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History and Czech
Deborah Bibo
February 1998
Linguistics 450


She was on her way to school. So many things had changed since the occupation.
Troops patrolled the streets and the click of her shoes echoed in the silence.
When she arrived at the university, she hurried to her first class. Everyone
seemed so subdued today. She quickly found her seat and pushed her bookbag
beneath the desk.


Professor Smith began passing out new books with what appeared to be some
ancient writing on the cover. To be honest, it looked like hieroglyphics. The
other students glanced around the room trying to understand what was going on.


"Class," the teacher began solemnly. "English will no longer be spoken here.
From now on we will use Language X."


This hypothetical situation may seem like something from a science fiction
novel, but it is an essential part of the tumultuous history of the Czech
language and its people. What happens to a language when its people are forced
to adopt another tongue? Moreover, how is the language changed when this process
is undergone repeatedly?


Language change is usually a natural process. Languages adapt to the needs of
the speakers. As human beings we are continually progressing and our language
should reflect that progress. The Czech language has undergone many changes over
the years. Contact with other countries, immigrant Czechs, and time have all
contributed to the present state of the language.


To understand the language changes that have taken place, we need to familiarize
ourselves with the history of its speakers. I have compiled a brief history of
the Czech peoples to paint a clearer picture of their language progression.


Czech is a member of the Western Slavonic family. Although it shares many
similarities with Latin, it is regarded as being closely related to the Baltic
languages because of their declension patterns (Mann, p. 19, 1977). The most
recent ancestor of Old Czech is what is referred as Old Church Slavonic. Old
Church Slavonic is very similar to the Old Czech and only precedes it by about
200 years. We do not have much data on Old Church Slavonic, but we know that it
shares many similarities with Old Czech (Mann, p. 20, 1977).


6th Century


In the sixth century, the spoken language was Old Czech, but the written
language is not documented. Most of the records we have are of little linguistic
use to us. According to Stuart Mann, the literary texts of that time are written
"in a variety of unphonetic and ambiguous spellings." Mann has also written that
the records that we do have consist of "fragments, phrases, inscriptions,
glosses, words embedded in Latin texts, and lists of words, proper names, and
plant-names." Although researchers have tried to reconstruct Old Czech through
onomastics, it has not proven very useful because of the Latinization of the
words as well as the lack of diacritics. I have included a data sheet with some
Old Czech terms. Much of the language has been lost through the extensive
analogical leveling it has undergone (Mann, p.143-145, 1977).


10th Century


Over time the Old Czech evolved and became a more concrete written language. In
the tenth century, the religion, Judaism, established itself firmly in Czech
lands. During these years the Czechs mingled with a Germanic tribe called the
Franks, and the first Slavic royal line appeared. The different dialects of
Czech became more pronounced at this time with the beginnings of the social
classes. The nobility regarded their language as more advanced and civilized
than that of the farmers (Nollen, p.15, 1997).


1306 AD


In 1306 AD, King Charles IV from the House of Luxembourg began his rule. He
established the first university in central Europe. This great advancement
firmly acknowledged the existence of literary Czech (Nollen, p. 16, 1997).


1400's


Religious reform came in the form of Jan Hus in the 1400's. The majority of the
Czech speakers were Catholic under the Rule of King Charles IV. This accounts
for the number of Latin terms adopted into Czech and other similarities between
these two languages. While religious wars broke out involving the Hussites, Jan
Hus followers, Hus developed a system of spelling and pronunciation. His
contribution was a great asset to Czech orthography. His systematic use of
diacritics helped alleviate confusion and misunderstanding (Mann, p.152, 1977).


1526 AD


History harshly threatened the Czech language over the following years. These
threats came in the form of the Hapsburgs, the Nazis, and the Communists. In
1526 AD, the nobility of


the Czech lands elected the Hapsburgs to rule. Once these German-speaking
Austrians developed a good footing, they consolidated their power and the Thirty
Years War began. Over the course of their rule German became the official
language of business. The Czech language was repressed as people lost their
pride in the Czech language. In the mid-eighteenth century, however, national
pride was restored through the efforts of Czech writers, politicians, and
composers. During this time of revival, the Czech language once again surfaced
(Nollen, p. 17, 1997).


