One-word English name of the Czech Republic

Hey guys,

I have heard many people saying %26quot;I%26#39;m going to Czech%26quot;, meaning they are going to the Czech Republic. It drives me against the wall, it%26#39;s like saying I%26#39;m going to French (Republic). I understand there is no good solution, however, there is one after all: Czechia has been approved by the Czech government as the official English name of the Czech Republic. But as the government failed to enforce it, we got stuck with the Czech Republic. Most Czechs equally struggled to accept the one-word name %26quot;Česko%26quot; in 1993, after Czechoslovakia had split up, so I understand how Czechia may sound completely strange to an English-speaking person. To find out more, please read this: http://czechia.org/guide/.

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Czechia, although it is one of the names %26#39;approved%26#39; by the government, sounds and looks terrible and is therefore not used by English speakers, but has now entered the realms of %26#39;Czenglish%26#39;.

I rememember that as Česko sounds too like %26#39;Tesco%26#39;, it has never been totally accepted :) but it is used widely now.

In Moravia people have a particular problem with it as %26#39;Česko%26#39; (which could be construed as being only %26#39;Bohemia%26#39;) does not include Moravia. For the same reason many Moravians will not say %26#39;V Čechách%26#39; or %26#39;do Čech%26#39; when describing their position or where they are going.

It should really have been %26#39;Czechomoravia%26#39;, to keep the majority of people happy, but then the Silesians would have got the hump as well...

It is a bit like the old UK thing - when is someone Scottish, English, Welsh or British, and all the arguments surrounding it.

I come across this a lot as a translator, and the accepted usage is %26#39;The Czech Republic%26#39; in all circumstances - %26#39;Czechia%26#39; is almost exclusively used by Czech-speaking translators into English, and is pretty much always %26#39;corrected%26#39;. You won%26#39;t find %26#39;Czechia%26#39; being used in European Union documents, for example.

It is one of those things which will never be satsfactorily sorted out - after all, people still refer to Russia when they really mean the Soviet Union (in a historical context at least), etc, etc. With a new country it is always difficult, especially as the concept of a %26#39;Czech Republic%26#39; has only really existed since the days of the Czech enlightenment in the 19th century.

What annoys me more is people still calling it Czechoslovakia - even those who should really know better.

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Czechia gets corrected because its usage has not been enforced, people should get a bit of education. I agree it is artificially made up, therefore not ideal, but it is correct from the linguistic perspective and its equivalents may be found in many other languages. But let%26#39;s at least agree that using %26quot;Czech%26quot; when referring to the Czech Republic is the worst of all bad alternatives:-)

For Czech speakers, this is a letter on the issue of Czechia published in the National Geographic magazine national-geographic.cz/otevreny-dopis-k-nazv…

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some of the responses are %26#39;blabol%26#39; what does it mean?

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I have heard English-speakers saying %26#39;to Czech/in Czech%26#39;, etc as well purely because it is easy to say; whilst it is totally incorrect grammatically it isn%26#39;t as grating as %26#39;Czechia%26#39; - I really cannot see that one ever catching on :) Even though it has been around for a while it would confuse a lot of people if it was enforced.

Many people find it difficult enough to spell %26#39;Czech%26#39; - I must have seen it spelled in every possible permutation (it is amazing how many ways the word can be murdered), and more than once I have been asked if I spoke %26#39;Czech Republican%26#39;. I was even told that on a %26#39;reality%26#39; programme in the UK, Martina Navrátilová was put together in a situation with a famous actor who, when told that she was from the Czech Republic, said something like %26#39;Is that near Prague? - I%26#39;ve been to Prague!%26#39; :)

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Blabol means something like %26#39;blah blah%26#39;

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Thanks, could not find it in my dictionary.

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You should use this one http://www.slovnik.cz/

It means something like %26#39;yeah, yeah - same old stuff, load of rubbish%26#39; etc

That article is very interesting - excellently and logically argued from a linguistic point of view, however what it all boils down to in the end is what Havel said - he could never bring himself to use the word %26#39;Česko%26#39; as whenever he heard the word it was as if snails were climbing all over his body and the word physically repulsed him.

The same applies to the word %26#39;Czechia%26#39; - it is simply an unpleasant word, IMO (and a lot of other people%26#39;s opinions as well).

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A good one, I will use it. And I agree with your conclusion.

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I can understand locals frustration, but when you look at it from an English perspective, you%26#39;ll easily get mixed up with Chechnia (Chechnya) IMO

When an English tongue says the two, they%26#39;ll sound very much the same.

This will always be a problem, different pronounciations mean confusion and the borders and maps keep chgaging, doesn%26#39;t help those that don%26#39;t follow current affairs. If the US President can%26#39;t understand European borders, what hope Joe Public? :-)

Many English friends still refer to Serbia as Yugoslavia! And that Serbs speak Bosnian, %26quot;especially the bit of Serbia near the sea%26quot;! lol

What can you do? :-)

Stoofer

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As far as Yugoslavia is concerned, just maybe a wishful thinking, the world was much safer place then.