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Due to its complexity is said to be one of the world's most difficult languages to learn. The complexity originates from several sources:
Both are true for almost all Slavic languages, so why Czech is considered more difficult than other Slavic languages here? For me it was not not more difficult than Polish for example. So I propose to delete this paragraph as the author's private point of view.
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I can mention reason why Czech language is easier then it seems from complexity. Czech language is very regular language. Czech language is almost "pure algoritmic language" built from few number of rules. It is very difficult to learn Czech language by memorize but very very easy if you learn by understanding the basic rules of language. For example English language is idiomatic and need good memory. That's why English language needs huge amount of words. Czech language is "algoritmic language" with small number of words but together with combination of grammar has excellent expression possibilities.
If you want to memorize Czech language then it seems very difficult. The best way to learn English IMHO is to use it. With mistakes, no matter. Your brain after short time will understand rules and Czech language will stay much more easier.
You can create new words in Czech language by prefixes. It is totaly regular. Every Czech people can understand new word created by prefix because every prefix change meaning the same way for all verbs. It is often used not only for creating new word but to multiply set of tenses too.
The second reason why Czech language is easier is: There are no difference between written and spoken form. It is regular as all in Czech language. It is possible to read unknown written words as well as write spoken unknown words.
No no. Czech language is easy. But not for memorize. As most Slavic language.
Miloslav Ponkrác
Czech native speaker
--- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.213.53.196 (talk) 01:41, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
And there's a lot of other candidates too. People often call Chinese one of the world's most difficult languages to learn, and some African languages are occasionally cited as candidates as well. --Delirium 05:04, Oct 29, 2003 (UTC)
Could someone give an example of a word which has over 200 possible word forms? I am a Czech native speaker but I do not remeber any. --Pajast 15:51, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
Do you know of that we have a small state ecistuje large number of dialect - "Official" from the outskirts of Prague, Moravian dialect, dilaket the Surroundings of Ostrava, in the environs of Brno (Hantec ") and the like.
For example, the sentence "This man is a fool, do not nenašetřil, so after srmti his children inherit nothing": nothing can nenaspořil, so after srmti his children inherit nothing ":
Tento muž je hlupák, nic si nenašetřil, takže po srmti jeho děti nic nezdědí. (oficial, in TV, neswpaper etc)
Tehle chlápek je debil, je švorc, a pro jeho děcka nic nezbyde. (unoficila, "civilians" speak, many other modification exist) Támhleten týpek je chuj, nemá prachy, a proto jeho chalani nic nezděděj. Támhleten maník je blbec, nic si nenašetřil, a proto jeho děti nebudou mít prachy.
Ostrava: Tóto chlápék je mačó, níc sí nenasporíl, a pre tó jeho chalání nic nepódědej.
Good sample it czech version of Futurama, where can see a Hermes dialogs. In Czech it a type of satire humor dubing a English speaks, who it not from USA or England with a Ostravian dialog. (Hermes it as character from a Jamajka)
http://www.online-futurama.cz/?p=405
- Fredy.00 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.48.153.172 (talk) 20:37, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
One man's meat is another man's poison. Something like that. It is my personal experience that claims about one language being more difficult than the other (let alone one of the most ... stuff) are usually groundless myths. Whether a foreign language will be difficult for you to learn, depends upon numerous things.
First of all, what is your native language? If the language you want to learn is similar to yours (belongs to the same language family or group etc.), it will be much easier for you to learn it than a very different language from another part of the world. It will be naturally much easier for a Polish guy to learn Czech than for a, say, Spanish guy. Chinese is said to be very difficult but for whom, let me ask? Japanese people learn Chinese quite easily while Americans don't.It must be made plain the Chinese Language(s) and Japanese language belong to completely seperate families,there is no genetic relationship between the two.
Secondly, how good are you at learning languages? If you have the talent, you can crack Czech and Chinese alike down pretty quickly if you are really eager to learn them and have some free time. Finally, there are even more factors that determine this, like your surroundings, people around you, even political situation in your country.
So, there can be no ideally motivated claim that a particular language is more difficult than the others. These things are hard to judge about, they are relative. I've been learning English for over eleven years (I'm Lithuanian) and guess what, I don't feel confident with my English at all.
Now about the arguments. *free word order (often all the permutations are valid) It was free in almost every ancient language. Czech is by no means the only language to retain this feature. Word order is free in most other Slavic languages and in all Baltic languages (only two of them survive, though. Word order is absolutely free in them and in extinct Baltic languages). Possibly there are non-Indo-European languages with free word order as well.
