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.
piet rohliku anyone? knedliky? chlebiczek? babiczka? -
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.
