(in English)
Spoken natively in Czech
Republic, Vojvodina, Serbia, Banat, Romania.
Ethnicity - Czechs.
Native speakers - 13 million
(2011).
Language family - Indo-European,
Balto-Slavic, Slavic, West Slavic, Czech-Slovak, Czech.
Writing system - Czech alphabet
(Latin script).
Czech language is a West
Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority
language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was
known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century. Czech is similar to
and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, with Polish and
Sorbian.
Official status
Czech is widely spoken by most inhabitants of the Czech Republic. As given
by appropriate laws, courts and authorities can enact and write out documents
and judgements in the Czech language (also, financial authorities in the Slovak
language). Czech can also be used in all official proceedings in Slovakia as
granted by Article 6 of Slovak Minority Language Act 184/1999 Zb.
According to article 37, paragraph 4 of Charter of Fundamental Rights and
Basic Freedoms people who do not speak Czech have the right to get an
interpreter in a court of law. Instructions for use in Czech must be added to
all marketed goods. The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the
Constitution for all national and ethnic minorities.
Czech is also one of the 23 official languages in the European Union (since
May 2004).
Mutual intelligibility
Speakers of Czech and Slovak usually understand both languages in their
written and spoken form, thus constituting a pluricentric language, though some
dialects or heavily accented speech in either language might present
difficulties to speakers of the other (in particular, Czech speakers may find
Eastern Slovak dialects difficult to comprehend). Younger generations of Czechs
living after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 (therefore generally
less familiar with Slovak) might also have some problems with a certain number
of words and expressions which differ considerably in the two languages, and
with false friends. Nevertheless, these differences do not impede mutual intelligibility
significantly.
Name
The name čeština "Czech" is derived from a Slavic tribe of
Czechs (Čech, pl. Češi; archaic Čechové) that inhabited
Central Bohemia and united neighbouring Slavic tribes under the reign of the
Premyslid dynasty (Přemyslovci). According to a legend, it is derived
from the Forefather Čech, who brought the tribe of Czechs into its land. The
variant English name "Bohemian" was used until the late 19th century,
reflecting the original English name of the Czech state derived from the Celtic
tribe of Boii who inhabited the area since the 4th century BC.
History
The Czech language developed from the Proto-Slavic language at the close of
the 1st millennium.
Phonology
In Czech, as in Slovak, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, there are many words
that do not have vowels: zmrzl (frozen solid), ztvrdl (hardened),
scvrkl (shrunk), čtvrthrst (quarter-handful), blb
(dimwit), vlk (wolf), or smrt (death). The consonants l
and r can be the nucleus of a syllable in Czech. Examples of this which
Czechs share among themselves are strč prst skrz krk 'stick a finger
down [your] throat' and smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh 'morel full of spots
was dampened by fogs'. The same phenomenon occurs in English, for example in
the second syllable in the word 'bottle'. In Slavic languages, /l, r/ as
syllabic nuclei are usually the result of the disappearance of [ɛ], [o], or [a]
(contrast for example the Russian cognates for vlk and smrt,
'volk' and 'sm'ert'').
Czech features a phoneme that is said to be unique to the language, the
consonant ř. The phonetic description of the sound is a raised alveolar
non-sonorant trill. Its IPA transcription is [r̝].
Vowels
There are 10 vowels in Czech which are regarded as individual phonemes.
There are 5 short and 5 long vowels.
Long vowels are indicated by an acute accent or a ring.
/iː/ is represented by letters í and ý
/uː/ is represented by letters ú and ů
/ɛː/ is represented by letter é
/aː/ is represented by letter á
/oː/ is represented by letter ó
Short vowels
/ɪ/ is represented by letters i and y
/u/ is represented by letter u
/ɛ/ is represented by letters e and ě
/a/ is represented by letter a
/o/ is represented by letter o
Note that ě is not a separate vowel. Analogous to y, ý and ů,
it is a grapheme kept for historical reasons (see Czech orthography). ó
exists only in loanwords.