*extensive morphology (some words have over 200 possible word forms) Again I must say there is nothing unusual about this fact. Ancient languages also had this many word forms (to have many different word forms is an archaic feature, their number decreases in all languages in time for some reasons not yet discovered by linguistics). Most notably, Sanskrit verbs could have over 700 forms. Other Slavic languages also have many different verb forms (one of them has retained dual).
Therefore, the it is said ... is to be removed. Such phrases are considered weasel terms. 213.226.138.241 12:36, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I just visited the page about the Czech language and I think the article is not very good. In my opinion, the article should be an objective linguistic info about the language for any interested person. Please avoid writing articles like this from the point of view of an English speaker who "considers" learning that language. All this stuff about the difficulty of a language or any other part of it does not belong to this article. I suggest you create a chapter like: learning Czech for foreignors. The same applies to all those tongue twisters and all consonants words and sentences. Please stop this - I think this is not that important at all, not worth mentioning - rather for jokes, no serious interest. You can mention it in one short sentence only. I did not read the article nor the discussion here in a detailed way, so these are just my first ideas. I definitely agree with the opinions above - I propose a clean up of the article to a more "objective" one putting aside all the stuff for English learners of Czech 62.240.165.134 17:34, 23 November 2006 (UTC) aswler
Just a word: word order in Czech is hardly free at all, considering each different word order shifts the focus of the sentence, and some of the permutations are frankly nonsensical. Not to mention such things as placing adjectives behind nouns, which is never acceptable in Czech, or separating prepositions from the nouns they govern, which produces utter jibberish in Czech, as it would in every other language. In my humble opinion, every mention of "free word order" ought to be stricken, as it is a myth. What is true, is that Czech changes in word order change the meaning of a sentence more than it would in English.
jiři černý June 10 2006
The real problem is the irregularity of Czech morphology. In comparison with Russian, Slovak, etc. (official) Czech morphology is extremely irregular (I would say it is a mess). However nobody is a native speaker of that language. Morphology of colloquial Czech is much simpler.
So I would say that morphology of Czech is extremelly hard to learn. But I agree, that it is silly to say it about the whole language -- for me, the hardest thing about any language is the usage, registers, etc. -- Jirka
When it comes to Czech, I am a beginner. I'm an American who has studied Czech for several months now. I am only learning the cases now. Yet I do know one thing that will help those trying to learn the "ř" sound. I know, it's a very difficult sound. Heck, even Czech children have to have special speech therapy to say it in some cases. Lucky for me I ran into one of these when I was teaching English at an English Camp. She was very impressed that I was learning Czech, and that I had made quite an effort with that sound. Indeed, I did make quite an effort, I spent hours in front of Routledge Series Colloquial Czech trying to say it. I was making progress, but not quite there yet. This is how she taught me to do it:
If you know how to roll your Rs, you'll be able to learn the sound (eventually). For those who do not, learn that first.
Some of you know of the umlaut sounds. Whether you've thought of it or not, it is actually a hybrid between the English "ee" and "oo". The 'Ř' is similar, only with consonants. As you know with the rolled r, the tongue is flapping freely in the middle of the mouth. Now, there is another sound to focus on. In Czech, the letter 'Ž' makes the sound, in English, that is part of the word "vision". This sound is a combination of the two.
First, roll your R. Then, move your tongue forward and clench your teeth. Sounds very much like a suppressed 'Ř', doesn't it? Now, open your clenched teeth slightly, to the position you would use for the 'Ž' sound. If you did these steps right, you are making the Ř sound, the big one. From here, do not be discouraged if it does not work sometimes. Some words in Czech are just plain tongue-twisters; but with practice, with even these you will be able to say it.
Eric Hendrickson, USA
Czech can be a difficult langauge for some speakers. I for example am a native speaker of English and have learned quite a bit of German as well as some Czech, and can safely say that Czech was much more difficult. This, of course, is due to the fact that the structure of English is much closer to the structure of German than to the structure of Czech. Speakers of other slavic languages, as has already been stated, would have a much easier time learning Czech than they would learning English or German. I have no problem with leaving in the phrase "Due to its complexity is said to be one of the world's most difficult languages to learn" provided that we qualify it in some way. Perhaps by saying it is quite difficult for speakers of less morphologically complex langauges to learn. -Ryan
Sorry for beating a dead horse, but the notion that some languages are more complex than others is simply not true. (Except for very young pidgins, but they'll probably mature into creoles or die, so it's a moot point.)
