Czenglish, a portmanteau of the words Czech and English, is any poor or 'broken' English spoken by native Czech speakers. Famous examples include confusing verbatim translations (such as "basic school" for "základní škola", which should be "primary school" or "elementary school"), incorrect word order in a sentence (because of the very loose word order in Czech) and use of inappropriate prepositions and conjunctions because of the influence of their Czech equivalents. A portmanteau (plural: portmanteaux or portmanteaus) is a word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two words. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Word order, in linguistic typology, refers to the order in which words appear in sentences across different languages. ... In grammar, a preposition is a type of adposition, a grammatical particle 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. ...
Language humour
Some elements of Czenglish, when used, are just a cause of a confusion and get eventually understood by a native speaker. Others, however, may lead to much more embarrassing situations, since for a native English speaker they seem to be correct English sentences, although the Czech speaker meant to say something different. Such misunderstanding may be recognized only by considering the appropriateness of each of the possible meanings in the given context.
Example
A Czech girl was working in a pub in the UK when the landlord asked her if she could possibly continue the shift to later. She replied, "Only if you get down on your knees and please me". (the mistake here is the inappropriate use of the adverb "please" in a role of a verb, while the correct word should be "ask" or "beg")
External links
Problems in EFL in the Western Czech Republic (http://www.linguistic-funland.com/kirchner.html)
Rules for CzEnglish (http://prague.tv/forum/viewpost.php?id=2690)
Geeklandia - Czenglish (in Czech) (http://geeklandia.blogspot.com/2004/11/czenglish.html)
With superb artwork and very interesting subjects, it is only its relative difficult availability and Czech language text (with English supplement) that stops me from being a more regular reader.
The subject of this review, on the other hand, is entirely in English and, apart from a little "Czenglish", is both interesting and easy to read.
The G4M Betty is covered from its design introduction through to the end of the war, including every major battle it was involved in from the sinking of the Prince of Wales to the transportation of Japanese surrender negotiators to meet with McArthur.
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