Old Town Square, Prague (Staroměstské náměstí, Praha)
Name used by its speakers (Endonym): Český (“Chesky”), čeština (“chesh-tina”)
Native speakers (estimated): 9.8 million
Total speakers, including second-language (estimated): 12 million
Where it’s spoken: Czech is the national language of Czechia, more commonly called the Czech Republic in English (though the government promotes the single-word name; in Czech the name ‘Česko’ is preferred over ‘Česká republika’). It is spoken as a first language by 98% of Czech citizens, and also recognized as a minority language in Slovakia (where it’s spoken by a quarter of the population), Poland, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Ukraine.
Emigrants from Czech-speaking lands, depending on the era, may also have recorded their homelands as Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Austria, or Czechoslovakia. Though there have been Czech immigrants to the United States since colonial times, the largest wave arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; sizeable communities were established in Texas, Nebraska, and other Midwestern states. Outside Czechia, the US remains the country with the highest number of Czech-born residents or their descendants; 1.2 million Americans reported partial or full Czech descent in 2000. Germany has the second-highest number, though many of these are likely from German-speaking families.
Language family: Indo-European, Slavic branch. It is the fifth most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Serbo-Croatian.
Related languages include: Slovakian (closest); Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and other Slavic languages. Most varieties of Czech and Slovak are considered mutually intelligible, though this has probably declined since the peaceful 1993 breakup (a.k.a. “Velvet Divorce”) of the former Czechoslovakia.
Writing and pronunciation tips: Czech uses the common Latin-based alphabet. As in many other central and northern European languages, the letter J is pronounced Y (as in the name Jan (“Yan”). The letters ‘q’, ‘w’, and ‘x’ appear only in words of foreign origin. Accent marks indicate long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú). Another type of letter commonly seen in Czech is uses the háček (ˇ), a small v-shaped mark, to change the pronunciation: for instance,
Č = “ch” (as in the word háček, “ha-chek”)
Š = “sh” (as in Czech car brand Škoda, “Shkoda”)
Ž = “zh”
The háček can also appear over ě, ň, and ř, an example of which is the name of the composer Dvořák—pronounced like “Dvor-zhak”. Another example is the common male name Jiří (equivalent to George)—it sounds like “Year-zhee,” not “Jeary”. Notably, the consonants r, l, and m have the power to act like vowels: the second-largest Czech city is Brno (two syllables, “Br-no”), and many bakeries offer cylindrical pastries called trdlo (pronounced “turd-low”—don’t snicker.) The Czech tongue twister “Strč prst skrz krk”, meaning “Stick your finger through your throat”, has fifteen consonants, four words and absolutely no vowels.
Several different ways to enjoy trdlo
In addition to conjugating verbs, Czech (like its Slavic cousins) changes nouns and adjectives in complex ways: There are seven cases indicating a word’s grammatical function, three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and if that weren’t enough, masculine gender is divided further into animate and inanimate categories (Polish does this too).
Words exported to (or shared with) English: As typical for Slavic languages, most Czech words have little or no similarity with English words, with a few exceptions like bratr (‘brother’), sestra (‘sister’), tři (three), and škola (school). The following are words of Czech origin that have been exported to English (and other world languages):
Robot: From the Czech word robota, meaning ‘labor’—specifically, forced labor of the type performed by serfs in feudal times.1 Author Karel Čapek’s 1920 science fiction play “R.U.R.” (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti, translated as Rossum’s Universal Robots) described a world in which synthetic people were manufactured to do menial labor, and (surprise!) they rise up against their human overlords. The play was translated to English in 1922 and was staged on Broadway, the West End, and elsewhere in Britain and the U.S. Of note, Čapek’s ‘robots’ were assembled in a factory, but made from flesh, not metal—think “Westworld”, not R2-D2.
Pilsner: This type of beer, a pale lager, is named after the Bohemian city of Plzeň (again, note the ‘l’ acting like a vowel), which has been brewing it since the 14th century. The Pilsner Urquell Brewery popularized the name starting in the 19th century, and pilsner beer has since become popular throughout the world. Technically, though, the word is German (the adjective form of ‘Pilsen’, which was the German name for the city.)
Budweiser: Continuing the theme: The Bohemian town of Budweis (now České Budějovice) has been a beer-brewing center since 1265. Inspired by the original “Budweiser,” German immigrant Adolphus Busch adopted the name for his “Bohemian-style” lager produced in St. Louis, Missouri. Following multiple trademark disputes, the Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar owns sole rights to the name in the EU, where the Anheuser-Busch version is called only “Bud.”
Polka: This genre of music and dance, originating in 19th-century Bohemia, derives its name from either půlka, meaning ‘half’ (referring to half-step movements or the 2/4 time signature) or polka, meaning ‘Polish woman’, though for unclear reasons since its origins are clearly Czech, not Polish.2
Dollar: Like Pilsner, this word originates in a German name for a Czech place. A coin called the Joachimsthaler was named for Joachim’s Valley—Joachimsthal in German, now the Czech town of Jáchymov—which was the site of a silver mine. This silver coin, used widely in Bohemia and other Czech lands from the 16th century, was also known as the taler or tolar. The name dólar was later adopted for a silver coin used in the Spanish New World colonies, then for the new US currency after the American Revolution, and from there to two dozen other countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Liberia.