Let me quote from Language Files from the Department of Linguistics of the Ohio State University, 8th edition, 2001. On the first page of the introduction, it lists "Every language is enormously complex" as one of the "very general principles of human language that will be explained and illustrated throughout this course." It's first on that list. "[t]hey are the underlying themes of many of the lectures you will hear and the assignments you will read."
They should teach this in school. --Kjoonlee 16:40, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
I have hardly met a Czech who does not claim that his/her language is “difficult” – even “very difficult”. This probably has to do with what linguists call language loyalty, a concept which, as far as I know, was coined by Uriel Weinreich. The phenomenon is widespread. This does not mean that such assertions should be included in articles in Wikipedia !
In this line of thought, the introductory sentence under the heading Phonology --
The phonology of Czech may also [?!] be very difficult [?!] for speakers of other languages.
-- should be deleted.
And in the German version of this article, see Tschechische Sprache, the following “warning” is intended for speakers of German:
Die Aussprache des Tschechischen gilt im Deutschen als schwierig [?!].
This discussion page has already indicated that linguistic contrasts operating between different speakers may render certain languages more difficult to learn than others. This is a well documented language acquisition fact. As I enjoy being the devil's advocate – especially towards my own opinions – I would like to mention the Wikipedia article Enindhilyagwa language where the following understatement occurs:
Words like "Akuwerikilyelyingmajungwuna" demonstrate the complexity of the language, where prefix and suffixes are assembled around the root word, making learning, reading and speaking the language challenging [sic].
A claim that Czech is equally “challenging” would certainly obtain for some individuals. I have great respect for those who struggle with aspect distinctions in Czech, Arabic or Modern Greek if this happens to be something they never learned in their own native language. But why should such a “difficulty” – or any other alleged complexity - be reported in Wikipedia? Are there objective criteria suggesting “complexity”? And from which point of view should “complexity” be judged? -departing from Enindhilyagwa or from English?...
One should have in mind that numerous Wikipedia users all round the world actually look up articles which are not written in their native language. Hirpex (talk) 19:09, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
QUOTE It also features the consonant ř, a phoneme that is said to be unique to Czech and quite difficult for foreigners to pronounce (it's close a sound that would be written as rzh in English). /QUOTE This is one of our (Czech) national myths, but is it true? I know very little Polish, but what about Rzeczpospolita (republic) and przepraszam (please) ?
What's the difference between czech ř, and ž? is it a 'voiced/unvoiced' pair (such as in the Rzeczpospolita/przepraszam pair). In polish 'ż'/'rz' mark the same sound, with morphology acting different on it (as in the pair 'może' (maybe) != 'morze' (sea), which are pronounced the same, but 'ż' declines to 'g' while 'rz' declines to 'r'), and both 'rz' and 'ż' can be voiced or unvoiced in accordance to possition. As for other languages - at least the voiced 'ż' is present in bulgarian/russian/ukrainian, marked as 'ж'. In Czech, is it that ř is always unvoiced and ž always voiced?
No. ř can be both voiced or voiceless (compare tři three and dři rub). (However, phonemically ř does not distinguish voicing - there is no minimal pair). The voiceless counterpart of ž is š. All (ř, ž, š) are fricatives; ř is a trill, ž and š are not. -- Jirka
Zmrzl, ztvrdl. Do you know of anything which does the opposite, softens when it freezes? -phma
OK, I give up. Stupid link to Croatian page on Czech didnt work. Maybe because of diacritical mark (haček). Later.....Mir Harven 17:27, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC) --
According to M. G. Kossmann and H. J. Stroomer (Phonologies of Asia and Africa, ed. Alan S. Kaye, vol. 1, p. 470), the Berber language Riff has this sound where Tamazight and related languages have /l/. Its tense/geminate counterpart /ll/ (or /l:/) becomes an affricate [dž].
A voiceless relative of ř, /rš/, is found in Nivkh, and is apparently a voiceless /r/ phonemically. -- LudwigVan 15:55, 2005 Jan 28 (UTC)
I'd like to know how often do Czechs say things like "strc^ prst skrz krk"?
V. Kodytek 18.02.05 15:08 CET
And how often do people say things like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."?
