Czech čeština, český jazyk
Spoken in:	Czech Republic and as a minority language also in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany and Slovakia
Region:	Central Europe
Total speakers:	12 million
Ranking:	66
Language family:	Indo-European  Slavic   West Slavic    Czech-Slovak     Czech
Official status
Official language in:	Czech Republic  European Union
Regulated by:	Czech Language Institute
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	cs
ISO 639-2:	cze (B)	ces (T)
ISO 639-3:	ces
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Czech (pronounced /ˈʧɛk/; čeština IPA: [ˈʧɛʃcɪna] in Czech) is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian (Kashubian), and Lusatian Sorbian. It is spoken by most people in the Czech Republic and by Czechs all over the world (about 12 million native speakers in total). Czech is relatively close to Slovak and, to a lesser degree, to Polish or to Sorbian in East Germany. Central Europe The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... This article or section should be merged with List of West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group (q. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group that includes Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Czech Language Institute, Czech: , abbr. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... This article or section should be merged with List of West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages is a subdivision of the Slavic language group (q. ... Stefan RamuÅ‚ts Dictionary of the Pomeranian (Kashubian) language, published in Kraków, 1893 Pomeranian language edition of Wikipedia Pomeranian is a group of Lechitic dialects which were spoken in the Middle Ages on the territory of Pomerania, between the Oder and Vistula rivers. ... Kashubian is: one of the Kashubians the Kashubian language This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... This article or section should be merged with List of Sorbian languages The Sorbian languages are members of the West Slavic branch of languages spoken in eastern Germany. ...

As in most Slavic languages (except common nouns in modern Bulgarian and Macedonian), 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, in Czech the rules of morphology are extremely irregular and many forms have official, colloquial and sometimes semi-official variants. The word order serves similar function as emphasis and articles in English. Often all the permutations of words in a clause are possible. While the permutations mostly share the same meaning, it is nevertheless different, because the permutations differ in the topic-focus articulation. As an example we can show: 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). In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... Bulgarian or chuvashi language is spoken by around 80. ... Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ... Permutation is the rearrangement of objects or symbols into distinguishable sequences. ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ... Topic-focus articulation is a field of study in linguistics. ...

The phonology of Czech may also be very difficult for speakers of other languages. For example, some words do not appear to have vowels: zmrzl (froze solid), ztvrdl (hardened), scvrkl (shrunk), čtvrthrst (quarter-handful), blb (fool), vlk (wolf), or smrt (death). A popular example of this is the phrase "strč prst skrz krk" meaning "stick a finger through your throat" or "Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh." meaning "Morel full of spots wetted from fogs". The consonants l and r can function as the nucleus of a syllable in Czech, since they are sonorant consonants. A similar phenomenon also occurs in American English, where the reduced syllables at the ends of "butter" and "bottle" are pronounced [bʌ.ɾɹ] and [bɑ.ɾl], with syllabic consonants as syllable nuclei. It also features the consonant ř, a phoneme that is said to be unique to Czech and quite difficult for foreigners to pronounce. To a foreign ear, it sounds very similar to zh, though a better approximation could be rolled (trilled) r combined with zh, which was incidentally sometimes used as an orthography for this sound (rž) for example in the royal charter of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1609. The phonetic description of the sound is "a raised alveolar non-sonorant vibrant" which can be either voiceless (terminally or next to a voiceless consonant) or voiced (elsewhere), the IPA transcription being [ r̝ ], however this is contested as not representing the ř sound properly. Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Strč prst skrz krk ( ) is a Czech and Slovak tongue-twister meaning stick finger through throat. The sentence is well known in both languages for having a total absence of vowels. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In phonetics and phonology, the nucleus is the central part of the syllable, mostly commonly a vowel. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. ... Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Rudolph IIs personal imperial crown, later crown of the Austrian Empire Rudolf II Habsburg was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, king of Bohemia, and king of Hungary. ... // Events April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. ...

