Czech Language
The Czech language is a West Slavic language spoken by over ten million people, primarily in the Czech Republic, where it holds official status. It is closely related to Slovak, with speakers able to understand each other due to mutual intelligibility. The language uses a Latin alphabet, incorporates diacritics to indicate pronunciation, and features four main dialects, including Common Czech and Silesian. Historically, Czech evolved from Old Church Slovanian, with significant literary development occurring from the thirteenth century onwards, particularly after the introduction of printing.
The language experienced a revival during the National Revival movement in the late eighteenth century, leading to the establishment of Czech as a formal language in education and literature. Following the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Czech became the sole official language of the Czech Republic. Today, it is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. The language is characterized by its complexity, including seven grammatical cases and distinct vowel lengths, contributing to its rich linguistic heritage.
Czech Language
The Czech language is spoken by more than ten million people in the Czech Republic, where it is the only official language. Czech is also spoken by people throughout the world, including those in Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and the United States. It is closely related to the Slovak language; the languages are mutually intelligible, which means that those who speak Czech can understand those who speak Slovak and vice versa.
Like Slovak, Czech is based on a Latin alphabet, and the first syllable of each word is stressed, or accented. The spelling of words is determined by pronunciation; one letter often indicates one sound. Czech uses diacritics, small marks above letters, to indicate how a letter should be pronounced.
Czech is a West Slavic language with four dialects, which differ only slightly and are based on geography. The most common is called "Common Czech" and is spoken by those in Bohemia. The second dialect is the "Middle and Eastern Moravian" dialect and is spoken by those in this region. The third is called "Silesian" and is influenced by the German language. The last is called the "Cieszyn Silesian" dialect. It is spoken by the Polish inhabitants of the Czech Republic and is actually a Polish dialect influenced by the Czech and German languages. Because the dialects are similar, those who speak different dialects can easily understand one another. However, the written and spoken versions of the Czech language are significantly different.
History and Classification
The Czech language is a Western Slavic language, which is part of the Indo-European linguistic family of languages. Slovak, Polish, and Sorbian are also Slavic languages.
The Czech language was called Bohemian until the twentieth century because the area that is today the Czech Republic was once known as Bohemia. Scholars believe the area was named after the Boii tribe who may have lived there since the first century.
The Czech language most likely stems from Old Church Slovanic, an early Slavic language that Greek Byzantine missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius brought to Bohemia and used to translate the Bible.
At first, Czech had no grammar. People used a Latin alphabet, but it was limited and they were not able to create all the sounds in the language. In time, they added additional sounds to this alphabet and modified it to better suit their needs.
Czech literature first appeared in the thirteenth century but did not become commonplace until the sixteenth century. This was due in large part to the invention of printing. During this time, the first complete Czech translation of the Bible was made, the Bible of Kralice (1579-1593). Around the same time, the first Czech grammar books were printed.
The Czech language eventually became more complex and made its way into other countries, especially after the Battle of White Mountain, which was fought on German soil outside Prague in 1620. The battle began when Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, who was king of Bohemia and chosen as emperor by German electors, tried to force all his people to become Roman Catholics. At this time, Bohemia was mainly Protestant. Ferdinand II had behind him a coalition of Catholics from other countries, including Spain and Poland. Against him was the Czech Protestant nobility, which was led by Prince Friedrich of Germany.
The brutal battle lasted only two-and-a-half hours, with the Catholics eventually claiming victory. Many Bohemians fled, taking the Czech language with them into countries such as Slovakia and Hungary. Those who remained lost their language, culture, and religious freedom. German became the official language of Bohemia.
In the following centuries, the Czech language was spoken mainly by lower-class Bohemians living in the country. Very little literature was written in Czech. By the end of the eighteenth century, it looked as if the Czech language would soon be extinct.
However, the National Revival, which began at the end of the eighteenth century, brought the Czech language back to life. The movement sought to restore the Czech language, culture, and identity. It succeeded—the Czech language was once again taught in schools, and Czech literature was once again published. The first Czech dictionary was published in five volumes from 1834-1839. People established Czech institutions, such as theaters and museums, to celebrate Czech history and culture. People of all classes began speaking the Czech language.
Czech first became an official language along with Slovak when Czechoslovakia was established in 1918. However, this ended two years later when the Czechoslovakian parliament made the Czechoslovakian language the official language and declared the Czech and Slovak languages as dialects. Czechoslovakian was a combination of the two languages, which had always been similar.
In 1993, because of increased tensions between the Czechs and the Slovaks, the Czechoslovakian parliament divided the county into two separate countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The official language of the Czech Republic was now Czech, and the official language of Slovakia was Slovak.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
The Czech language is spoken by more than ten million people throughout the Czech Republic and by about one million people in Slovakia and North America. About 96 percent of people within the Czech Republic speak the language, with the remaining 4 percent speaking Slovak, German, Polish, and Romany.
Czech has seven cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives: the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, instrumental, and vocative cases. Person and number are shown by verb endings, so personal pronouns are only occasionally used with verbs for emphasis. A marked distinction is made between long and short vowels. The first syllable of each word or prepositional phrase is stressed, or emphasized.
In May of 2004, the Czech language became one of the official languages of the European Union (EU).
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