Hexagon1 22:57 22 Aug 2005 (AEST)
Dutch has a very similar sound; when "r" is "followed" by "s", it sounds remarkably similar. --D. Kapusta 20:53, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
Upper Sorbian has the letter Ř and presumably pronounces it the same.
... No, the Upper Sorbian "ř" only occurs after letters "p", "t" and "k" and is pronouced in the same way as "š" in Czech.
I don't know if the Nivkh sound really is a sequence – if so, I imagine it would be written рш instead of р̆ (that's a brevis on top of a Cyrillic r).
I am a Czech native speaker studying Norwegian and living in Norway - and in Norwegian language the "rs" is very close to Czech "ř", for example in the word "norsk". finrod.felagund@epost.no
David Marjanović | david.marjanovic_at_gmx.at | 15:53 CEST | 2006/9/23
If everyone would add four tildes ~ after their posts, it would makes things much easier to read. Without that, it's unclear whether a comment is part of the original post or something added by another editor. Interlingua 14:46, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
Maybe it's just me, but the following sentence (in the recently added "Slang and Dialects" section) isn't exactly a stellar example of NPOV: "[Bohemian Czech] is by far the worst-sounding of the three main dialects, and breaks many grammatical rules." And "Moravians speak correct Czech, unlike their Bohemian brothers" seems like a needless attack. (Not to mention "This type of slang is unique in that non of these pronunciations are easier to say, and make no sense whatsoever. When asked about this Czech people only tell you you're being stupid.") Should this just go away? HDC 03:14, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I think it is just a joke. Moreover none of the three are slangs. I will put there some information about official, colloquial and regional dialects of Czech. --Jirka 23:03, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
I edited that a bit, having been inspired by an article by one Czech linguist from Charles University who did some research on interdialects in the Czech Republic. It is untrue that the Moravians speak "correct" Czech. There is no thing as "correct" Czech. Moravians have more forms that resemble "standard" Czech (or literary language), but it does not mean they speak "correct" Czech, because on the other hand, they have MANY forms that are totally out of standard (especially in the vocabulary field). --Von klein 20:42, 18 November 2005 (UTC)
Can a native Czech speaker attest to whether this is in fact a legitimate Czech word? I assume (by breaking it up) that it means "a quarter of a fistful," but it's not familiar to me (a pseudo-native Czech speaker) nor is it in my pocket Czech-English dictionary. HDC 02:55, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
"Čtvrthrst" "a quarter of a fistful" is a legitimate word, approved by Ústav pro jazyk český, but as a linguistic construct, used only for fun. Similar nonsense word is 10-consonant "čtvrtsmršť" - "a quarter of whirlwind".
The longest "live" consonant only word, although rarely used, is 8-letter "scvrnkls" "you have shot off" (e.g. marble from the table), derived from commonly used "cvrnkat" "to fillip".
IMHO the longest meaningfull vowel-less regular czech word is 9-letter " scvrnkls'ť " "for you have shot off", in Czech "neboť jsi scvrnkl" JosefZ (talk) 15:40, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
I removed the following text from the main article because it doesn't belong there. Edinborgarstefan 18:58, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
If you know how to roll your Rs, you'll be able to learn the sound (eventually). For those who do not, learn that first.
Some of you know of the umlaut sounds. Whether you've thought of it or not, it is actually a hybrid between the English "ee" and "oo". The 'Ř' is similar, only with consonants. As you know with the rolled r, the tongue is flapping freely in the middle of the mouth. Now, there is another sound to focus on. In Czech, the letter 'Ž' makes the sound, in English, that is part of the word "vision". This sound is a combination of the two. First, roll your R. Then, move your tongue forward and clench your teeth. Sounds very much like a suppressed 'Ř', doesn't it? Now, open your clenched teeth slightly, to the position you would use for the 'Ž' sound. If you did these steps right, you are making the Ř sound, the big one. From here, do not be discouraged if it does not work sometimes. Some words in Czech are just plain tongue-twisters; but with practice, with even these you will be able to say it.
Eric Hendrickson
This article complitely lacks the history of the Czech language! -- Petri Krohn 03:31, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
Well, I created an article on the history of the Czech language (cs:Historický vývoj češtiny) on the Czech Wikipedia. I intend to translate it into English, but I am busy now. Please be patient. Or someone could help me.--Pajast 17:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
When did the Bohemian language start to to be called the Czech language. I doubt the that Jan Hus preached in the Czech language, as the Hus article now states. -- Petri Krohn 18:37, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
Quoted from the Bohemian article:
The word "Bohemians" was never used by the local Czech population. In Czech, the region was since early Middle Ages called only "Čechy" - Bohemia or "Království české" - Kingdom of Bohemia, and its mainly Czech-speaking inhabitants "Češi".
