On the beginning of the institucionalization of Czech linguistic research

In 2011, Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR (the Institute of the Czech Language) was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of its direct predecessor, Kancelář Slovníku jazyka českého (the Office of the Dictionary of the Czech Language) which provided the administrative background for an ambitious lexicographic project launched already in 1905 by the committee for lexicography and dialectology of the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for sciences, literature and art, to become Česká Akademie věd a umění (Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts) in 1918. Altough much was done between the wars to establish a state-funded language institute, i.e. an institution, which would unify the research on language and systematically work with the national language, for financial reasons the Institute of the Czech Language was established only in 1946. This article aims to present some of the lesser known - or even unknown - facts related to the Office of the Dictionary of the Czech Language based on archival resources