Resumen de Closely-related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, “Czechoslovak”
This article deals with the current linguistic and communicative relations between Czech and Slovak. The decade since the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993 has introduced new and largely asymmetrical features into Czech-Slovak language contact which are extensions of previous relations and processes. The “asymmetry point of view” may produce a picture with sharp differences, whereas the corresponding social reality is a refined segmentation of the situation with a number of contradictory phenomena. Today's contact situation is characterized by the fact that after the division, both languages are frequently used among Czechs and Slovaks in a variety of communicative situations. In the contact environment, it is not unusual for a particular speaker to alternate between Czech and Slovak. The occurrence of the natural category “Czechoslovak” (“českoslovenčina”/“českoslovenština”) in spontaneous discourse may be considered a manifestation of language management oriented toward such language behavior. This article examines the way in which this category, known throughout the history of Czech-Slovak language relations, is used today.