Pram: Of two possible sources for this word (which North Americans now call a stroller), one is Czech: Prám means ‘flatbottomed boat’ or ‘ferry’, adopted first to Dutch (praam), then into English based on the similarities of old-fashioned baby carriages to the design of these boats. The non-Czech (and less interesting) source is a contraction from the term ‘perambulator’.
Semtex: This plastic explosive is named after Semtín, a Czech suburb where it was manufactured starting in the 1960s, and the company’s name—no kidding—Explosia.3
PLACE NAMES: Multiple locations in the US bear names of Czech origin, including Praha and Moravia, Texas; Prague, Nebraska; Prague, Oklahoma (which holds the Czech-heritage Kolache Festival every May); New Prague, Minnesota; Tabor, South Dakota; Pilsen, Kansas; and multiple places named Bohemia and Moravia. Carlsbad, California and Carlsbad, New Mexico are both named for the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary, which was previously better known as ‘Karlsbad’ in—you guessed it—German.
Charles Bridge (Karlův most), Prague
Culture & pop culture:
LITERATURE: Early works from the Czech lands were often written in Latin or German rather than Czech, though the first complete Czech-language Bible was printed in 1488. Czech writers gained little international recognition until the 20th century; the antiwar comedy novel “The Good Soldier Švejk” by Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923), set during World War I, is the most widely translated work of Czech literature and inspired Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22”. Playwright Karel Čapek (1890-1938), as noted above, introduced the word “robot” to the world. Writer, journalist and avant-garde poet Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986) won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the only Czech to do so. Milan Kundera (1929-2023) was known for novels including “The Joke” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (see MOVIES); his books were banned and his citizenship revoked by the Communist government in the 70’s, but he lived (and won multiple awards) in exile; he was re-granted Czech citizenship shortly before his death. Playwright and essayist Václav Havel (b. 1936) is best known as the first president of the Czech Republic (see OTHER). While no mention of “literature” and “Prague” can omit Franz Kafka (1883–1924), his surrealist masterworks were written in German—not Czech. Another acclaimed writer with Czech roots: the British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard (1937-2025), born Tomáš Sträussler, fled Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia as a child refugee.
ART: Graphic artist Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was born in Prague but spent much of his life in England (Wenceslaus, for some reason, is the Anglified version of the Czech name Václav). Other artists of the Baroque era included portrait painters Karel Škréta Šotnovský (1610–1674) and Jan Kupecký (1667-1740) and sculptor Ferdinand Maxmilian Brokoff (1688–1731), best known for multiple statues on the Charles Bridge and elsewhere throughout Prague. Many Bohemian artists from this era had German or mixed backgrounds, including sculptor Matthias Bernard Braun and painter Peter Johannes Brandl; painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) was Bohemian-born but German in all other respects. Romantic painter Josef Mánes (1820–1871) was active in the early 19th century. The best-known Czech artist is Alfons (or Alphonse) Mucha (1860-1939), a painter and graphic artist famed for his distinctive Art Nouveau theatrical and advertising posters as well as for “The Slav Epic”, a monumental series of historical canvases. Other Czech artists of the modern era include Emil Orlík (1870 –1932); pioneering abstract painter František Kupka (1871-1957); photographer Josef Sudek (1896-1976); and Anna Chromý (1940–2021) a Czech-born painter and sculptor who worked in Vienna and Paris, where she was mentored by Salvador Dalí.
MUSIC: Czech classical music is known for three composers born in the 19th century, starting with Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), famous for works with nationalistic themes like the symphony “Má Vlast” (My Country) and the comic opera “The Bartered Bride” (Prodaná nevěsta). Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) drew inspiration from the folk music and literature of Czech and other Eastern European regions, writing works for chorus, orchestra, chamber music and opera. Best-known of all is the prolific composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), whose travels abroad included concert tours in Britain and Russia, followed by a 3-year stint as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Several works, including the “New World” Symphony (No. 9), were inspired by his time in America. He returned to Prague and wrote several more works, including the fairy-tale opera “Rusalka,” in his last years.
In folk and popular music, Czech (as well as German and Polish) immigrants to Texas helped shape the development of Tejano music, which blended Mexican corrido and mariachi with European rhythms (polka) and instruments (accordion). Pop musicians of Czech heritage (though all record in English) include singer, guitarist, producer, and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ric Ocasek (born Richard Otcasek, 1944–2019) of The Cars; singer Exene Cervenka (b.1956) of the pioneering punk band X; and singer-songwriter Jason Mraz (b. 1977), known for the 2008 hit singles “I’m Yours” and “Lucky” (a duet with Colbie Caillat, who is also part-Czech.)
