CzechMate
Chintz?
Czechitout?
Czechsum?
Czechers?
Czechbounced?
Czechplease?
Days are numbered for the Czech Republic
The British government will start referring to Czechia rather than the Czech Republic, following advice from an official committee. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names “establishes and applies the principles by which foreign geographical names (toponyms) should be written”. It is now advising use of Czechia in place …
-
-
-
Sunday 25th September 2016 02:40 GMT The_Idiot
Re: CzechMate
When I was (briefly) at University in the UK, I was out walking one time into the countryside. A guy with his family in car stopped me. He turned out to be Australian. He asked me if I knew the way to 'Looga-ba-rooga'.
I never really looked at Loughborough quite the same again :-).
-
Monday 26th September 2016 09:25 GMT Jeff Green
Re: CzechMate
Walking with a friend in Sarf Lunnun an American lady asked for directions to Fort Neef.
It was only when my very puzzled friend repeated the name in his distinctly Croydonian tones that I could point out that the address her brother-in-law had given her by phone was Thornton Heath ...
-
-
Monday 26th September 2016 15:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: CzechMate
I don't quite get this. It's our language so it's our choice which name we choose.... isn't it? We haven't got the equivalent of the French academy so we can't be told what we should use either.
That's the only way you can explain us using, for example, the we we use the Francophone Bruges despite it being in Flanders but the Flemish name for Zebrugge.
-
-
-
-
-
Monday 26th September 2016 11:18 GMT Kristian Walsh
Re: >"I refuse to be President of a country called Czesko." -- Vaclav Havel.
"Česko" is what most Czechs refer to their home country as when speaking Czech, "Česká Republika" is what's on the banknotes and passports, but is hardly never used in day-to-day life (although you do see "čR" frequently used in print as an abbreviation).
As I understand it, Vaclav Havel's objection was to the use of the name "Česko" as the international name for the country, and it's because the "-co" ending makes it sound like the name of a business, not a country.
It's surprising it took so long for "Czechia" to appear: it just substitutes the Czech "-sko" with its international equivalent, "-ia" and so preserves the meaning of "Czech-land". In the German language, "Tschechia" (same pronunciation) is commonly used as the name of the country already, so there's a precedent there in two of the country's neighbours.
... but yes - many, many Czechs really don't like the new name.
-
-
-
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 13:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Bohemia won't do...
Well, it's a little similar to the 'Great Britain' or 'UK'. Calling the whole area 'England' would be quite likely frowned upon. At least by Scots, Welsh, you name it.
Czech Republic/Czechia actually consists of former Kingdom of Bohemia, Moravian Mark and small part of Duchy/ies of Silesia.
Moravians and Silesians (in Czechia) do speak Czech (kind of, hee, hee :), but Moravians (mainly) actually prefer the others to recognize they are still a thing and they fiercely opposed the idea of Czech Republic being called 'Bohemia'. And that's it.
-
-
-
-
Sunday 25th September 2016 12:58 GMT Rich 11
It's pronounced Checkia, not Chechia. How do you pronounce the 'ch' in Czech Republic? How do you pronounce it in Czechoslovakia? Why would you now pronounce Czechia so differently?
All those upvoters must have left their brains in the pub. Still, that's one way of approaching the weekend...
-
Monday 26th September 2016 07:22 GMT Novex
It's pronounced Checkia, not Chechia. How do you pronounce the 'ch' in Czech Republic? How do you pronounce it in Czechoslovakia? Why would you now pronounce Czechia so differently?
All those upvoters must have left their brains in the pub. Still, that's one way of approaching the weekend...
You're right, in that in this instance the 'ch' should be pronounced 'ck', but most people, me included, when seeing 'chia' automatically think 'ch' and not 'ck'. So the Czech people will have to contend with the rest of the world pronouncing their country name wrong. At the moment, when I see 'Czech Republic' I think 'Check'. It would take a humungous education effort to get the rest of the world's population to get the pronunciation of 'Czechia' right, as in 'Checkia'. That or the spelling needs to be changed to the latter so the rest of the world gets it right from day one.
All this doesn't even begin to deal with 'Cz' being pronounced 'Ch' (though most people seem to know that one).
-
-
Sunday 25th September 2016 12:37 GMT Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Re: "officials note crossly that CR has already been snapped up by Costa Rica."
I, for one, would not mind giving a tribute to ČZ motorcycles. Happy memories.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Česká_zbrojovka_Strakonice
Maybe renaming the whole country after them would be a bit excessive, but certainly not the worst idea around.
-
Sunday 25th September 2016 15:04 GMT Khaptain
Re: "officials note crossly that CR has already been snapped up by Costa Rica."
I would like to see it pronounced as CZ ( See Zed) after the fantastic pistols that they produce.
As a happy CZ Shadow SP01 owner, I couldn't be more pleased with CZ, as for many like me, it glistens with quality.
-
-
-
-
Monday 26th September 2016 11:29 GMT Kristian Walsh
Re: Relevance
The Latin language survived long after Rome fell, and was used in places that never saw the Empire's rule.
