Czech (Čeština)

Czech is a Western Slavonic language spoken by about 12 million people in the Czech Republic. There are also many people of Czech origin in other countries, particularly the USA. Czech is closely related to Slovak, Polish and Sorbian.

The region where Czech is spoken is traditionally called Bohemia and was named after the Boii tribe who, according to Roman sources, have inhabited the area since at least the 1st century AD. The dialects spoken in Moravia are also considered forms of Czech.

Czech literature started to appear in the 13th century. The first printed book in Czech, the story of the Trojan war, was published at Plzeň (Pilsen) in 1468. After many years of Austrian rule, during which German was the main language of literature and government, there was a revival of Czech literature at the end of the 18th century.

The most prominent writer during the early period of Czech literature was Jan Hus (1369-1415), a religious reformer who also reformed Czech spelling. He created the system of having one grapheme (letter) for every phoneme (sound) in the language by adding accents to some of the letters. As a result, written Czech looks very different to written Polish. For example, in Czech the sound ch, as in church, is written č, but the same sound is written cz in Polish.

Czech alphabet (česká abeceda) & pronunciation

Latin alphabet for Czech

Sample text in 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.

Hear a recording of this text by Vaclav Dekanovsky

Translation

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Czech

Czech language courses, dictionaries, etc

Links

Czech language resource with audio pronunciation guide, Czech phrases, vocabulary, online exercises and grammar notes: http://www.locallingo.com

The Little Czech Primer (with pictures)
http://www.czechprimer.org

Yellow Pages of The Czech Language / Zlaté stránky českého jazyka
http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline/reference/referencetop.htm

Online Czech dictionaries
http://www.wordbook.cz
http://slovnik.seznam.cz
http://www.slovnik.cz
http://www.1.iprograms.org/

Czech Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Online Czech language radio
http://www.bbc.co.uk/czech
http://www.radio.cz
http://www.rozhlas.cz/english/portal

Online Czech news and magazines
http://www.novinky.cz
http://www.ihned.cz
http://www.halonoviny.cz
http://www.lidovky.cz

Related languages

Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Kashubian, Macedonian, Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Ukrainian

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet