Learn the similarities between Czech and Slovak
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Intro |
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| Michael: Is Czech similar to Slovak? |
| Veronika: And are they mutually intelligible? |
| Michael: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee is at a second hand shop with his friend, Lukáš Lhoták. He finds an old book, but he has some trouble reading it. He asks Lukáš, |
| "Is this in Czech?" |
| Ben: Je to v češtině? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben: Je to v češtině? |
| Lukáš: Ne, to je ve slovenštině. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben: Je to v češtině? |
| Michael: "Is this in Czech?" |
| Lukáš: Ne, to je ve slovenštině. |
| Michael: "No, it’s in Slovak." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Why Ben immediately thought of Czech upon seeing the old book at the shop is based on the fact that Czech is similar to Slovak in many ways. For one, both come from the Czecho-Slovak, or the |
| Veronika: Česko-slovenské |
| Michael: subgroup within the West Slavic Languages. Czech is closely related to Slovak, so that speakers of each language can readily understand each other without much effort. In linguistics, this is referred to as mutual intelligibility, or |
| Veronika: Vzájemná srozumitelnost |
| Michael: Aside from the fact that both languages originated from the same group of languages, Czech and Slovak were the languages spoken in Czechoslovakia before its peaceful split into two republics in 1993. Before the split, the country spoke these two languages, Czech being the linguistic norm and Slovak being a local dialect. Today, Czech uses both a literary and colloquial language. One can say that it is to the literary version that Slovak is most similar. That said, Slovak grammar is a bit simpler than that of Czech. In terms of orthography, or |
| Veronika: Pravopis, |
| Michael: both languages use the Latin script. However, while the Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters, the Slovak alphabet has 46 letters. Czech has graphemes that don’t exist in Slovak and vice versa. In the same manner, Slovak has phonemes, or |
| Veronika: fonémy, |
| Michael: and diphthongs, or |
| Veronika: dvojhlásky. |
| Michael: These do not exist in Czech. It’s also interesting to note that, while the two languages come from the same roots, the vocabulary in both languages is slightly different. A word may exist in both languages, but, in most instances, they are simply a case of false friends, or |
| Veronika: Falešní přátelé |
| Michael: According to sources, Czech has a high intelligibility of Slovak, which means that, if you have a strong foundation in Czech, understanding Slovak shouldn’t be much of a problem. Being able to speak Slovak is an entirely different thing, however. Today, most younger Czech generations are not as fluent in Slovak, although younger Slovaks are much better at understanding Czech. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: So far we have learned that Czech and Slovak share many similarities and are interchangeable to some extent. But is Slovak the only language similar to Czech? |
| Veronika: No, there is, for example, also Polish. |
| Michael: That's right. Czechia and Poland are neighbors, and additionally both languages used in these countries belong to the same language family—the Slavic languages. |
| However, it will be far more difficult for a Pole and a Czech than for a Czech and Slovak to hold a proper conversation, but there is still a very big number of words that are spelled and pronounced in a similar way. Let's take, for example, some social expressions such as |
| Veronika: děkuji |
| Michael: meaning "thank you," and |
| Veronika: prosím |
| Michael: meaning "please." These may not sound exactly like the words used in Poland, but, if you're traveling through this country and want to show your appreciation by using "thank you" for instance, most people will understand if you just say, |
| Veronika: děkuji. |
| Michael: But, be cautious, in some cases, the meaning may be different even if the words sound similar. Let's take, for instance, the phrase, |
| Veronika: nebeská láska, |
| Michael: meaning "heavenly grace" in Czech, but, in Polish, this phrase sounds like "blue walking stick." |
| Czech also shares many words with different Slavic languages, so, for example, the word |
| Veronika: chléb |
| Michael: means "bread" in Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, or Bulgarian. Even though it's usually spelled a little differently from language to language, it's understandable for people speaking one of the previously mentioned languages. |
| However, Slovak is the most similar language to Czech, followed by Polish. The rest of the Slavic languages still have some similarities, but not as many as those two languages. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: We mentioned before that Czechia and Slovakia formed |
| Veronika: Československo |
| Michael: or "Czechoslovakia" in the past. We also discussed that these countries split into two sovereign states after 1993. But did you know that Czech remained a popular foreign language in Slovakia? |
| Both countries are on very friendly terms up to today, and Czechia is a popular destination for Slovak people for university. Therefore, while traveling through Slovakia, you may have no issues communicating with the locals if you speak the Czech language. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Veronika: Na shledanou! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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