This goes for English too, the English name has always been Czech, however the Latin name was more frequently used in the Middle Ages and before. The original English word came back into common usage in order to distingish Czechs the people, and any inhabitants of Bohemia. -- Hexagon1 07:01, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
Please note: There is no word as "Bohemian" in Czech language. The word "Čech" would now apply to all the inhabitants of the Czech Republic. Germans, however, distinguished "Böhme" (inhabitant of the Kingdom of Bohemia of any language) and "Tscheche" (person of Czech nationality speaking Czech language). Remember, there were 3 million Germans in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1938...--Von klein 15:13, 16 November 2005 (UTC) 2.7 Milions including ca. 80% germanized Czechs. Yes they lived illegally there like strangers. Remember that this Land has always been Czech since the empire of Samo! (85.0.2.33 (talk) 18:21, 8 May 2012 (UTC)) "Bohemia" is derived from the German "Boehme", meaning the region called "Cechy" in Czech. This confuses things, but a person who studies the Czech language and literature in university is a "Bohemista/Bohemistka". --D. Kapusta 20:28, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
I suspect that some of the examples of Czech languages are inexact, can someone with actual knowledge of the language check them?
-Homer Jay 03:32, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
minority lang in Germany? Tobias Conradi (Talk) 08:13, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
'Zmrzl' doesn't mean 'froze to death', it means '[he] froze'. The 'he' is not necessarily animate so the freezing doesn't always have to result in the death of a person... Jonas
The word 'zmrzl' has perfective aspect and in the most context implies complete finishing. Therefore only for persons (and animals) has primary meaning 'froze to death'. But for this meaning the more suitable word exists - umrzl.
I'm changing the translation to "froze solid", which expresses the perfect aspect without being specific to living things. After all, the plumbing can freeze, too.
[My background: I studied Czech for a while, many years ago — though it's all gone "rusty" by now, and I can't say I understand more than a handful of words. I also hear some Czech fairly often nowadays because a Czech news program (Nova's "Televizní noviny") is shown on my cable TV system right after a Romanian news program I watch regularly.]
One thing I've noticed, from the beginning, is that most Czech speakers seem to speak quite nasally. Has anyone else noticed this? Am I right, or mistaken? Is this a regional feature?
Richwales 08:48, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
From my unscientific observations I believe that the nasality you are speaking of would be more of a regional dialect, specific to the area of Prague. I spent most of my time in Moravia and noticed that the people on TV didn't sound much like the people around me, but that's just a personal observation.
Sgthone12b 9 June 2006
Nasal vowels do not occur in Czech, that is, not as a distinguishing feature. That which you might construe to be nasality is, I'd expect, the very Czech tendency to stress the first syllable (though lightly), which in case of longer words or phrases leads to a whole string of unstressed or moderately monotonous syllables. Coupled with vowel length as a distinguishable feature, this often leads speakers who have another language than Czech as their first tongue to feel that the language sounds "tight" or "constricted", which could be mistaken for nasality. In the local dialect of Czech Silesia, of course, vowels can become moderately nasalized under certain circumstances owing to the fact that this particular dialect of Czech lies, in pronunciation, closer to Polish than anything else. Another possibility is that you're used to Prague Czech, which I've often heard described by Moravians as being "extremely open" in pronunciation, and thus you might think that Moravian Czech sounds a bit obscure. But the short answer is: no, officially there is no such thing as nasality in the Czech language.
Jirziczerny June 10 2006
This phrase:
"The most notable difference is a shift in used prepositions and case of noun, for example k jídlu (to meal - dative) (as in German zum Essen)"
needs help, as k jidlu (e.g., Co si dame k jidlu?) doesn't mean "to meal," but "to eat."
