Ludovit Stur: the man who changed the Slovak language

On October 29, 1815, the philologist and writer Ludovit Stur, one of the ideologists of the national revival in Slovakia, was born. He developed a new standard for the Slovak language, which became the basis for the modern language norm. He was born In the Austrian Empire, in the town of Ugrovec, which is now a Slovak city. He studied at the Evangelical Lyceum, then studied historical and political Sciences, became interested in Slavic languages, and taught language and literature. While working, he tried to arouse students ' patriotism, which is why in 1844 he was suspended from teaching.

Due to the work on the formation of new language standards, the shtur variant was introduced in the middle of the XIX century. The literary version is based on the middle Slovak interdialect form. Stur himself became the author of linguistic articles about the Slovak dialect, the science of the language, and also touched on literary topics, publishing works on folk songs. For some time he was at the center of political events, but then retired from business, devoting himself to literature. Among his works, a special place was occupied by a book in which the author touched on pan-Slavic theories. They are based on the idea of uniting peoples on the basis of a common culture, language and ethnicity.

Ludovit Stur died in 1856 while hunting: due to carelessness, he inflicted a fatal wound on himself. His portrait adorns coins, banknotes and postage stamps.