Monument to Anton Bernolák near St. Martin's Cathedral

Anton Bernolák, roman-catholic priest, codified the first Slovak literary language.

Anton Bernolák was born in 1762 in Slanica, the region of Orava. After his studies in Ružomberok, Bratislava, Trnava and Vienna in 1787, he published his work Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum (Philological and Critical Tractate about the Slovak Letters) written in Latin with the attached proposal of adjustment of the Slovak orthography.

With these linguistic works, Anton Bernolák promoted the western Slovakia dialect to the position of the standard literary language of the Slovaks. In 1790 he published his work Grammatica Slavica (The Slovak Grammar) and in 1791 Ethymologia vocum slavicarum (Ethymology of Slovak Words).

In the years 1791-1797 he was the secretary and chancellor of the archibishop´s vicarage. To his memory, the monument in the park Bernolákov sad was made by J. Koniarek with this quotation: “Slovaks, write in Slovak! Here is my word about the language of yours.”

Photo 1253, Sept 2008