Die Rolle des Herausgebers der Zeitschrift Kmetijske in rokodelske novice bei der Entwicklung einer einheitlichen slowenischen Schriftsprache
The Role of Bleiweis’ Newspaper Kmetijske in rokodelske novice in the Formation of a Unified Standard Slovenian Language

Summary/Abstract: J. Bleiweis’ newspaper Kmetijske in rokodelske novice (Agricultural and Artisanal News), also known simply as Novice (News), played a key role in the creation of a unified Standard Slovenian language by bringing together all Slovenian writers and providing readers with a means to learn about writing and encouraged the reading of Slovenian texts. The newspaper built on the sense of Slovenian affiliation and the idea of the United Slovenia by reinforcing the unified Standard Slovenian language and unified Slovenian writing called slovenica, rejecting the Illyrian movement and Pan-Slavicism, later somewhat less convincingly with the adoption of new forms that Bleiweis initially established as a defiance against “our pure” and “comprehensible” Slovenian language. Bleiweis’ efforts to establish the use of the Slovenian language in schools and public life made it possible for the Slovenian language to achieve four-part perfection regarding its functional varieties, i.e. expanding from its basic practical and communicative “home environment” to the public sphere, where it functioned easily in journalism, took on the fully-fledged role of a specialist language in the translation of Državni zakonik (the official collection of national rules and regulations) and that of an artistic language also used in Prešeren’s poems published in Novice. As a result of Bleiweis’ Novice, schools, newspapers, and books in Slovenia were able to gain public acclaim. Despite the editor maintaining that Novice was an “educational journal for a simple people”, it was in fact also a political newspaper that suited intellectuals; it was at the heart of the Slovenian national revival and, as such, opened a public discussion about all the important issues of Slovenism, particularly regarding language, culture, politics, and literature.

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