/r/ and /l/ (and sometimes also /m/
and /n/) can be syllabic, i.e. they can take the vowel's
role as the nucleus of a syllable, e.g. vlk (wolf).
Diphthongs
There are three diphthongs in Czech:
/au̯/ represented by au (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)
/eu̯/ represented by eu (in words of foreign origin only)
/ou̯/ represented by ou
When these groups come together at morpheme boundaries, they do not form
diphthongs in standard Czech; for instance naučit, neučit, poučit
([-au-, -eu-, -ou-] or [-aʔu-, -eʔu-,
-oʔu-]). In native Czech words, only ou exists as a diphthong.
Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are likewise
not regarded as diphthongs; they may also be pronounced with /j/
between the vowels [ɪja, ɪjɛ, ɪjɪ, ɪjo, ɪju].
Consonants
/r̝/ is a specific raised alveolar non-sonorant trill which can be pronounced
both voiced and voiceless (regarded as two allophones of one phoneme).
The consonants in parentheses are regarded as allophones of other
consonants:
[ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ when preceding velar consonants
(/k/ and /ɡ/).
[ɡ] is a voiced allophone of /k/ when preceding a
voiced consonant, except in loanwords
[d͡z] is an allophone of /t͡s/ when preceding a voiced
consonant
The glottal stop [ʔ], which appears as a separator
between two vowels or word-initially before a vowel, is not considered a
separate phoneme or an allophone of one.
/ʃ/ is represented by the letter š
/ʒ/ is represented by the letter ž
/ɲ/ is represented by the letter ň
/c/ is represented by the letter ť
/ɟ/ is represented by the letter ď
/ɦ/ is represented by the letter h
/x/ is represented by the digraph ch
/ts/ is represented by the letter c
/tʃ/ is represented by the letter č
/dʒ/ is represented by the digraph dž
/r̝/ is represented by the letter ř
The other consonants are represented by the same characters (letters) as in
the IPA.
Stress
The primary stress is always fixed to the first syllable of a stressed
unit, which is usually identical to a word. The exceptions are:
Monosyllabic prepositions form a unit with following words (if the following
word is not longer than three syllables). The stress is placed on the
preposition: e.g. Praha (Prague) → do
Prahy (to Prague).
Some monosyllabic words (e.g. mi (me), ti ((to) you), to
(it), se, si (oneself), jsem (am), jsi (are)) are
clitics — they are not stressed and form a unit with preceding words. A clitic
cannot be the first word in a sentence, because it requires a preceding word to
form a unit with. Example: Napsal jsem ti ten dopis,
I have written the letter to you.
Long words have secondary stress, which is usually placed on every odd
syllable after the primary stress, e.g. nejkrásnější
(the most beautiful).
Stress in Czech denotes boundaries between words, but does not distinguish
word meanings. It also has no influence on the quality or quantity of vowels.
Vowels are not reduced in unstressed syllables and both long and short vowels
can occur in either stressed or unstressed syllables.
Syntax and Morphology
As in most Slavic languages, many words (especially nouns, verbs and
adjectives) have many forms (inflections). In this regard, Czech and the Slavic
languages are closer to their Indo-European origins than other languages in the
same family that have lost much inflection. Moreover, Colloquial Czech differs
considerably from the standard language, even in many morphological features.
Word order
The word order in Czech serves a similar function to sentence stress and
articles in English. Often all the permutations of words in a clause are
possible. While the permutations mostly share the same meaning, they differ in
the topic–focus articulation.
For example: Češi udělali revoluci (The Czechs made a revolution), Revoluci
udělali Češi (It was the Czechs who made the revolution), and Češi
revoluci udělali (The Czechs did make a revolution). Usually the word order
follows the pattern based on importance of the words expressed – from the least
important to the most important. By saying Revoluci udělali Češi the
speaker stresses that it was the Czechs and not, e.g. the Germans or Slovaks,
who made a revolution. By saying Češi revoluci udělali, the speaker
stresses that the revolution has been done, this being far more important than
that it was the Czechs who stood behind it. Combined with sentence voice
melody, which is the same for each type of sentence – announcing, questioning
and an imperative, and which marks the end of each sentence, one can easily
understand the important context of what is said by just listening to the final
word in each sentence.
