Czech language sounds like baby talk to most Poles. Similarities?

I know this is a bit of a sidestep.... But in my time Czech children films were popular in Flanders - and well made. Good they came with subtitles :)

Czech animation was tops until the Japanese took over during the 80's-:))

I'm not afraid to write in my far-from-perfect English and you shall not be afraid to write your Polish.

Only in Rozmowy po polsku section. I don't intend to repeat myself anymore.

Antek, I merely offered before to help you with your English. I figure also that it was easier for you to understand my rather complicated English post once I translated it into Polish-:)

Lyzko, I can understand English quite well as long as it is not written at the University level or with totally casual lingo, thanks anyway. Besides, I'm too old to improve my English any further ;)

What do you think about the history and the present of the Czech language?

No comment on thr first part LOL

As regards the Czech language, when I visited Praha, I used Polish to read signs, German to converse with certain people and I got along fine-:) I didn't bother learning Czech seriously at that time, as I was only there ona short vacation and my colleague spke fluent Czech as well as German. Certainly there was no need to use English, which would've been a flop anyhow-:)

You're a linguist, Lyzko, so it's easier for you to get understanding of different languages. I fell in the trap of "the Czech language made different from Polish" instantly. Anyway, I like learning languages, so I bought me a "parka v rohliku" (a hot-dog) and approached a Czech couple in Prague, asking them in my first Czech words ever used for the route to Vaclavske Namesti. They smiled at me... I was theirs ;-) The very next thing I did was buying a copy of Svejk in Czech ;-)

I met two Czech students who desparately wanted to practice their English, as I to practice my limited Czech-:) I pretended not to speak English, only German. We had a great time until they realized English wasn't working, so they switched to Czech. After a few beers, we understood one another's language perfectly-:)))

Beer always works in Czech Republic ;-)
Once I met a guy in Prague, a Beskyd highlander from Trinec. The guy was Polish by ancestry, Czech by birth, and góral by heart, so he spoke two languages and one dialect perfectly. He told me that his ambition at school had been:

1. To speak and write perfect Czech to prove he was a worthy Czech citizen
2. The same for Polish not to make his parents ashamed
3. The same for the dialect so he could drink his beer at the inn peacefully ;-)

While we have been sitting at Radegast inn in Prague for six hours, he taught me a lot about the Czech language and we had so many beers together... I met him couple of years later in Trinec, and then he told me I would never be able to pronounce "kriz" properly ;-)

Now ask him to say "W Szczeczbrzymie chrząść brzmi w tcicinie." Come to think of it, if he knows Czech as fluently as Polish, this sentence should prove no prob.LOL

No problem at all to him.

On the other hand, were he a Croatian, Russian or a Ukrainian speaker, he might merrily trip his little tongue over it!!!

I disagree with this.

I never heard Poles say this about the Czech language.

this part of your post contains lots of false statements

Give some sources and discuss. Point out the false statements.

Czech spoken language in the times of Bila Hora catastrophe was already very different from Polish and Czech dialects that the revived literary language was based on just retained the differences - in effect there actually was little in conscious effort necessary to try to make Czech resemble Polish as little as possible

This is only your opinion, Gumishu, however the Czech revivalists thought differently, and you can ask any educated Czech person to get their confirmation. This is also why Slovak resembles Polish in far greater extent.

And to think I missed all this. I wouldn't even know where to start now if I were to join the discussion. One thing - Antek, I am not sure that there was any conscious effort to rid Czech of specifically Polish vocab or influence. Polish was seen as a Slavonic language and as such, "good". Czechs were very much into pan-Slavic ideology in the 19th century. Two - contrary to popular belief, Czech is not rife with diminutives. Just to compare, nożyczki vs nůžky or książka vs kniha. Which of each pair are diminutives? And three - I personally find the Polish myth of the "childishness" of Czech extremely offensive and patronising. It's like a whole nation is patted on the head and told to go outside and play while the adults have a serious conversation. ;-/

...and that's what brings to PF, isn't it?
;)

Magdalena, I really wished you were here...

