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Language Information

Czech is the offical language of the Czech Republic, spoken by virtually the entire population of 10 million people. It is closely related to Slovak, spoken in Slovakia, the two languages in fact being mutually intelligible.

Czech is a Slavic language written in the Roman script. The foundations of the alphabet were laid by the great religious reformer Jan Hus, in the early 15th century. The letters q, w, and x are missing, while c is pronounced ts (e.g., cena—price), ch as in German (kachna—duck), and j as y (jazyk—language). Acute accents lengthen the vowels (kámen—stone), while a circle over the u produces a long oo sound (dum—house). The chevron over c, s, and z produces ch, sh, and zh respectively (cislo—number, kos—basket, zivot—life). But n is pro-nounced ny as in "canyon" (dan—tax), e is pronounced ye (mesto—city), and r is pronounced rzh, as in the name Dvorak. The letter r serves as a vowel, producing such strange-looking words as krk (neck), smrt (death), and (ivri (quarter). The stress is always on the first syllable.

Czech Republic, United States of America.

Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Slavic
Branch: Western

Writing Sample

Translation

I know that romantic in me, it was my mother. Mother used to sing, mother lost herself in daydreams, mother had had some secret unknown life; and how beautiful she was when she offered the dragoon a drink, so beautiful that in my little childish heart stood still. They always said that I took after her. Then I wanted to be like my father, strong like him, big, and reliable like daddy. Perhaps I haven't turned out well. It isn't after him, that poet, that romantic, and who knows what else.

KAREL CAPEK, An Ordinary Life