World War II


During World War II, tragedy struck again as the Nazis overpowered the Czech
people and occupied their lands. Under Nazi rule, the language was changed to
German again and the Czech language went underground. This would account for the
differences between spoken and literary Czech. Not many years later, the
Communists took over the government and censored speech as well as expression of
any kind. The Russians forced all the school age children to learn the Russian
tongue. Because of the memories of oppression it brings, many Czechs refuse to
speak Russian to this very day (Nollen, p. 18, 1997).


As you can see, history has played an integral role in the development of the
Czech language. Through trade with the Poles and Germans, Czech has adopted
words to accommodate itself. As much as the Czech people would like to forget
the Russian occupancy, the Communists left their mark on the language (see Data
Sheet 3).


Perhaps when we consider all that the people experienced, we can better
understand the great gap between verbal and literary Czech. During times of
oppression they were prohibited form speaking their mother tongue. I believe
that they continued writing Czech in secret, to preserve the language for their
children. I also feel that this accounts for the differences between the spoken
and written word.


With all this strife threatening from other countries, we cannot fail to
perceive the changes within. What we now refer to as the Slovak language was
once a dialect of Old Czech. Essentially, it may still be regarded as such.
Slovak and Czech come from the Western Slavonic branch of languages. Although
Slovak and Czech have many similarities, they are two distinct languages, not
dialects of Czech. It took several years for the Slovak language to become
accepted and separate from Czech.


To understand this separation, we need to look at the dialects within the Czech
Republic. The Czech Republic consists of three geographical regions. The first
area is known as Moravia. It is closer to Slovak lands, the far eastern portion
of what was known as Czechoslovakia, and is made up of the eastern third of the
country. In Moravia, standard textbook Czech is spoken. They take great pride in
their correct, prescriptive speech. Perhaps this explains somewhat the attitude
of the nobility concerning their language. They pride themselves on their
perfect speech and often feel themselves above the lower classes. Most of the
Moravian Czech has remained unchanged over the years. It is often thought of as
the "cultured" and "cultivated" form of Czech. Moravia’s history involves the
German and German-speaking people, but they have always strived to keep the
language pure and correct (Nollen, p. 13-14, 1997).


It is difficult to find a difference between Moravian and Bohemian Czech,
however. Bohemia encompasses the greater portion of western Czech lands. The
name Bohemia came from the Boii tribe. They were a group of Celts that settled
in the western region of the Czech Republic around 300 BC (Nollen, p.13, 1997).
Over time they have experienced the widest variety of linguistic change.
Dialects are no longer tied to geographic regions, so the people must be
conversant in several dialects. This knowledge of dialects has become a
necessity and shows the extensive dialectal leveling occurring in Bohemian. Some
of these include particular sound changes while others are broad morphological
changes (Eckert, p.180-187, 1993). As this leveling process occurs, the verbal
or non-literary Czech is converging with literary Czech. There continues to be a
large gap, however, between the two although there has been some assimilation.
(Eckert, 1993.)


Within Bohemia several dialects have become pronounced. The most noticeable
change has been the vowel shortening that has taken place in the south. In
central Bohemia, vowels have been shortened, but not in all cases. Following
sibilants, the vowel stays the same as it does in literary form. I have included
a data sheet that shows a few phonological changes that spoken Czech has
experienced (Townsend, p. 24-40, 1990).4 Much of the change is simply accounted
as being an unconscious phenomena. Many youth voice voiceless vowels, shift
voweling, and not voice other voiced prepositional endings. These changes have
occurred over generations and are nearly impossible to document for a fixed
time.


The last geographical region is called Silesia. There is not much information
available about this area. I have included a data sheet with a few regional
words, but it is difficult to find adequate information. The only data I could
find on Silesian stated that Silesian is a dialect of Czech. We do know that
Silesia is found in the north and that its inhabitants are a mix of Poles,
Germans, Czechs, and Moravians (Mann, p.158, 1977).


Each of these geographical regions have different dialectal variations of Czech.
I assume this has much to do with cultural differences and outside contact. One
of the most interesting things I have discovered in researching the Czech
language, is the diversity within the language. It is especially enlightening to
follow the language through each stage of change.


Eva Eckert of Connecticut College studied the change in immigrant Czech speakers
in Praha, Texas. She did not record why they immigrated there or when, however
her research includes dates as early as 1860 AD. Her method was to use tombstone
inscriptions to illustrate the stages of development. She photographed more than
one hundred and fifty stones and compared the inscriptions with the inscriptions
from tombstones in the Czech Republic of the same time periods (Eckert, p.
189-215, 1993).


