Czech
Czech belongs to the West Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.
It is closely related to Slovak, although the two are considered separate languages
as a result of their distinct political and linguistic heritage. For example,
Czech has a substantial number of German loan words from the period when Austria
dominated Bohemia and Moravia, whereas Slovak has been more influenced by Hungarian
due to the political domination of Slovakia by the Hungarian Empire.
Czech is spoken by about 12 million people, the majority of whom live in the
Czech Republic where it is the official language. The Czech dialects are generally
divided into four major groups: Bohemian, Central Moravian (Hana), Eastern Moravian,
and Silesian, all of which are mutually intelligible. The Prague dialect is
the basis for Standard or Literary Czech which is the language of publication,
education, and cultivated speech, but it exists alongside Common Czech, a sixteenth
century development that in some cases rivals the standard.
Czech, like other Slavic languages is richly inflected with six noun declensions,
and seven case endings. It is written with a modified Roman script.
Sources:
UCLA Language Materials Project
Information on writing system:
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
Balboa Park House
of Pacific Relations
International web radio
Landmark
Theaters: foreign films