Napoleonbe 03:25, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
I suppose many people come to this page not to know how to pronounce the ř but to pronounce all those Czech words that seem to have no vowels. Neither is this page any help, nor the one that it seems to be cribbed from. The two sources each say that words in this language are stressed on the first syllable... all right, is the first syllable in "Dvořak" a schwa and how can that be emphatically pronounced? I read that the US philologists had an historical tiff with the International Phonetic Alphabet (vowels high and low vs. vowels closed and open, etc.) but that does not compare with Czech impudence. Listing those words and sentences without IPA transcriptions only redoubles incomprehension. --Sobolewski 20:44, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
Czech has no schwa, Dvořák is pronounced exactly as it is written; short o, voiced ř, long a, stress on the o. Czech has no difference between open and closed vowels, only short ones and long ones. á sounds like a long a, é sounds like a long e. Simple as that. jiři černý June 10 2006
Oh, no! Do not confuse schwa with syllabic r/l. If there were schwa, the the pronunciation would be different. The consonants (r, l) are the nuclei of syllables, not schwa. --Pajast 15:56, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps minor but nonetheless confusing may be the fact 'ch' is considered a single letter and alphabetically comes after 'h' and before 'i'. For example, 'chemie' (chemistry) would come after 'fyzika' (physics) in an index; names beginning with 'Ch' are listed the same way in a phonebook. 'Ch' also goes to a single square in a crossword puzzle.
156.152.45.90 20:15, 17 March 2006 (UTC) Aleš - Portland, Oregon
Someone post a recording, it's probably the only way to really know how to pronounce it. -Iopq 09:50, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Why is there a pecking order of "difficulty" of languages? Why is it a contest? I've heard many condescending English-speaking expats use this "ranking" as a way of saying that Czech is a backwater language, needlessly obtuse, and should thrust themselves into the modern world by making their language "easy" for the lazy English speakers. I object to this "one of the most difficult languages" nonsense. Why isn't English considered so? If you are a Slavic language native speaker, English articles, perfect and continuous aspects, phrasal verbs, etc., are quite daunting.
Also, having learned a bit of Czech and lived there, "Czech word order is free", which is touted by Czechs themselves (I think they mean relative to English), is utter nonsense. You can change the word order, which we can't do as much in English, but it communicates different things; that being said, there ARE strict rules about word order, such as placement of the reflexive "se/si", the order of the past-tense verb forms, and the personal pronoun, depending on its placement in the sentence or relation to preposition ("ti" versus "tobě", for example). Sladek 17:25, 30 January 2007 (UTC)20:26, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
In Czech, we say "volný, ne však libovolný" (free but not arbitrary). Free word order means that it need not necessarily be "SVO" (subject-verb-object) as in English, this is enabled by the treasure of inflexion forms (which makes the grammar complicated, often also for Czech themselves). First of all, the word order should respect logical links between words (we should not split up word groups that form semantic units) - this is an essential condition for keeping of the meaning and the comprehensibility of the message. For rhytmical reasons, unstressed words (as mentioned "se, si") cannot be the first words in a sentence (if so, this does not affect the comprehensibility of the sentence, this sounds oddish only). It is usual that sentences begin with facts which are known. New or emphasized facts are placed at the end of sentences. We should also avoid such a word order which enables double interpretation. --Pajast 15:06, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I've just been browsing through this page quickly, and the section on Tenses and Conditionals is not very accurate nor very well written. Apart from being less formal and scholarly in tone than editorial policy requires, my main criticism is that it alludes to "oddities" of the Czech language when they are in fact common among Slavic languages. For instance, the "conditional marker" is in fact the verb "to be" in the conditional. This feature is also found in Russian. Another example is the reference to the pairs of corresponding verbs which indicate either single events or repetitive actions. All students of Russian would also recognise this as the nightmarish "verbs of motion" that one must learn. As for the "fickle" future tense, the author has failed to realise that Czech, as with many Slavic languages, has verb aspect. Perfective verbs by definition cannot express the present, and the present conjugation expresses a completed action in the future. The standard present tense is expressed by imperfective verbs. This is also found in Russian, for example. (Apologies for only referring to Russian; that's the one I know most about in relation to tenses. Other readers may be able to provide further examples.)
The "See also" section of this page has a link to a much better "Czech verb" page. Perhaps the current "Tenses and Conditionals" section should be rewritten to give a short summary of that page instead.
These shortened vowels are also sometimes emphasised, as opposed to emphasising the initial syllable as common in all other variants of Czech.