Official status

Czech is widely spoken by most inhabitants of the Czech Republic, however, there is no special "language" law for its use. As given by appropriate laws, courts and authorities act and make out documents and executions in the Czech language (financial authorities also in the Slovak language). People who do not speak Czech have the right to get an interpreter. Instructions for use in Czech must be added to all marketed goods. The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk), sometimes referred to as Slovakian, is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Cashubian and Sorbian). ...

The right of own languages 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).

Name

The name "čeština", Czech, is derived from a Slavic tribe of Czechs ("Čech", pl. "Češi") that inhabited Central Bohemia and united neighbouring Slavic tribes under the reign of the Přemyslid dynasty ("Přemyslovci"). The etymology is unclear. According to a legend, it is derived from the Forefather Čech, who brought the tribe of Czechs into its land. PÅ™emyslid coat of arms. ... Etymologies redirects here. ... Forefather ÄŒech (Czech) is a mythical person who was the leader of the people (later called the Czechs) who came to Bohemia (in Czech - ÄŒechy) which - as Forefather ÄŒech promised - was the promised land. As the legend says, he and the people climbed a mountain (called Říp), uphill they saw...

History

Main article: History of the Czech language

The Czech language developed from the Proto-Slavic language at the close of the 1st millennium. The Czech language developed at the close of the 1st millennium from the Proto-Slavic language. ... Proto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Old Church Slavonic and other Slavic languages later emerged. ... In the Gregorian calendar, the 1st millennium is the period of one thousand years that commenced with the year 1 Anno Domini. ...

Phonology

Main article: Czech phonology

Czech phonology describes functions and pronunciation of individual phonemes used in the Czech language. ...

Vowels

There are 10 vowels in Czech which are regarded as individual phonemes. There are 5 short and 5 long vowels. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...

Image File history File links Czech_vowel_chart. ...

Long vowels are indicated by an acute accent or a ring. The acute accent (   ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ... In punctuation, the term ring is usually reserved for the ring above diacritic mark ˚ (looks similar to °). The ring may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets. ...

/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 letter e (and sometimes ě)

/a/ (actually an open central unrounded vowel [ä]) is represented by letter a

/o/ (actually a mid back rounded vowel [o̞]) is represented by letter o

There have been some disputes as to whether there are really ten or only five vowels in Czech. These can however be settled by a simple list of minimal pairs:

sad [sat] ~ sát [saːt]

bal [bal] ~ bál [baːl]

kaž [kaʃ] ~ káš [kaːʃ]

lek [lɛk] ~ lék [lɛːk]

len [lɛn] ~ lén [lɛːn]

sled [slɛt] ~ slét' [slɛːt]

bor [bɔr] ~ bór [bɔːr]

chor [xɔr] ~ chór [xɔːr]

mot [mɔt] ~ mód [mɔːt]

sir [sɪr] ~ sýr [siːr]

Žid [ʒɪt] ~ žít [ʒiːt]

kil [kɪl] ~ kýl [kiːl]

dul [dul] ~ důl [duːl]

nuž [nuʃ] ~ nůž [nuːʃ]

ruš [ruʃ] ~ růž [ruːʃ]

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). č Å¡ ž A caron ( ˇ ), also known as a háček (pronounced ), is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it to mark postalveolar fricatives (sh, zh, ch). ... In punctuation, the term ring is usually reserved for the ring above diacritic mark Ëš (looks similar to °). The ring may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets. ... In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ... Czech orthography is a system of rules for correct writing (orthography) in the Czech language. ...

/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). A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). ...

Diphthongs

There are three diphthongs in Czech: In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

/aʊ̯/ represented by au (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)

/eʊ̯/ represented by eu (in words of foreign origin only)

/oʊ̯/ 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-]). Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are likewise not regarded as diphthongs; they may also 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). Places of articulation (passive & active): 1. ... Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. ... Dorsal consonants are articulated with the back of the tongue against either the hard palate, or the flexible velum just behind it, or even against the uvula. ... In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, and other speech organs involved in making a sound make contact. ... In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The labiodental nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. ... The velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ... The voiced bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ... The voiced alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The voiced palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ... The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. ... The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. ... The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a fricative, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages which often behaves like a consonant, but sometimes behaves more like a vowel, or is indeterminate in its behavior. ... The breathy-voiced glottal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ... The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... The alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... In phonetics, a raised sound is articulated with the tongue or lip raised higher than some reference point. ...

