The present article gives a brief overview of the most recent research findings concerning the form and function of the Czech and Slovak languages in relation to the liturgical language of Slovak evangelical believers of the Augsburg Confession (the so-called biblictina, i. e. the language of the Bible). The function of Biblictina is compared to that of the Church Slavonic language and its variants within the Byzantine-Slavonic liturgical context.
Kollar's idea of the ethnic and linguistic unity of Slavs was affected by his schematic concept and subjectivism. His idea of a common standard language for Slovaks and Czechs was based on the principles of the Slavonic literary reciprocity. Kollar's postulate of the common literary language for Slovaks and Czechs did not, however, lead to a statement of ethnic fusion between Slovaks and Czechs. Jan Kollar himself was an ardent Slovak patriot and defender of Slovaks against the increasing pressure of Magyarization (Hungarization).
The notion of the Slovak language includes all its partial constituents, i. e. all Slovak dialects that make up a linguistic continuum characterized by the essential common features which constitute the fundamental unity of the language. Therefore the language Frank Sakalsky spoke was Slovak, although at the time of his emigration from Eastern Slovakia to America in 1882 he knew only one constituent of the Slovak language, i. e. his native East Slovak dialect. This dialect that he spoke in America is spontaneously referred to him as Slovak and he constantly claims to be Slovak himself. The Slovak linguistic continuum, deeply rooted in the past, is the result of an ancient ethnic integration.
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