| Group | Slavic (with Russian, Bulgarian etc.), Western branch (with Polish, Sorbian etc.) |
| Geography | Spoken in the Czech Republic and in the western districts of Slovakia. |
| History | Before the 11th century Czech people wrote in Old Church Slavonic, the first Slavic literary language, which had been developed by Saints Cyril and Methodius for missionary work in Greater Moravia (now Slovakia and the eastern region of the Czech Republic). In the 11th century two important linguistic events took place: In the West, including Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, Latin replaced Old Church Slavonic for church and literary use, and the regional Slavic dialects began to develop into separate languages. After centuries in which Czech was a despised and suppressed peasant tongue, the 14th-century Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus standardized Czech spelling. His stature as a national hero endowed the peasant vernacular he used with a new dignity. The work of Huss was consolidated and advanced during the 15th and 16th centuries by the Unity of Brethren, a Protestant sect later known as the Moravian Brethren. The writings of this sect stabilized the Czech language and determined its future as a literary language. Except for the growth of vocabulary, the Czech and Slovak languages have not changed significantly since the 16th century. |
| Phonetics | Czech differs from some other Slavic languages in the characteristic sentence intonation, the first-syllable word accent, the absence of elision, the exceptionally free word order, and the prominence given to vocalic r and l. The quality of a ringing, staccato speech distinguishes it from other Western Slavic languages. Also we can notify the unique sibilant sound [r'] as the distinguishing feature of Czech. The language preserves the difference between long and short vowels. |
| Morphology | Morphology of Czech is distinguished by its great variety of noun declension types and the variability of the verb conjugation in the present tense. The simple past tenses were dropped, while only the complex, analytical ones are now used in the language. |
| Writing | Latin alphabet |
| Close Contacts | In the Slavic group, Czech is quite close to its neighbour Slovak and also to Upper Sorbian. German and Latin influenced the language significantly, introducing plenty of words and phonetic elements. |
| Sample | Po prohlÃdce mÄ›sta jsem Å¡el se svou pÅ™Ãtelkynà na obÄ›d
do restaurace, která je známa svou výbornou kuchynÃ. Bylo již poledne,
proto jsme chtÄ›li nÄ›co snÃst. MÄ›li jsme už oba hlad i žÃzeň. V
jÃdelnÄ› byly vÅ¡echny stoly obsazeny. Dalo mi hodnÄ› práce, než jsem
naÅ¡el mÃsto.
After the excursion over the town, I went with my girlfriend to have dinner in a restaurant which was known by its distinguishing cuisine. It was already midday, that's why we wanted to eat something. We were both hungry and thirsty. In the restaurant all the tables were occupied. It took me much work until I found a place. |
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