Eckert was able to find five distinct stages to the language change. Stage one
involved


pre-1900 tombstones. These tombstones were written in indigenous Czech without
any English influences. They showed a lack of grammar skills due to literacy
levels but demonstrated a natural grasp of the language.


Stage two documented the early 1900's. While the people still used archaisms and
diacritics, there began to be a definite use of English dating elements and
naming models. Stage three showed the first signs of shift from the use of
inflections and the integration of some English punctuation. The lack of
grammatical agreement and loss of diacritics marked stage four. It is difficult
to determine exactly when stages two through four occurred because it was over a
number of years. We do know that this is the order of the change however.


Stage five, the final stage, involved the incorporation of English loan words.
Eckert even documented the loss of word structure when the Czech words became
unclear. The immigrants appeared to have begun spelling phonetically because of
the loss of the Czech spelling. By the 1940's, the Czech tongue changed to an
unrecognizable state. (Eckert, 1993.)


The Czech language has undergone many changes. Of all the possible factors
involved, I believe time to be the most important. For a language to be alive,
it must change. Eckert’s study clearly shows the effects that time and
separation have had on the Czech language.


I am amazed at the strength of the Czech people. I hope I may be forgiven for
referring to the Czech speakers as a people. I believe we are what we speak and
I cannot research this language without obtaining a great admiration for its
people. The Czech tongue is very special to me. My Grandmother is Czech. Her
family immigrated to the Americas during World War II to escape Nazi rule and to
find religious freedom. She has lost most of her native language over the years.
I wonder if it is possible to hypothesize that many of the Czech people fled
their homes, 55not only for freedom from oppression, but also to preserve their
language for their children. This is my belief.


How could the Czechs have known the extent of the change for their children? How


could they have known the effects of history? Language changes to allow its
speakers to adapt. History can teach us much about who we are. I do not speak
Czech but it is a desire of mine to show my Grandmother the love I have for her
language and my respect for the people who strove to preserve it, namely my
great grandparents.


Language shows us how we can improve. We learn where we come from through the
language we speak and the changes it has undergone. The Czech have a rich
linguistic history. This has shaped their language to what it is today. It has
altered to accommodate the needs of its speakers, and time will only tell what
new changes will occur. Czech has surely been molten in a refiner’s fire.

Bibliography


Eckert, Eva. 1993. Varieties of Czech. Atlanta, Georgia: Amsterdam.


Mann, Stuart E. 1993. Czech Historical Grammar. Hamburg: Buske.


Nollen, Tim. 1997. Culture shock! A Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Portland,
Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Pub.


Townsend, Charles E. 1990. A description of Spoken Prague Czech. Columbus, Ohio:
Slavica Publishing Inc.

Old Czech Data Set (Mann, 1977)


Old Czech English delo
celo
sneziti
stodola
kvet
chcu
noc
vlna; dluh
jezero dole
whole
snow
barn
flower
I wish; rust
night
wool; debt
lake





Data Set 2 Czech words adopted from German (Mann, p. 159, 1977)
barva
bouda
brzlik
dik
drat
halir
harfa
morek
museti
plech
rek


Data Set 3 Words adopted from Russian(Mann, p. 159-160, 1977)
mys
majak
bodry
(some naval terms and animals)


Czech Alphabet


a i s a i s b j t c k t c j l d m u d n u e n v e o w e o x f p y g q y h r z ch
r z



Data Set 4 Vowel Deviations(Townsend, p. 24-40, 1990)


e > y / i


dele ‘longer’ dyl haler ‘heller’ halir letat/litat ‘fly’ litat lepe/lip ‘better’
lip



y / i > ej


citit ‘feel’ ceytit lit ‘pour’ lejt byt ‘be’ bejt kryt ‘cover’ krejt



u- > ou-


uvoz ‘field road’ ouvoz uroda ‘harvest’ ouroda uzeh ‘scorching heat’ ouzeh ul
‘beehive’ oul



o- > vo-


ohromny ‘enormous’ vohromnej obed ‘dinner’ vobed ocas ‘tail’ vocas oves ‘oats’
voves okno ‘window’ vokno



Data Set 5 Moravian Silesian(Mann, p.157-159, 1977)


krasna


smal se, smol se, smel se


maju, daju


gdo, hdo


idu


dej, doj




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Last Updated: Monday, September 6, 1999