. The Diabible database provides full texts of medieval translations of the Bible into Czech from selected 14^th and 15^th century manuscripts and printed sources. It enables study of these sources by comparing the wording of individual Bible verses.

Elektronický slovník staré češtiny (Electronic Dictionary of Old Czech)

Principal investigator: Mgr. Štěpán Šimek, Ph.D.

The Electronic Dictionary of Old Czech is an online historical dictionary, a collective work in progress (since 2005) of researchers from the Department of Language Development. Methodologically building on Staročeský slovník (Old Czech Dictionary), the aim of this work is scientific description of the whole Old Czech vocabulary, i.e. of all survived and recorded lexical units from the period of 13^th–15^th centuries. Since 2017, lexical units in the Electronic Dictionary have been processed and edited within a new and expanded concept: each meaning of a lexical unit is documented by examples from Old Czech texts and all entries are systematically unified by semantics and graphemics editors.

Recently, parts of the dictionary have also been published as e-books.

Electronic Dictionary of Old Czech: Inventory of Sources and Abbreviations (2022).

First volume Přib - připrášiti sě (2024)

More information about the dictionary can be found here.

Lexikální databáze humanistické a barokní češtiny (Lexical Database of Humanistic and Baroque Czech)

Principal investigator: Mgr. Štěpán Šimek, Ph.D.

The Lexikální database humanistické a barokní češtiny (Lexical Database of Humanistic and Baroque Czech) was initiated in 2005 as a response to the call for a systematic compilation of the Middle Czech vocabulary (c. 1500-1780). The database is derived from a digitised card catalogue of excerpts from this historical period and is under continuous development through selective excerpting. Each entry is accompanied by selected computer-readable data on the excerpted lexical unit and its source to enable searching and browsing in the database.

The finalised database will serve as a basis for a planned dictionary of Humanistic and Baroque Czech, which is a period that has yet to be lexicographically analysed.

The database consists of approximately 1.3 million records, capturing more than 110,000 words. It is accessible to registered users.

Philological analysis and editing of historical Czech texts

Principal investigator: PhDr. Alena Černá, Ph.D. 

Research on historical Czech texts from the earliest written fragments to the end of the18^th century examines all linguistic aspects, from orthography and spelling to style, as well as intertextuality and translatological issues. Medieval and early modern manuscripts and old prints, transcribed into electronic editions by department staff, are the main sources for this research. These editions are presented via the Vokabulář webový website and Diabible database and also constitute the foundation of the Old Czech and Middle Czech corpora. The department also prepares critical editions of representative texts of older Czech literature in book form, particularly through grant projects.

Vokabulář webový 

Principal investigator: Mgr. Markéta Pytlíková, Ph.D.

Vokabulář webový is a website set up in 2006 that offers resources for studying historical Czech. The website presents modern dictionaries, electronic editions, digitised historical sources (historical grammar books, historical vocabularies, etc.) as well as Old Czech and Middle Czech corpora and tools and aids for editing or analysing historical texts.