Hantec added to South Moravian folk culture list as enthusiasts eye UNESCO recognition
Brno’s unique language variety, known as Hantec, has been added to the South Moravian Region’s list of traditional folk culture. It developed among the city’s lower classes in the 19th century and has survived in some everyday expressions. Its promoters now hope to have it recognised at national level and eventually by UNESCO.
Hantec is a distinctive form of speech that emerged among Brno’s working classes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It grew out of a local Czech dialect and German, with words also borrowed from Italian, Romani and Yiddish.
Although Hantec is no longer spoken in its original form, some of its best-known expressions have survived in everyday Brno Czech, including šalina, which means tram, and čurina, another word for fun.
In an earlier interview with Radio Prague International, linguist Karel Oliva explained how Hantec developed.
“Hantec is a sociolect which developed from a combination of a local Czech dialect and the German language. This is because until the end of the Second World War, Brno was a city with a mixed population. Actually, the share of the German-speaking population was over 50 percent there. So hantec developed as a sociolect of the lower classes to communicate with each other and partly also with the intention of not being understood by others.”
Oliva says the language variety is now mainly a Brno speciality, rather than something used in everyday communication.
“Czech as the national language, is spoken in Brno and hantec is now just some sort of a speciality or curiosity, because the division into higher and lower classes, which was common when hantec developed, does not exist anymore.”
Jan Hlaváček, a writer, musician and leading promoter of Hantec, has been working for years to get it officially recognised. His efforts have now succeeded. On Sunday, Hantec was officially added to the South Moravian Region’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Hlaváček says enthusiasts continue to create expressions that may only make sense within the group:
“People create phrases or terms that conceal the original name and make them understandable only within the community and not to outsiders.”
The new listing was supported by linguists from the Czech Academy of Sciences. Martin Prošek, director of the Czech Language Institute, says Hantec’s strong connection with Brno gives it its cultural significance.
“Brno Hantec is a distinctive way of speaking used by a particular social group of Brno residents, who are connected by their affiliation with Brno as well as by certain social and historical circumstances. If its speakers identify with it so strongly and it represents such a strong cultural, social and community value for them, then there is nothing to prevent it from being added to the list.”
For the promoters of Hantec, the regional listing is only the beginning. They now want to have it added to the Czech national list of intangible cultural heritage, with UNESCO recognition as their ultimate goal. They hope that greater recognition will help keep this distinctive part of Brno’s cultural identity alive for future generations.