By using different melodies can be stress moved to different word and to
add information. For example: Češi udělali revoluci (The Czechs made a
revolution) pronounced with acoustic stress to word revoluci with little
delay before this word means: The Czechs did make a revolution as (and only as)
a response to a concrete situation. This same meaning can also be shown in
written form: Češi udělali – revoluci.
Parts of speech
Noun (podstatné jméno)
Adjective (přídavné jméno)
Pronoun (zájmeno)
Numeral (číslovka)
Verb (sloveso)
Adverb (příslovce)
Preposition (předložka)
Conjunction (spojka)
Particle (částice)
Interjection (citoslovce)
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numbers are declined (seven cases over a
number of declension models) and verbs are conjugated; the other parts of
speech are not inflected (with the exception of comparative formation in
adverbs).
Dialects
In the Czech Republic two distinct variants or interdialects of spoken
Czech can be found, both corresponding more or less to geographic areas within
the country. The first, and most widely used, is "Common Czech",
spoken especially in Bohemia. It has some grammatical differences from
"standard" Czech, along with some differences in pronunciation. The
most common pronunciation changes include -ý becoming -ej in some
circumstances, -é becoming -ý- in some circumstances (-ej-
in others). Also, noun declension is changed, most notably the instrumental
case. Instead of having various endings (depending on gender) in the
instrumental, Bohemians will just put -ama or -ma at the end of
all plural instrumental declensions. Currently, these forms are very common
throughout the entire Czech republic, including Moravia and Silesia. Also
pronunciation changes slightly, as the Bohemians tend to have more open vowels
than Moravians. This is said to be especially prevalent among people from
Prague.
The second major variant is spoken in Moravia and Silesia. Nowadays it is
very close to the Bohemian form of Common Czech. This variant has some words
different from its standard Czech equivalents. For example in the dialect
spoken in Brno, tramvaj (streetcar or tram) is šalina
(originating from German "ElektriSCHELINIE"). Unlike in Bohemia,
Moravia and Silesia tend to have more local dialects varying from place to
place, however just as in Bohemia, most have been already heavily influenced
and mostly replaced by Common Czech. Everyday spoken form in Moravia and
Silesia would be a mixture of remnants of old local dialect, some Standard
Czech forms and especially Common Czech. The most notable difference is a shift
in used prepositions and case of noun, for example k jídlu (to eat –
dative) (as in German zum Essen) becomes na jídlo (accusative),
as it is in Slovak na jedlo. It is a common misconception that the use
of Standard Czech in everyday situations is more frequent than in Bohemia. The
Standard Czech became standardized by the Czech national revivalists in the
19th century, based on an already three hundred year old translation of the
Bible (Bible of Kralice) using an older variant of the then-current language
(for example, preferring -ý- to -ej-). These Standard forms are
still common in spoken language both in Moravia and Silesia. Some Moravians and
Silesians therefore tend to say that they use "proper" language,
unlike their Bohemian compatriots.
A special case is the Cieszyn Silesian dialect, spoken in Cieszyn Silesia
(Těšínsko), which is a transitional dialect between the Czech and Polish
languages.
Some south Moravian dialects are also sometimes, although rarely,
considered (also by Czech linguists in the 1990s or later, e.g. Václav Machek
in his "Etymologický slovník jazyka českého", 1997, ISBN
80-7106-242-1, p. 8, who speaks about a "Moravian-Slovak"
dialect from the region of Moravian "Slovácko") to be actually
dialects of the Slovak language, which has its roots in the Moravian empire
when Slovaks and Moravians were one nation (without Bohemians) with one
language. Those dialects still have the same suffixes (for inflected nouns and
pronouns and for conjugated verbs) as Slovak.