Consonants in the parentheses are regarded as allophones of other consonants: In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

[ɱ] is an allophone of /m/ preceding labiodental consonants (/f/ and /v/).

[ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ preceding velar consonants(/k/ and /g/).

[ɣ] is a voiced allophone of /x/ preceding a voiced consonant

[h] is an allophone of /ɦ/ preceding a voiceless consonant

Glottal stop is not regarded as an individual phoneme. In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...

There are also 4 affricates: Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ...

/ʃ/ is represented by letter š

/ʒ/ is represented by letter ž

/ɲ/ is represented by letter ň

/c/ is represented by letter ť

/ɟ/ is represented by letter ď

/ɦ/ is represented by letter h

/x/ is represented by digraph ch

/t͡s/ is represented by letter c

/ʣ/ is represented by digraph dz

/ʧ/ is represented by letter č

/ʤ/ is represented by digraph dž

/r̝/ is represented by letter ř

Other consonants are represented by the same characters (letters) as in IPA. The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Å  in upper- and lowercase The grapheme Å , Å¡ (Latin S with háček) is used in various contexts, usually denoting the voiceless postalveolar fricative . ... Ž (minuscule: ž) is: the 25th letter of the Slovenian alphabet, the 30th letter of the Serbian; the 42nd letter of the Czech; the 19th letter of the Estonian; the 33rd letter of the Latvian; the 32nd letter of the Lithuanian; the 46th letter of Slovak; the 13th letter of the Turkmen... Ň is a letter used in the Romany alphabet. ... č Å¡ ž A háček (ˇ, pronounced ), also known as a caron, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it to mark postalveolar fricatives (sh, zh, ch). ... ÄŽ is the 7th letter in the Czech Alphabet. ... Look up H, h in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Digraph has several meanings: directed graph, or digraph Digraph (orthography) Digraph (computing) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... CH can mean: Cargo helicopter (U.S. military helicopter alpha-numeric prefix) Companion of Honour, a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, which is a British and Commonwealth Order. ... Look up C, c in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... DZ or dz can mean: Algeria (ISO country code) Dzongkha language (ISO 639 alpha-2) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... ÄŒ in upper- and lowercase ÄŒ is the fourth letter of the Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak and Slovenian alphabet and the fifth letter of the Lithuanian and Latvian alphabet. ... Ç… (lowercase dž) is the seventh letter of the Croatian and Serbian (Latin form) alphabets, after D and before Đ. It is pronounced as . ... Ř is a letter used in the Romany alphabet. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

(See also: Czech alphabet) The Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters (or more precisely - graphemes): A, Á, B, C, Č, D, Ď, E, É, Ě, F, G, H, Ch, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, P, Q, R, Ř, S, Š, T, Ť, U, Ú, Ů, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž Most of the diacritic letters were added to the alphabet through reforms...

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: In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). ...

• 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. ˈPraha (Prague) --> ˈdo Prahy (to Prague). This does not apply to long words, e.g. ˈna ˈkoloˌnádě (on the (spa) walk).
• Some monosyllabic words (e.g. mi (me), ti ((to) you), to (it), se, si (oneself), jsem (am), jsi (are), etc.) 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: ˈNapsal jsem ti ˈten ˈdopis, I have written the letter to you.

Long words have secondary stress, which is usually placed on every odd syllable, e.g. ˈnej.krás.ˌněj.ší (the most beautiful). In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ... In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ... Look up odd in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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.