I had heard ideas from my family for a while that my last name, Dzurick, is of Czech origin. Earlier today I had a friend, who studies words and such, ask me if indeed it was, and if so, it would have been pronounced "jur-itsk". Is this correct? I thought that maybe this would be the place to find out. Genius00345 21:08, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Can someone explain the following to me? (I don't speak Czech, but I'm currently perusing a Czech cookbook.) "Roast pheasant" is given as "Pečený bažant", "Roast capon" is given as "Kapoun pečený", "Roast partridge" is given as "Koroptve pečené", and "Roast goose" is "Pečená husa". I'm guessing that the "ý", "é" and "á" have something to do with gender. I know Czech has many different forms of words, and word orders, depending on the context, etc., but these 3 phrases seem like they should have the same form for "roast xxx"...?72.192.135.104 05:09, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! I'm half Czech, and remember my grandmother's cooking, so I know to avoid the cuisine. But the language is intriguing.72.192.135.104 03:11, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
You are invited to join Wikipedia:Czech Wikipedian's notice board! The Czech notice board can be used for discussions on Czech-related topics; to plan your Czech-related projects; and ask for, or offer assistance for Czech-related subjects. Editors are encouraged to sign their nickname on the list of active participators. --Thus Spake Anittas 02:40, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
I visited this article to find out how to pronounce the Czech name "Jiri", but since this article, in typical Wikipedia elitist-pedant style, uses the incomprehensible IPA rather than actually telling the reader how Czech letters are pronounced, I was none the wiser. If anyone actually wants to know, there is a proper pronunciation table here. Intelligent Mr Toad 20:06, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
It says simplified table for reason. This table tels you closest sounding letters, it is not proper pronunciation. 88.101.76.122 12:14, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
Just a quick heads-up that the status of official language is being discussed at Talk:Czech Republic. +Hexagon1 (t) 12:01, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Is there any objective research showing that mutual intelligibility of the two languages is really falling after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993? I have read some opinion that it may not be truth. Yes, present-day children say they don't understand Slovak. My generation (born in 1970's) listened to Slovak language in the radio and TV, used Slovak text-books, etc. We also said we didn't understand Slovak. We cannot listen to the Slovak language so often today, but there are a lot of Slovak people living and working in the Czech Republic. They usually speak Slovak.
Czech and Slovak dialects also form continuum. Differences between their standard (literary) forms are described as those between individual dialects of German.
So, I think there is no doubt that Czech is closely related to Slovak, more than to any other language. Comparation to a conversation in Bulgarian (another Slavic language) is exaggerated. (This is a reaction to changes made by 88.103.88.21 (155584214, 16:50, 6. 9. 2007).) --Pajast 08:05, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
It is NOT true, that Czech doesn't distinguish time in conditional phrases. This indication of time is only omitted in such cases when the time sequence is clear from preceding text. From the view of grammar there are 2 types of conditionals - past, formed using plusquamperfect, and present, formed using perfect (usual form of past tense in modern Czech; when one says "past tense" the "past perfect tense" is meant): 1. Byl bych šel domů - I would have gone home ("bych" + pluperfect of the verb "jít" (to go)) 2. Šel bych domů - I would go home ("bych" + perfect of "jít")
The auxiliary verb "byl" in the first form is usualy rewritten to "býval". "Býval" has the same meaning as "byl" and can be used in standalone constructions outside conditionals as well, however, it gives much more "pluperfectoid" and "continuous" or "repetitive" stress to the sentences when it is used at the place of auxiliar "být".
In conditional clauses, future tense is possible in the same sense as in English - using present/future tenses: Jestli mi ujede vlak, půjdu domů - If I miss the train, I will go home.
The translation of all types of English conditionals to Czech is straight - every type of English conditional has its unique Czech counterpart even from the grammatical view.
