L1: Seznamujeme se

1. Czech is one of the West Slavic languages

Not only does the Czech language share similarities with other Slavic languages such as Polish and Russian, but it was also influenced by Latin and German.

2. There are around 10 million Czech speakers in the world

The Czech speakers are primarily in Czech Republic where it is an official language. A benefit of learning Czech is that it is also mutually intelligible with the Slovak language.

3. Czech used to be known as Bohemian

Bohemian is language of Bohemia, a region of today’s Czech Republic.

4. Several Czech words have made it into English

Some of these words include dollar, pistol, polka and robot.

5. Some Czech words don’t have any vowels

This is because in Czech, consonants can act as vowels. For example, the tongue twister “Strč prst skrz krk“, meaning “put your finger through your throat”, is made only of consonants.