Basic phrases

• Dobrý den – Good day
• Dobré ráno – Good morning (using only early morning)
• Dobrý večer – Good evening
• Dobrou noc – Good night
• Ahoj/Čau/Nazdar – Hello / Bye (both mean Hello and Bye, informal)
• Na shledanou – Goodbye / See you later (formal)
• Děkuji – Thank you (formal)
• Díky - Thanks (informal)
• Prosím - Please / You're welcome
• Vítejte – Welcome (formal/plural)
• Jak se máš? – How are you? (familiar/singular)
• Jak se máte? - How are you? (formal/plural)
• Mám se dobře. – I'm fine.
• Jak se jmenuješ/jmenujete? - What's your name? (informal/formal)
• Jsem unavený/á. (male/female) – I'm tired.

Morphology

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 (7 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). In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. ... A numeral is a symbol or group of symbols that represents a number. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... Adverbs redirects here. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In linguistics, the term particle is often employed as a useful catch-all lacking a strict definition. ... An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions. ...

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. Common Czech is an colloquial variant of the Czech language. ... Flag of Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: ; German: ) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic. ... Flag of Moravia Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava; German: ; Hungarian: ; Polish: ) is a historical region in the east of the Czech RepublicCzechia. ... Silesia (English pronunciation [], Czech: ; German: ; Latin: ; Polish: ; Silesian: Åšlůnsk) is a historical region in central Europe, located along the upper and middle Oder River, upper Vistula River, and along the Sudetes, Carpathian (Silesian Beskids) mountain range. ...

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 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 de-facto standardized with a new 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. Flag of Moravia Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava; German: ; Hungarian: ; Polish: ) is a historical region in the east of the Czech RepublicCzechia. ... Silesia (English pronunciation [], Czech: ; German: ; Latin: ; Polish: ; Silesian: Åšlůnsk) is a historical region in central Europe, located along the upper and middle Oder River, upper Vistula River, and along the Sudetes, Carpathian (Silesian Beskids) mountain range. ... Bible of Kralice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

A special case is the Cieszyn Silesian dialect, spoken in the microregion of Cieszyn Silesia. It is spoken generally by the ethnic Polish minority. The dialect itself is a dialect of Polish but with strong Czech and German influences. Cieszyn Silesian dialect (Polish: gwara cieszyńska, Czech těšínské nářečí) is one of the Silesian dialects of Polish language with strong Czech and German influences. ... Cieszyn Silesia (Polish: Śląsk Cieszyński, Czech: Těšínské Slezsko, German: Teschener Schlesien) is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, between the Vistula and Oder rivers. ...

It should be noted that some south Moravian dialects are considered (also by Czech linguists in the 90's 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 substantives and pronouns and for conjugated verbs) as Slovak.

The minor dialect spoken in Pilsen and parts of Western Bohemia 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 Pilsen 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"). Plzeň (Czech name) or Pilsen (German equivalent, sometimes used in English) is a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. ...

Declension

Main article: Czech declension

The noun cases are typically referred to by number, and learned by means of the question to which they are the answer. When learning a new word, children recite the cases using a set of example phrases, shown as follows: Czech declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Czech language. ...

The case used depends on a number of variables, and for foreigners can be very confusing. The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person (animal, object, etc. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ...

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). In grammar, a preposition is a word that establishes a relationship between an object (usually a noun phrase) and some other part of the sentence, often expressing a location in place or time. ...

• 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).

• Dative: k(e) (towards), proti (against), díky (thanks to), naproti (opposite).

• Accusative: skrz(e) (through), pro (for), na (to/for).

• Locative/Prepositional: 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 like nad, mezi, na, pod, etc. 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). An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. ...

Counting and declension

The third factor affecting noun declension is number. The Czech language has a very complex counting system, explained as follows with the example masculine animate noun muž (man): In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ...

• For the number one, the singular number is of course 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 to infinity, 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).

That's in 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 which 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 every day speech, as well as becoming harder to find in modern literature.

Numbers also have declension patterns in Czech. The number two, for instance, declines as follows:

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 used for only several parts of the human body, of which each person has two: hands, shoulders, eyes, ears, knees, legs, 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 Bohemian Czech it has become a common part of slang to use the dual ending of the instrumental case for ALL plural intrumental declensions, for example, "s kluky" (with the boys) becomes "s klukama", and so on for all nouns. Common Slavic had a complete singular-dual-plural number system, although the dual paradigms showed considerable syncretism. ...

