Czech–Slovak
Geographic distribution	Czech Republic andSlovakia
Ethnicity	Czechs andSlovaks
Linguistic classification	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Czech–Slovak
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Proto-Slavic
Subdivisions	Czech   • Knaanic† Slovak   • Pannonian Rusyn[1]
Language codes
Glottolog	czec1260
Czech–Slovak dialects in yellow and gold (A/C), withinWest Slavic

TheCzech–Slovak languages (orCzecho-Slovak languages) are a subgroup branched from theWest Slavic languages comprising theCzech andSlovak languages.

Most varieties of Czech and Slovak aremutually intelligible, forming adialect continuum (spanning the intermediateMoravian dialects) rather than being two clearly distinct languages; standardised forms of these two languages are, however, easily distinguishable and recognizable because of disparate vocabulary, orthography, pronunciation, phonology, suffixes and prefixes. Theeastern Slovak dialects are more divergent and form a broader dialect continuum with theLechitic subgroup of West Slavic, most notablyPolish.

The name "Czechoslovak language" is mostly reserved for an officialwritten standard devised in the 19th century that was intended to unify Czech and Slovak. It was proclaimed an official language ofCzechoslovakia and functionedde facto as Czech with slight Slovak input.

Theearly Slavic expansion reached Central Europe in the 7th century, and the West Slavic dialects diverged from common Slavic over the following centuries. The West Slavic tribes settled on the eastern fringes of theCarolingian Empire, along theLimes Saxoniae. Prior to theMagyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s, the West Slavic polity ofGreat Moravia spanned much of Central Europe between what is now Eastern Germany and Western Romania. In the high medieval period, the West Slavic tribes were again pushed to the east by the incipient GermanOstsiedlung, decisively so following theWendish Crusade in the 11th century.

West Slavic as a group distinct from common Slavic thus emerges during the 7th to 9th centuries. The Czech-Slovak in turn develops as a separate dialect continuum within West Slavic during roughly the 10th to 12th centuries, just predating the first written attestation of the language in the 13th to 14th centuries. The diversification of West Slavic had the characteristic of adialect continuum. For example, the spirantisation of Slavic /g/ to /h/ is an areal feature shared by the Czech-Slovak group with both Ukrainian and Sorbian (but not with Polish). This innovation appears to have traveled from east to west, and is sometimes attributed to contact withScytho-Sarmatian.^[2] It is approximately dated to the 12th century in Slovak, the 12th to 13th century in Czech and the 14th century in Upper Sorbian.^[3]

TheBohemian state was incorporated as theKingdom of Bohemia in the 13th century. TheSlovaks, on the other hand, never became part of the Holy Roman Empire in the medieval period, being incorporated into theKingdom of Hungary. For this reason, the history of the closely related Czech and Slovak peoples took a significantly different course during the later medieval period, the Czechs being associated with the Holy Roman Empire and the Slovaks being affected by the history of Eastern Europe (thehistory of Hungary and theMongol invasion). In the 16th century, however, they were once again united underHabsburg rule, and after the fall of the Habsburg monarchy sharing their own country ofCzechoslovakia during 1918–1992.

In the modern period, the spoken language of Bohemia became influenced by the written standard and developed intoCommon Czech, largely effacing dialectal variation within Bohemia. By contrast,Moravia remained dialectally diverse, with a series of variants intermediate between Czech and Slovak,^[4] and are thus sometimes viewed as dialects of Slovak rather than Czech.The Czech–Slovak group was summarized under the term "Bohemian–Moravian–Slovak" (Böhmisch-Mährisch-Slowakisch) in the Austrian census ofCisleithania beginning in the 1880s.^[5]

TheCzechoslovak language was an attempt to create a singlewritten standard, first proposed during thenational revival in the 1830s and the official language of theFirst Czechoslovak Republic from 1920 to 1938.

Intelevision and radio, Czech and Slovak were used in equal ratios. Since thedissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech and Slovak written standards have been the official languages of theCzech Republic andSlovakia, respectively.

Beginning in the 1990s, a political movement of Moravian linguistic separatism has developed.^[6] On the occasion of2011 Census of the Czech Republic, several Moravian organizations (Moravané andMoravian National Community among others) led a campaign to promote the Moravian nationality and language. The 2011 census recorded 62,908 native speakers of Moravian.^[7]

The Czech-Slovak dialect continuum historically blended intoSilesian in the west andOld Ruthenian (also known as Chancery Slavonic) in the east. With the development of the written standards in the 19th century, it has become less diversified, but there remains a pronounced dialectal division inMoravia. The southeastern Moravian dialects, in particular, are sometimes considered dialects of Slovak rather than Czech, e.g. using the same declension patterns for nouns and pronouns and the same verb conjugations as Slovak.^[8]

• Czech language: (since the later 20th century largely standardised, dialectal use is now mostly restricted to older speakers)^[9]Common Czech (obecná čeština) is the main vernacular based on the dialect of thePrague region.^[10]
  • Nářečí středočeská (Central Bohemian dialects)
  • Nářečí jihozápadočeská (Southwestern Bohemian dialects)
    • Podskupina chodská (Chod subgroup)
    • Podskupina doudlebská (Doudleby subgroup)
  • Nářečí severovýchodočeská (Northeastern Bohemian dialects)
    • Podskupina podkrknošská (Krkonoše subgroup)
    • Teták (Litomyšl) †
  • Moravian dialects (moravština)^[11]
    • Bohemian-Moravian (Nářečí českomoravská, transitional to Bohemian Czech)
    • Central Moravian (Hanakian,Nářečí středomoravská)
      • Podskupina tišnovská (Tišnov subgroup)
    • Lach/Silesian (Nářečí slezská, transitional Silesian)
    • Eastern Moravian (Moravian-Slovak,Nářečí východomoravská, transitional to Slovak)
      • Podskupina slovácká (Moravian Slovak subgroup)
      • Podskupina valašská (Moravian Wallachian subgroup)
  • Knaanic language (Judeo-Czech) †
• Slovak language
  • Western Slovak dialects (inKysuce,Trenčín,Trnava,Nitra,Záhorie)
  • Central Slovak dialects (inLiptov,Orava,Turiec,Tekov,Hont,Novohrad,Gemer and the historicZvolen county)
  • Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak dialects (outside Slovakia in thePannonian Plain in SerbianVojvodina, and in southeasternHungary, westernRomania, and the Croatian part ofSyrmia)
  • Eastern Slovak dialects (inSpiš,Šariš,Zemplín andAbov, transitional to Ruthenian)