In the most active part of my life spent in the Czech Republic, I spoke with many people there. The view about making the modern Czech different from Polish was expressed by many. It could be a stereotype and another thing told me by the Czech was the Czech nation was folk in essence (as opposed to the Polish szlachta). I do not claim I know those matters as if I were a Czech person.

In 1991, on my first trip there, I knew nothing about the Czech history, the Czech matters. I was asking Czech people if they were affiliated with the German language. Czech people were scowling at me and answering: "Not really... we prefer English". Now BB comes and tells me something very opposite...

Fully agree with you, Magdalena. Polish people do not even try to get to know the Czech history and culture better and deeper. They just feed themselves with stereotypes and laugh at language differences ['To je laska nebeska'] or make jokes constructing the supposed Czech words as in this one "- What is 'pigeon' in Czech? - 'Dachovy obsryvacz'. Megalomaniacal and simply disgusting!

from what I can gather spoken Czech IS rife with diminutives (Czechs tend to use diminutives much more than Poles) compared to Polish - piet rohliku anyone? knedliky? chlebiczek? babiczka? - all these sound baby talk to Poles - I am not disparaging Czech language - I do like it

It is obvious that there are many linguistic myths among the Czechs themselves... The hostility toward Polish and the Poles would have a very recent origin, namely, in the late eighties and early nineties Poles would come to Czechoslovakia with a very high and mighty attitude of "we destroyed communism and by definition are the best thing since sliced bread" and then methodically buy out any food that was in the shops - and go back to Poland. What they didn't know, or care about, is that though Czech shops were well supplied, the supplies were finite, and if a busload or two of Poles came into town, the town would not be getting any food deliveries for the next week or two and was practically left with nothing (the shift to a market economy was yet to happen). While this might seem like just desserts to Polish people who had survived martial law shortages, it does not make for very good PR. What miffs Czechs most, though, is that many Polish people really have this extremely unpleasant habit of behaving like minor royalty when visiting CR, expecting VIP treatment, while making loud and unpleasant comments on everything they see and hear around them (the language is funny, the food tastes weird, the people are rude). I once took a group of Polish friends to CR for a short stay. They lived at my Czech friends' house, ate their food, and behaved so embarrassingly that by the end of the week we were no longer on speaking terms. I had no idea what had gotten into them (the turned against me too BTW). Just an anecdote.


rohlik - rogalik
chlebíèek - sandwich, chléb is bread
"kanapka" is also a diminutive BTW ;-P
babièka - babcia; could you explain how "babcia" is somehow less of a diminutive to you?

I must be getting back to work. I'll have a look at this thread later.

I could tell you a story on two on Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak customs/border officers or on behaviour of some Czech people, too, Magdalena. I, however, do not associate such things with the majority of the nation, and I find Czech people polite, cultivated and pleasant. Going to Czech Republic has been always pleasure to me.

the Czech language is not funny to me anymore after I have watched a lot of Czech TV - it's just a normal language - I would say Slovak (because it would sound a strange variety of Czech to me) or even more so Serbo-Croatian would sound funny and strange to me - I think it's a matter of getting used to a language (if you have some prejudices it is definitely an obstacle - I guess I had little prejudice towards the Czech language)

You're preaching to the choir here, Antek. I know my people ;-)
I was just trying to explain that if there is any Czech -> Polish hostility, it's recent, and will probably pass soon. Us Czechs don't tend to hold grudges... ;-)

I could perfectly get your message/explanation, Magdalena and thank you very much for that!
Now you must understand I love the Czech nation, the country, and the language.

How did Svejk said that... "I like it everywhere in Bohemia"? You can remember the interrogation at the gendarmerie station alright.

The bolded example is a proof that what seems to be diminutive to a Pole, is simply not. But 'morfologically' speaking, such an assumption is to a certain extent justified.

I shall perhaps conclude my participation to this discussion by reminding everyone: Laska to jest miłość, choć to śmiesznie brzmi!

The funny thing is, if you said "laska" to a Czech, they wouldn't recognise the word... It's "láska" (long vowel). The difference in vowel length is meaningful in Czech (same as in English, e.g. ship - sheep).

I heard some famous czech man gave recently his advice Polka pro postele,Cesku pro kuchynu Nemku pro hospodu.