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. In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ...

Tenses and conditionals

Compared to Romance languages, Czech has a very simple set of tenses. They are present, past, and future. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... The past is the portion of the timeline that has already occurred; it is the opposite of the future. ... For other uses, see Future (disambiguation). ...

Past is used in almost all instances of past action, and replaces every past tense in English (past perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, etc.). 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, -i or -y for plural).

The present tense is precisely the same as in English. It is also used in cases where one would say, for instance, "I have been doing this for three hours". In Czech, the present indicative is used and is directly translated as "I do this for three hours".

There are also sometimes second forms of certain verbs (like to go, to do, etc.) 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). E.g. "He loves her" -> "He said he loved her", the time is shifted from present to past. In Czech it is "Má ji rád" -> "Řekl, že ji má rád". The "má rád" implies present tense in both cases.

The conditional is something of an oddity, with no real indication of time. It is the same regardless of whether the action discussed is a future, present, or past action. The conditional is formed by using the auxiliary "conditional marker" and the past tense of the root verb. The condition marker appears as follows:

• I would have: bych
• you would have: bys
• he would have: by
• she would have: by
• we would have: bychom
• you (plural) would have: byste
• they would have: by

So, "I would have gone" would be translated as "Já bych šel" (or, more usually, "Šel bych").

The future tense is another fickle part of Czech grammar. Often, verbs that appear to be present tense are actually future tense. For instance, the verb "vyhodit" (throw out) appears like a normal present tense, but actually indicates a future action. This form of the verb has no present tense — it indicates a completed action (perfective aspect), so a present tense wouldn't make sense: either the action is already completed (past) or yet to be completed (future). A different form, "vyhazovat", indicates an ongoing action (imperfective aspect) and has all three tenses. In grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages. ... The imperfective aspect, sometimes known as the continuous or progressive aspect, is a grammatical aspect. ...

See also

• Czech alphabet
• Czech declension
• Czech orthography
• Czech phonetic transcription
• Czech phonology
• Czech verb
• Czech word order
• Háček
• Czech name
• Swadesh list of Slavic words

The Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters (or more precisely - graphemes): A, Á, B, C, Č, D, Ď, E, É, Ě, F, G, H, Ch, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, P, Q, R, Ř, S, Š, T, Ť, U, Ú, Ů, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž Most of the diacritic letters were added to the alphabet through reforms... Czech declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Czech language. ... Czech orthography is a system of rules for correct writing (orthography) in the Czech language. ... Czech phonetic trancription describes the methods of graphic recording of spoken languages which are used in the Czech linguistic literature. ... Czech phonology describes functions and pronunciation of individual phonemes used in the Czech language. ... Czech verb describes the conjugations, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in verbs in the Czech language. ... The Czech word order is relatively free. ... Caron redirects here, for the French actress, see Leslie Caron. ... Czech names are composed of given names and surnames. ...

External links

Dictionaries

Czech language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Czech language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

• Seznam Slovník – multilingual dictionary
• Wordbook: Multi dictionary – multilingual dictionary
• Czech.dicts.info – Collection of Czech dictionaries
• slovnik.cz – multilingual dictionary
• Webster's Czech-English Dictionary – transliterated Czech
• Universal dictionary
• English-Czech / Czech-English dictionary of mathematical terminology - mathematical dictionary

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ...

Online courses and phrasebooks

• Learn Czech phrases
• A brief course at BBC Education
• A short Czech-English-Japanese phrasebook – with pronunciation
• Czech pronunciation at UniLang Wiki
• Czech language, alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
• Overview of the Czech language

Diacritics

• Diacritics Project at Typo.cz
• Type Czech characters online – online editor

Other

• The Czech language - Official Website of the Czech Republic
• Czech language and culture at www.bohemica.com
• Czech Forum – for all people somehow interested in the Czech Republic
• Ethnologue report for Czech
• Czech Language Institute (Czech)
• Cestina pod lupou Czech under a Magnifying Glass — problematic words and common errors in Czech language (Czech)