History
Croatia only allowed the Shtokavian dialect to be used by Catholic priests and in books in Bulgaria. The Catholics in Bulgaria preferred Croatian Catholic works, and Banat Bulgarian priests and teachers taught in Croatian.
In the 1740s, Blasius Hristofor instituted the first school in Dudeştii Vechi in which Banat Bulgarian was taught using the Latin script. Some Bulgarian priests of the time already used the Latin alphabet, banned by the bishops. In the 19th century, the group's national consciousness strengthened and more Banat books were written.
In the 19th century, Banat Bulgarian schools used the Illyrian-Slavic language. In the course of using Illyrian-Slavic, the more Croatianisms and also Slovenisms entered the language.
The Hungarian Imre Berecz and the Croatian András Klobucsár wrote a few books in their mother tongue. Berecz wrote a catechism in Banat Bulgarian (1851). Klobucsár designed a prayer- and hymn-book. One of the teachers, János Uzun, also wrote secular verses. In 1866, József Rill standardised the Banat Bulgarian language and published Balgarsku právupisanj (Bulgarian Spelling).
The Balgarsku právupisanj was used to design coursebooks in Banat Bulgarian, including an ABC book and reader, together with Biblijata and Gulemija Kátaæizmus. Teacher Leopold Koszilkov was also translating Gospels. Fránc Glász and the German Ludovik Fischer wrote a prayer-book. This were notable works notables in Banat Bulgarian literature, as were very popular. The prayerbooks contain prayers, hymns and the biographies of saints. Koszilkov published calendars.
Banat Bulgarians retained their language. Romanian and Serbian were used in schools, but in the catechisms henceforward Banat Bulgarian was used.
Read more about this topic: Banat Bulgarian Language
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)
“I feel as tall as you.”
—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)