Hyphen War
As indent War (Czech: " pomlčková válka ", Slovak " pomlčková vojna " ) called Czech and Slovak media discussion about the naming of Czechoslovakia after the end of communist rule. Reinforced by the " dispute over the large or small S / s", he accompanied representative the process of division of Czechoslovakia after 1989 and ended on 1 January 1993 by the creation of two new states - the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The dispute involved both the official name ( the so-called long- form ) and the short form of the country name. In this dispute, the long -suppressed issues of the Czech and Slovak centralism striving for self-determination seemed to manifest.
Background
After the collapse of the system in 1989 the official name of the state remained unchanged for: Československé socialistická republika [NB 1], abbreviated CSSR. Proposals, including by President Václav Havel, the word socialist easy to remove were thwarted by the requirement of Slovak representatives to make the two states by a hyphen clear, so do not Czechoslovakia but Czecho- Slovakia, as has already been 1918-1920 used occasionally and then even after the Munich agreement in the autumn of 1938 until March 1939, when Slovakia and Ruthenia gained autonomy within Czechoslovakia.
Attempted solutions
Various spellings
Names such as Republika Česko - Slovensko, Česko - Slovensko Federace, České a Slovenské Federace Republiky, Česká republika a Slovenská federativní etc. [NB 2] have been proposed. However, the horizontal line, a proposal by the then President Václav Havel caused heated debates in Parliament and in the press. While this solution was of Slovak parliamentarians support and the bar grammatically a hyphen ( Czech as Slovak " spojovník " ) was understood as in similar geographical name, this line in the Czech Republic was rejected because it is (incorrectly) a dash ( Czech as Slovak " pomlčka " ) saw what can be interpreted as a hyphen in Czech; some Czech deputies saw it as even a " insult to the Czech nation." The debate was often reduced to the question of whether to combine or separate the two nations - ie on the question of self-determination and separatism. The Slovaks stressed that both federal parts to be joined, while the Czechs hired, among other historical comparisons: a dash in the name, there were already 1938/1939 just before Slovakia under Hitler protect their own state - the First Slovak Republic - founded and Czech Republic Hitler's Germany was connected.
Constitutional amendment
Finally, the designation Československé federativní republika [NB 3] was introduced by the Constitutional Law 81/1990 of 29 March 1990, and it was decided at the same time that the Slovak Česko - Slovenská name federatívna republika [NB 3] in a regulated immediately following law will.
At this time, however, drew another problem from - the " dispute over the big S ". According to both the Czech and the Slovak spelling only the first letter of a proper name is more membered capitalized, all other ( also derived from proper names, adjectives ) then small. In the context of equality, however, demanded the Slovak deputies a big S for Slovak what both spellings disagreed and pushed for most Czech deputies resistance. Therefore, a compromise was reached: the Constitutional Law 101/1990 was adopted on 20 April 1990 (entered into force on 23 April 1990 ) that the state with equal variants Česká Republika a Slovenská Federativní ( Czech) and Česká Republika a Slovenská Federatívna should read ( Slovak). [NB 4] This designation was not spelling Compliant ( small s, f and r were correct ), but it preserved because of the large S a certain uniformity and got rid of the problem. In the official control of the ( Slovak ) spelling of this name is today explicitly as an exceptional case.
The short form used since 1990, the country's name was different in the two languages : it was Czechoslovakia ( Československo ) in the Czech Republic and Czecho- Slovakia ( Česko - Slovensko ) in Slovakia - here, however, retroactively for the entire period after 1918, even if their case even according to Slovak legislation was correct.
Consequences
Despite various arguments (it's a hunger strike for the hyphen became known, it appeared to suggestions and Moravia wanted to, inter alia, include in the name ), it is remarkable that the press largely conciliatory acted and partly strongly criticized the " small-mindedness " of the politicians practiced. It came forward voices that refer, for example, parallels, such as Belgium, which pointed to the existence of other nationalities, but especially criticized the burgeoning nationalism and bigotry in politics. As noted in one study, there were no serious or significant differences between the Czech and Slovak press.