Throughout the early medieval period, the "Czech lands" were firmly within the Holy Roman Empire ("... of the German peoples"), and while that state itself was neither holy, nor Roman, nor really an Empire*, it kept Latin as its language of state.
( * someone was going to say it, so I decided to get in first)
-
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 13:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
How do you pronounce it?
"Čech" of course exists in Czech and the digraph is pronounced /x/ (that's supposed to be a Greek letter chi). So is Czechia pronounced with a fricative (/x/) or a stop (/k/)? Or is it up to the individual speaker (in which case I'll pronounce it "Czech Republic")?
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 15:40 GMT Uberseehandel
Many of my Czech friends refer to their country as Czechland - if it works for them, it works for me. Sadly, not all Czechs are Bohemians, were that so, then the name would be obvious.
Historically, Silesia would be a poor choice of name and Moravians, whose country is part of Czechland, are not Bohemians.
-
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 16:24 GMT Mage
Re: Obviously...
That's too similar to that place just north of Greece.
(Are they and the Greeks talking to each other yet?).
In other European Geography, British or Britain was hijacked by Queen Liz I of England, and really referred to all "These Islands" (as the GFA calls them) as well as part of France now called Brittany. Before UK or even England existed.
Fascinating stuff, Geography, and my pre-1918 maps of Europe are now more accurate than all later ones done between 1918 and 1991!
Also amazing that Dalriada is making a comeback in "Ulster", but not yet in Scotland and "Glenshane" is to become a region. Maybe UK/England/Scotland should give the re-invented Dalriada the Stone of Scone, which if real, is the Lia Faíl, (Stone of destiny or Shadows), though given that it's Scottish sandstone, someone must have made a copy before the English first took it, but after it was lent to the Scottish from Ireland. Though there may be a 1950s copy too. The pillar in Tara is nothing to do with the Stone of Destiny.
What about Boho-Morav as a contraction of Bohemia-Moravia? Maybe not.
Will we see an independent Catalan / Catalonia too soon?
-
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 16:44 GMT GrapeBunch
In the old days
the international name of a country might be based upon its name in French. For example, Netherlands = Low Countries = Pays-Bas. See where I'm going? Then your Paycheck is in the Mali !
Oh well, countries are bound to be a joke, or almost one, in some other language. For example, if you tried to take a derivation for Canada in Spanish, the closest you could get would be Aca Nada = Nothing There. Perhaps that's what inspired the "Quelques arpents de neige" remark. Or perhaps the other way around.
It seems to me that, because Chechnya, and because it's still early days in the monde post- Czech Republic, that English-speakers choose Czechland. If other languages go different ways, no big deal. After all, Németországi Szövetségi Köztársaság is still with us, even though its name is dissimilar in so many languages.
-
Saturday 24th September 2016 19:16 GMT Matt Bryant
Lol!
I await an EU announcement on the forming of a new EU bureaucracy with a sole mission of informing the EU member states what country names they are allowed to use. All decisions by the new EU Working-party on Appellations for National Conformity will be final (my money's on Bohemorasileszchia).
-
Monday 26th September 2016 09:25 GMT clean_state
where does this spelling come from ?
I speak Slovak and Czech but even so I am puzzled by the spelling of the word "Czech" in English. Who came up with this ? Anyone on this thread knows ?
"Cz" for a sound as in "Chaplin" or "Chewbacca", that is the *Polish* orthography. Why !?!
"Cz" does not exist as a special spelling, neither in Czeck nor in Slovak. The first sound of "Chaplin" is written "Č".
As for "ch" being pronounced "k", it is *not* pronounced like that in Czech or Slovak. And not in Polish either... There are some rare occurrences like "chitin" or "chronic" in English, but it still is a weird spelling to choose.
Why?
-
Monday 26th September 2016 11:54 GMT Kristian Walsh
Re: where does this spelling come from ?
The spelling CZech came from... the Czechs.
The spelling of the Czech language was reformed in the mid-19th century. Before this time, many words that begin with "č" were spelled as "cž"*. By the time "Cžesko" officially became "Česko", the English-speaking people of the world had already decided to use the Cz.. form, but stripped of its diacritics, of course.
To add to your post, the best approximation of "ch" for English speakers is the end of the Scottish (or Irish) word "loch", as pronounced by a Scottish or Irish speaker.
Also, as a lesson for programmers to stop using code-point sorting for lists that a human will read: "ch" is considered to be a letter in its own right in Czech (it sorts after 'c')
-
Saturday 1st October 2016 20:06 GMT eionmac
Re: where does this spelling come from ?
Humour. Like Mc, Mhic , Mac, M' , Nic (in Scots/Irish) it is a specific language sound, with meaning. I grew up in Scotland / Caledonia/ Scotia/ North Britain and our school gave up indexing pupils under "M" (too many started with a M variant) so indexed under next part of name e.g MacDonald was indexed under D . OK until university when we had many Africans with names like M'Bono who were lost when indexed under B. Usage rules. The Africans adapted!
Checho was what most Czechs used to me when I sojourned in Czechoslovakia in Soviet 'overrule days'.
-
Biting the hand that feeds IT