The minor dialect spoken in the Plzeň Region and parts of Western Bohemia
and in western parts of former Prachens region differs, among other things, by
intonation of questions: all the words except for the last word of a sentence
have a high pitch. This is the reason why the people from Plzeň are said to be
"singing". Words that start questions are often given an additional
"-pa": "Kolipa je hodin?" (regular Czech: "Kolik je
hodin?"; English: "What time is it?"). The words like
"this" (regular Czech: "tento/tato/toto") are often replaced
by "tuten/tuta/tuto"; some examples: "What is this?" is
"Copa to je?" and "What's happening?" is "Copa?"
instead of "Co je to? / Co se stalo?" or "Why?" is
"Pročpa?" instead of "Proč?".
The region of Chodsko is the home of a very special dialect of the Chods
people who were displaced in about the 10th century from Silesia owing to the
protection of the western border of Bohemia.
Declension
Czechs typically refer to the noun cases by number and learn them by means
of the question to which they are the answer. These numbers do not necessarily
correspond to numbered cases in other languages (e.g., the Slovene locative and
instrumental are known as the 5th and 6th cases). When learning a new word,
Czech children recite the cases using a set of example phrases.
Prepositions with certain cases
The simplest of the rules governing noun declension is the use of
prepositions (předložky). Excepting expressions and common phrases, each
preposition is matched with a certain noun declension case depending on use.
The following are basic examples of common prepositions and their corresponding
noun cases (note: these examples represent only one circumstance. Often each
preposition can be used with two or more noun cases depending on the sentence).
Genitive: během (during), podle/dle (according to/along), vedle
(beside), kolem (around), okolo (around), do (into), od(e)
(away from), z(e) (out of/from), bez(e) (without), místo
(instead of), u (at/by the).
Dative: k(e) (towards), proti (against), díky (thanks to), naproti
(opposite).
Accusative: skrz(e) (through), pro (for), na
(to/for).
Locative: o (around, about), na (on), při (into, in, around), v
(in), po (after, around).
Instrumental: za (behind), před (in front of), mezi
(between), pod(e) (below), s(e) (with), nad(e) (above).
Many of the above prepositions are used in different circumstances. For
instance, when motion or a change of position is expressed, prepositions of
place such as nad, mezi, na and pod are used with
the accusative case.
The second factor affecting noun declension is the verb used. In Czech
grammar, the accusative case serves as the direct object, and the dative case
serves as the indirect object. Some verbs require the genitive case to be used.
For example, the verb "zeptat se" (to ask) requires that the person
being asked the question be in the genitive case (Zeptat se koho/čeho), and
that the thing being asked about follow the preposition "na" and be
in the accusative case (Zeptat se koho/čeho na koho/co).
Counting and declension
The third factor affecting noun declension is number. Czech has a typical
Slavic counting system, explained as follows with the example masculine animate
noun muž (man):
For the number one, the singular number is used: jeden muž.
For the numbers 2, 3, and 4, any case may be used, depending on the
function of the noun in the sentence: dva muži (nominative). "Vidím
dva muže" (accusative).
For all numbers from 5 on, the genitive plural is used when the noun would
normally be in the nominative–accusative or vocative case: pět mužů.
"Pět mužů je tam." Five men are over there. "Vidím pět
mužů." I see five men. For other cases, however, the noun is not placed in
the genitive. "Nad pěti muži." Above the five men (instrumental).
The example above shows colloquial use. In literary use, there is an
additional rule: The above system is based only on the last word of the number.
Thus a number like 101 uses the singular (sto jeden muž) and 102 uses
the ordinary plural (sto dva muži). For numbers that can be read in two
ways, such as 21, the grammar may depend on which one is chosen (dvacet
jeden muž or jednadvacet mužů). This system is becoming less common
and is not used in everyday speech, as well as becoming harder to find in
modern literature.