SCIENCE: Prague has been a center for scientific innovation through the centuries… though not necessarily by Czech speakers, due to the multilingual natures of the Holy Roman and later Austro-Hungarian Empires. Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), whose precise astronomical observations predated the telescope, was invited to Prague as official imperial astronomer in 1599; he was joined in Prague by the younger German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) who used Brahe’s data to develop his Three Laws of Planetary Motion, becoming a founder of modern astronomy as well as the scientific method. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), a German-speaking monk who spent most of his life in Brno, conceived the laws of heredity which became the foundation of modern genetics.
In the 20th century, Prague-born biochemists Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896-1984) and Gerty Cori (1896-1957) shared the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their work on carbohydrate metabolism (the Cori cycle is named for them). They met in medical school, married, and immigrated to the US in the 1920s. Fellow Czech Jaroslav Heyrovský won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for the invention of polarography. Honorable mentions (for this web page, at least) go to three other German-speakers born within Czech territory: psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Příbor, 1856); mathematician Kurt Gödel (Brno, 1906); and 2007 Nobel laureate in Physics Peter Grünberg (Plzeň, 1939—see “Pilsner”.)
MOVIES: Director Jiří Menzel (1938–2020), a member of the “Czech New Wave” of the 1960s, won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1967 for his first feature, the WWII drama “Closely Watched Trains.” Another film, “Larks on a String,” was banned by the Czechoslovak government for 11 years until it was finally released in 1990 after the fall of communism, winning a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. (Another project, a proposed TV version of “The Good Soldier Švejk,” was also nixed by Czech authorities.) His penultimate film, the 2006 pre-WWII comedy “I Served the King of England” (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) was released to acclaim at home and abroad.
Ivan Barnev in Jiří Menzel’s “I Served the King of England”
Fellow Czech New Wave director Miloš Forman (1932–2018) also garnered attention (and a ban from Communist censors) for the 1967 “The Firemen’s Ball;” his successful career after emigrating to the US included “Hair” (1979), “Ragtime” (1981); “Man on the Moon” (1999) and Academy Awards for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “Amadeus” (1984). Shooting “Amadeus” marked Forman’s emotional first return to Prague (which stood in for Vienna) after more than a decade of exile. Another renowned Czech filmmaker, Jan Švankmajer (b.1934), is best known for his surrealistic animated shorts and feature films.
Milan Kundera’s novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” set against the Prague Spring and subsequent Communist oppression, was adapted into a Hollywood romance in 1988, directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche. It was filmed in France, shot in English, and afterwards Kundera decided never to allow his novels to be adapted again.
Due to emigration and intermarriage over the decades, many notable North Americans share Czech heritage, though not necessarily Czech surnames. Two actors who do are Kim Novak (b.1933), best known for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 “Vertigo,” and Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek (b.1949). Canadian director Ivan Reitman (“Stripes” and “Ghostbusters”) was born to Hungarian Jewish parents in Czechoslovakia in 1946.
SPORTS: Two of the greatest tennis players in history are Czech: Martina Navratilova (Martina Navrátilová; b.1956) began playing tennis at seven, won the national championship at 15, and at age 18, turned pro—and was granted political asylum in the US, followed by citizenship. Her dominant career includes a world No. 1 ranking for 332 weeks, and a record nine Wimbledon singles titles between 1978 and 1990. Ivan Lendl (b.1960) was ranked world No. 1 as a junior player, then ranked men’s world No. 1 for 270 weeks, winning 94 career singles titles including eight majors as one of the dominant tennis players of the 80s and early 90s.
Outstanding Czech hockey players include goalkeeper Dominik Hasek (b.1965), who played for NHL teams in Chicago, Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit as well as leading the 1998 Czech Olympic team to their country’s only gold medal. His Olympic teammate Jaromír Jágr (b.1972) played for nine NHL teams, including captaining both the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers.
Jaromír Jágr and the Czech men’s hockey team celebrating their 2010 World Championship (sponsored by Škoda and ‘the real’ Budweiser)
Notable American athletes of Czech descent include basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek (1940–2019) of the Boston Celtics (Google “Havlicek stole the ball!”); Jeff Hornacek (b.1963), NBA shooting guard and head coach for the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks; and swimmer Katie Ledecky (b.1997), the most decorated American female Olympian with 14 medals, 9 golds, and multiple world records.
Other Fun Facts:
- Czechs love hiking: The Czech word for ‘tourist’, turista [feminine: turistka] also means ‘hiker’.
- It’s been said that in the 1950s, Ray Kroc tried but failed to add a beloved Czech pastry, the koláč (a.k.a. ‘kolache’ or ‘kolacky’) to the McDonald’s menu. This may or may not be true…but I hope it is.
- The Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslaus” is based on the legend of 10th-century Duke of Bohemia and Czech patron saint, Svatý Václav (a.k.a Wenceslaus the Good, in English.) Legend has it he was assassinated by his younger brother, Boleslav the Cruel. First question: How do you turn the name “Václav” into “Wenceslaus,” and why bother? Second question: With a name like “Boleslav the Cruel,” couldn’t they have seen that coming?
1 The Czech Play That Gave Us the Word ‘Robot’ | The MIT Press Reader
2 The History of Polka: From Europe to Northeast Ohio | PBS Western Reserve