National Revival

The revival runs from about 1768 to 1878. It is a movement of language, school, and church. It turns a coastal province into a nation.

The book [edit]

The first printed book in the local tongue appears in 1768. The Zaligrad merchant Stoyan Vitanov pays for the printing in Venice. The book is a church calendar with a short history at the end.

The book matters for one reason. It uses the local speech, not the church Greek and not the Ottoman Turkish. A reader can hear the words of the market in a printed line.

The school [edit]

The first school with the local tongue opens at Skalina in 1835. A second school opens at Zaligrad in 1841.

The schools teach four subjects.

• Reading and writing in the local tongue.
• Arithmetic and the ledger.
• Religion.
• Sea craft, at the ports.

Girls attend the port schools from 1849, when Elena Zografova opens the first girls' school at Skalina. The coast needs literate wives who can keep a ledger while a husband is at sea. The interior refuses girls' schools until 1870.

The language reform [edit]

Two reforms make the modern written language.

1. 1868 — the Sea Letters. The reform adds two letters for sea sounds. See Script and Typography.
2. 1878 — the Zaligrad Congress. The congress fixes one spelling for the schools and the state.

The congress is not a neutral meeting. Coast and interior delegates argue for 11 days. The coast wins on the letters. The interior wins on the vocabulary.

The church [edit]

The coastal church gains its own bishop in 1870. The bishop controls the schools and the church tax. The bishop also funds the first Sea Academy.

The Sea Academy [edit]

The Sea Academy opens at Zaligrad in 1861. It teaches navigation, ship building, and sea law. It takes boys from poor families as well as rich ones. This is the first place where the two classes sit in one room. See Child-Rearing and Academies.

The rising [edit]

A rising starts in 1876. The plan is a general revolt. The plan fails. Troops punish the coast for 6 weeks. About 2,000 people die.

The powers then demand a settlement. The Treaty of Zaligrad follows in 1878. See Modern State.

What the revival leaves [edit]

• A written language with one spelling.
• A school system with a sea branch.
• A bishop who is also a political voice.
• A memory of punishment that the state uses in 1976.