Army Slavic

Army Slavic
Armee-Slawisch
Created by	Austro-Hungarian Army
Setting and usage	Military communication
Era	after 1867 – 1918
Purpose	Constructed language Balto-Slavic Slavic Army Slavic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
The extent of Slavic people in Austria-Hungary (1910)   Slavs   Other ethnicities

Army Slavic (German: Armee-Slawisch) was a rump language consisting of about eighty key words, mostly of Czech origin. It was developed to help with language barriers in Austria-Hungary, and was in use until the end of the Great War.

Part of the reason for the existence of this specialized language was the fact that while German and Hungarian were official languages, half of the soldiery was recruited from areas that spoke various Slavic languages. In all, there were eleven different official languages and many more dialects to contend with. While efforts were made to keep soldiers grouped according to language, mixed language units still occurred.

References

• Deak, Istvan (1989), Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918, Oxford University Press, p. 100
• Walter, John (1999), Central Powers' Small Arms of World War One, Crowood Press, ISBN 1-86126-124-1