Czech language
From Wikinfo
The Czech language is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian, and 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 (Česk�) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Czech Republic |
| Total speakers: | 12 Million |
| Ranking: | 73 |
| Genetic classification: |
Indo-European |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Czech Republic |
| Regulated by: | Czech Language Institute |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | cs |
| ISO 639-2(B): | cze |
| ISO 639-2(T): | ces |
| SIL: | CZC |
Due to its complexity it is said to be a difficult language to learn. The complexity has several sources:
- extensive morphology (some words have over 200 possible word forms)
- seemingly free word order (often all the permutations are valid)
It shares these features with other Slavonic languages such as Russian.
For foreigners even spoken Czech may be very difficult. For example, some words do not appear to have vowels: zmrzl, ztvrdl, scvrnkl, čtvrthrst. The consonants l and r, however, function as sonorants and thus fulfill the role of a vowel.
Je to krut� pravda ...example of Czech language
Contents |
Morphology
Word kind
- noun (podstatn� jm�no)
- adjective (př�davn� jm�no)
- pronoun (z�jmeno)
- number (č�slovka)
- verb (sloveso)
- adverb (př�slovce)
- preposition (předlo�ka)
- conjunction (spojka)
- particle (č�stice)
- interjection (citoslovce)
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numbers and verbs are flexible kinds; remaining kinds have no morphology. Flexible kinds have additional morphological attributes.
Declensions
- nominative
- accusative
- genitive
- dative
- instrumental
- locative
- vocative
Number
(Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs)
- singular (book --kniha)
- plural (books -- knihy)
Gender
(Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numbers, verbs)
- Masculine animate, live beings (the men worked -- mu�i pracovali)
- Masculine inanimate, other (the machines worked -- stroje pracovaly)
- Feminine (the women worked -- �eny pracovaly)
- Neuter (the creatures worked -- stvořen� pracovala)
See also:
External links
- Bohemica.com: Language and culture resource
- Overview of the Czech language
- Online dictionary
- Another useful portal with clear audios
- Czech for Linguists
[[cs:Če�tina]]
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Czech_language" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_language, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