Numbers have declension patterns in Czech. The number two, for instance, declines
as follows:
Nominative dva/dvě
Genitive dvou
Dative dvěma
Accusative dva/dvě
Vocative dva/dvě
Locative (o) dvou
Instrumental dvěma
The numbers are singular (jednotné číslo), plural (množné číslo),
and remains of dual. The number two, as declined above, is an example of the now-diminished
dual number. The dual number is only used for certain parts of the human body:
hands, shoulders, eyes, ears, knees, legs, and breasts. In all but two of the
above body parts (eyes and ears) the dual number is only vestigial and affects
very few aspects of declension (mostly the genitive and prepositional cases).
However, in Common Czech this dual ending of the instrumental case is used as
the regular instrumental plural form, for example, s kluky (with the
boys) becomes s klukama, and so on for all nouns.
Gender
The three genders are masculine,
feminine, and neuter, with masculine further subdivided into animate and
inanimate. Words for individuals with biological gender usually have the
corresponding grammatical gender, with only a few exceptions; similarly, among
the masculine nouns, the distinction between animate and inanimate also follows
meaning. Other words have arbitrary grammatical genders. Thus, for instance, pes
(dog) is masculine animate, stůl (table) is masculine inanimate, kočka
(cat) and židle (chair) are feminine, and morče (guinea-pig) and světlo
(light) are neuter.
Verb tenses
Compared to English or Romance
languages, Czech has a rather simple set of tenses. They are present, past, and
future.
Past is used in almost all
instances of past action, and replaces every past tense in English (past
simple, past perfect and in some cases the present perfect). The past tense is
usually formed by affixing an -l- on the end of the verb, sometimes with a
minor (rarely significant) stem change. After adding the -l-, letters are added
in order to agree with the subject (-a for feminine, -o for neuter, -i, -y or
-a for plural).
The present tense is also used to
describe ongoing actions which continue to the present, where in English a
present perfect would be used, for instance, "I've been doing this for
three hours". In Czech, as there is no present perfect, the present
indicative is used and is directly translated as "I do this for three
hours". However, when the present perfect is used to denote past actions
without a time reference (e.g. "I've been to Italy three times"), the
past tense would be used.
There are also sometimes second
forms of certain verbs (such as "to go", "to do") that
indicate a habitual or repeated action. These are known as iterative forms. For
instance, the verb jít ("to go by foot") has the iterative
form chodit ("to go regularly").
There is also no tense shifting,
as in reported speech, for example in the sentence "he said he loved
her", reporting "he loves her", the tense of the verb is shifted
from present to past. In Czech it is "Má ji rád" -> "Řekl, že
ji má rád". The "má rád" remains in the present tense in both
cases.
The future tense is another
fickle part of Czech grammar. Verbs in Czech can be divided into two aspects,
one expressing an ongoing action (imperfective aspect) and one expressing the
outcome of an action (perfective aspect). Most verbs have different
counterparts in each aspect which form pairs. Perfective verbs can only express
an action that is already completed (past) or one that is yet to be completed
(future), but the latter is expressed in Czech using the present tense. Thus,
the future tense (e.g. budu psát for psát, to write) can only be
used for imperfective verbs; however, the present tense of napsat
(perfective counterpart of psát) also indicates a future action.
Aspectual pairs are in general of
two kinds:
the perfective is obtained by
prefixing the imperfective with a preposition, for example psát becomes napsat;
the forms differ in the endings,
for example dát (perfective) becomes dávat (imperfective) or koupit
(perfective) becomes kupovat (imperfective);
Czech also makes heavy use of
prepositional prefixes to modify the precise meaning to the verb. For example, podepsat
is a prefixed form of the verb psát meaning to sign (literally to
write under). Analogously to the first case above, the addition of such
prefixes almost always changes the aspect of the verb to the perfective aspect.
In this case, a modified imperfective form podepisovat forms a pair with
podepsat.
Sample text
Czech: Všichni lidé se
rodí svobodní a sobě rovní co do důstojnosti a práv. Jsou nadáni rozumem a
svědomím a mají spolu jednat v duchu bratrství.
English: All human beings
are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
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