Czech

Where it’s spoken

Czech is the official language of the Czech Republic. It is mutually intelligible with Slovak — most Czech and Slovak speakers can converse comfortably in their own languages. Significant heritage communities live in the United States (notably Texas), Canada, Argentina, and Vienna.

What it sounds like

Czech is famous for the consonant ř (a raised alveolar non-sonorant trill) — a sound found in no other language. It also has syllabic consonants that can carry stress (vlk “wolf,” strč prst skrz krk “stick your finger through your throat”). Czech distinguishes long and short vowels and stress falls on the first syllable.

How it’s written

Czech uses Latin letters with the háček (čeština means “Czech language”), acute, and kroužek (ů) diacritics. The orthography was systematized by Jan Hus around 1410 with his De orthographia bohemica, which introduced the háček to replace digraphs.

History

Old Czech was a literary language by the 14th century, championed by Charles University in Prague. Czech experienced a national revival in the 19th century after centuries of German dominance under Habsburg rule.