Note: usage of plusquamperfect as a standalone verbal tense outside conditionals is very rare in the modern Czech language and gives a hyper-correct (in scientific writings) or archaical (in fiction literature) timbre to the text when it occurs. -- 2 November 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.70.28.199 (talk) 22:35, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Can you give some examples of words which you think are pronounced with the ayin sound??--Praseprase (talk) 18:35, 8 May 2008 (UTC)
Since there is an extensive article about differences between Croatian and Serbian (and Bosnian and Montenegrin and who knows what not), it would be nice if there was an article of that sort about Czech and Slovak, since I understand that the difference between the latter is bigger. I mean, I don't know much about the subject, but the fact that younger Czechs poorly understand Slovak really puzzles me. Any such notion in post-Yugoslav states would be almost rediculous, I can tell you that as a member of the younger generation of Croatians (I'm 23), well, simply because the differences between the languages (or rather, varieties) are negligible. So, how really different are Czech and Slovak languages? I've read about passive intelligibilty between Czech and Slovak, but that doesn't say much. I, for example, passively "speak" Serbian, and I guess I could use it actively (but far from perfectly, of course), but for me to do that would be the same as if an American tried to speak British English. Simply stupid and needless. On the other hand, I find Slovenian, a clearly different language, to be surprisingly understandable. I don't get the finesses, but I usually comprehend the basic message. So, I also passively understand Slovenian (although fairly basically), but it's a different, although related language, and I would have to learn it if for some strange reason I wanted to live in Slovenia.Zhelja (talk) 00:03, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
Some needs to write this article synthesing summarily information from the articles [[Czech phonology]], [[Czech declension]], [[Czech verbs]] and [[Czech word order]], corresponding to the sections on nominal phonology, morphology and syntax. --Ivan Štambuk (talk) 04:26, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
In the section "Counting and declension", it says "However, in Bohemian Czech it has become a common part of slang to use the dual ending of the instrumental case for all plural instrumental declensions, for example, s kluky (with the boys) becomes s klukama, and so on for all nouns". If I understand the matter correctly (which is not certain), the language variety in which "-ama" is used for all instrumental plural nouns is not "Bohemian slang", but Common Czech (as opposed to Standard Czech). No? I'm pretty sure what's written is wrong, but I'm not sure if CC is the right thing to change it to. Ataltane (talk) 23:47, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
You are quite right, this is a property of Common Czech. There are some exceptions, though, which end with "-ma" but those are in minority. 81.105.181.49 (talk) 20:00, 16 September 2009 (UTC)
Is a list of "basic phrases" really suitable in an encyclopedia article about a language? - filelakeshoe 11:22, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
Pilsen speak does not constitute as a dialect, it's a variance of pronunciation only! Words that start questions are often given an additional "-pa": - this thesis is absolutely false! In fact, there is no suffix "-pa"; it's origin is in omission of last "-k" in regular suffix "-pak", as well as in base word "kolik".
"Kolipa je hodin?" (regular Czech: "Kolikpak je hodin?"; English: "What time is it?"). ...; some examples: "What is this? or "What's happening?" is "Copato?" instead of "Copak to?" (meaning "Copak se stalo? / Copak je to?") or "Why?" is "Pročpa?" instead of "Pročpak?".
Czech writers do not use an apostrophe to mark the omission of one or more letters (Koli'pa' je hodin?). JosefZ (talk) 14:58, 16 February 2010 (UTC)
The part of the vowels section starting "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:" can make the entire section confusing. Explicitly tell the reader how the simple list of minimal pairs settles the dispute. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.248.227 (talk) 03:09, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
The article's fact table says that Czech is spoken in the Czech Republic and also Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovakia. Given such a list, should we add Romania as well where Czech villages exist where people still use Czech as their language? w.0q (talk) 10:56, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
Check this claim at link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Moravian_Wallachia Bigshotnews 06:22, 16 December 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bigshotnews (talk • contribs)
There is a lot of nonsence about other official languages in the article. I have summed it up in Demographics_of_the_Czech_Republic#Officially_recognized_minorities. Although it could be copied into this article, I am not sure if it makes sence, since this article is about Czech language, not about languages of the Czech Republic (the information is within reference also at the article Czech Republic).
I suggest that all the nonsence and not relevant information is erased:
Cimmerian praetor (talk) 20:12, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
I just reverted an edit which introduced the sentence "the rules of morphology are extremely irregular". I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, irregular compared to what? English? Or just that there are lots of exceptions to the rules? - filelakeshoe 02:23, 7 February 2011 (UTC)
Are these words interchangeable as names of the language or is český the adjective and čeština the noun? Kostaki mou (talk) 04:51, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/katerina/documents/illustration-of-Czech.pdf shows i much further away from í in the Bohemian dialects (almost exactly between í and e) Should the section be changed?--90.179.235.249 (talk) 20:50, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
I've just deleted a description of /ř/ (in bold!) claiming it is a lateral rather than a central. That's utterly wrong.
Then I also deleted the following claim that I consider wrong too:
First of all, what's the relevance of that here? Instead, I'd write Czech syllabic liquids are mostly the result of the disappearance of yers.--Pet'usek [petrdothrubisatgmaildotcom] 21:29, 22 May 2014 (UTC)