In a 1964 textbook on Czechdialectology, Břetislav Koudela used the sentenceput the flour from the mill in the cart to highlight phonetic differences between dialects:^[12]

Standard Czech:	Dej mouku ze mlýna na vozík.
Standard Slovak:	Daj múku z mlyna na vozík.

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The following comparison concerns the contemporary written standards:

Orthography

Slovak graphemes that do not exist in Czech are: ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ, ô. Czech graphemes that do not exist in Slovak are: ě, ř and ů (seePronunciation for Czech language andPronunciation for Slovak language).

Phonology

Slovak has the following phonemes which Czech does not have:/ʎ/,/rː/,/lː/, and the diphthongs/ɪɐ/,/ɪe/,/ɪʊ/,/ʊo/ (also/ɛɐ/ in higher-style standard Slovak, or some dialects); and on the contrary, Czech has/r̝/.Slovak, unlike Czech, usespalatal consonants more frequently (that is, is phonetically "softer"), but there are some exceptions. Slovakde,te,ne are usually pronounced as the Czechdě,tě,ně. The "rhythmic law" in Slovak prohibits two adjacent long syllables.^[13][14]

Grammar

Slovak grammar is somewhat more regular than the grammar of literary Czech, since present-day standard Slovak was not codified until the 19th century.The two languages have differences in declension and conjugation endings and paradigms (e.g. Slovak-cia,-ej,-dlo,-ť,-ov,-om,-mi – Czech-c(i)e,-é,-tko,-t,-ů,-em,y).Slovak does not commonly use thevocative case, while the Czech vocative is still very much alive.^[15]Slovak uses thepassive voice formed as in English less than Czech, and prefers the passive voice formed using the reflexive pronounsa (as inEast Slavic languages) instead.

Lexicon

Lexical differences are mostly of simple historical origin. As for professional terminology, except for biology (esp. all names of animals and plants), the Czech terminology was mostly taken over (in Slovakised form) for practical reasons. The Czech-Slovak Dictionary of Different Terms (1989, Prague) contains some 11,000 entries (without professional terminology):

Examples of words with different meanings: SKtopiť (to melt/to drown) (could be same meanings, depends on region) – CZtopit (to heat/to drown), SKkúriť (to heat) – CZkouřit (to smoke), SKhorký (bitter) – CZhorký (hot) buthořký (bitter), SKstávka (stake, bet) – CZstávka (strike), SKchudý (slim, skinny) – CZchudý (poor; metaphorically also slim), SKkapusta (cabbage) – CZkapusta (Savoy cabbage), SKpivnica (cellar) – CZpivnice (pub), SKsyrový (cheesy, of cheese) – CZsyrový (raw, uncooked) butsýrový (of cheese), SKspraviť (to make, to create) – CZspravit (to repair, to fix).Czech months are of Slavic origin (e.g.říjen), whereas the Slovak months are of Latin origin (e.g.október).

Although most words are in fact different, they are largely similar, beingcognates, which makes both languages mutually intelligible to a significant extent; e.g. foreign (SKcudzí – CZcizí), reason (SKdôvod – CZdůvod), to want (SKchcieť – CZchtít), to promise (SKsľubovať – CZslibovat), if (SKkeby – CZkdyby), river (SKrieka – CZřeka), church (SKkostol – CZkostel), wedding (SKsvadobný – CZsvatební), who (SKkto – CZkdo), to ask (SKspýtať sa – CZzeptat se), to fail (SKzlyhať – CZselhat), almost (SKtakmer – CZtéměř), thanks (SKďakujem, vďaka – CZděkuju, díky).

Article 1 ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Slovak:

Všetci ľudia sa rodia slobodní a rovní v dôstojnosti aj právach. Sú obdarení rozumom a svedomím a majú sa k sebe správať v duchu bratstva.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Czech (adjusted to Slovak translation):

Všichni lidé se rodí svobodní a rovní v důstojnosti i právech. Jsou obdařeni rozumem a svědomím a mají se k sobě chovat v duchu bratrství.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

• West Slavic languages
• History of the Czech language
• History of the Slovak language
• Czechoslovak language

• Eckert, Eva (1993).Varieties of Czech: Studies in Czech Sociolinguistics. Editions Rodopi.ISBN 978-90-5183-490-1.
• Kortmann, Bernd; van der Auwera, Johan (2011).The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide. Walter de Gruyter.ISBN 978-3110220261.
• Wilson, James (2010).Moravians in Prague: A Sociolinguistic Study of Dialect Contact in the Czech Republic. Peter Lang. pp. 49–50.

• "Map of Czech Dialects". Český statistický úřad (Czech Statistical Office). 2003. Archived fromthe original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved26 July 2014.

• Czech language
• Slovak language
• Comparison of Slavic languages

• CS1 Czech-language sources (cs)
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