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* [[Bohemian]]
* [[Bohemian]]
* [[Hyphen War]]
* [[Hyphen War]]
* [[Czechia - the name dispute]]


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 19:02, 27 September 2013

The name of the Czech Republic derives from the Slavic tribe of Czechs (Czech: Čechové). The name of the country has evolved significantly over time both in Czech and other languages, it remains a source of debate and contention.

Nearly two decades after the split of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia (Slovak Republic) and the Czech Republic, the latter continues to be known by several competing names in English and Czech. "Czech Republic" (Czech: Česká republika) is the unquestioned long-form name.

The Czech term for the Czech lands (i.e. Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia) is Česko. However, the English equivalent "Czechia" /ˈtʃɛki.ə/ (though it can be found as early as 1866[1]) is rarely used in the English-speaking world.

Czech name

The Czech name of the country comes from the Czechs (Czech: Čechové), a Slavic tribe residing in central Bohemia which subdued the surrounding tribes in the late 9th century and created the Czech/Bohemian state. The origin of the name of the tribe itself is unknown. According to a legend, it comes from their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia. Research regards Čech as a sort of derivative from the root čel- (member of the people, kinsman).[2]

There have been several variants of the name of the country used over the centuries depending mainly on the evolution of the Czech language. The digraph "cz" was used until the 15th century reform, being eventually replaced by "č" which changed the original Czechy into Čechy. In the late 19th century the names of countries started to lose the suffix -y in favor of -sko (e.g. Rakousy-Rakousko for Austria, Uhry-Uhersko for Hungary). While the first notion of Česko appears for the first time in the late 18th century, it came into official use only with the independence of Czechoslovakia (Česko-Slovensko or Československo) as the first part of its name in 1918. When Czechoslovakia broke up in 1993, the Czech part of the name was intended to serve as a name of the Czech state. The decision, however, started a dispute since many perceived the "new" word Česko, which had been only rarely used before alone, as harsh sounding or as a mere remnant of Československo,[3] while the older and more familiar Čechy was rejected by many because it was primarily associated only with Bohemia proper and to use it also for the whole country was no longer seen as appropriate, especially among the inhabitants of Moravia, despite its being common in other languages (Polish, Slovene, etc.).

The use of the word "Česko" by the Czech media and public has increased in recent years, and it is also in official use now.[4] But during the 1990s has been used rather rarely and viewed as controversial: some Czech politicians and public figures (e.g. medial magnate Vladimír Železný) expressed concern about the disuse of Česko and Czechia; on the other side another known persons (e.g. president Václav Havel or minister Alexandr Vondra) strongly opposed using of these forms of the name. Because of these controversies, in 1997 a Civic initiative Česko/Czechia (formed by linguists and geographers) was established in Brno to promote short, geographical form of the name.[5] The following year, a conference of professionals aimed at encouraging the use of the names was held at Charles University in Prague; moreover, the Czech Senate held a session on the issue in 2004.,[6][7]

English name

The historical English name of the country which is today known by its political name, “Czech Republic," is Bohemia. The origin of the name goes back to the Celtic tribe of Boii which inhabited the area from the 4th century BC. Boiohaemum, as it is known in Latin, comes from the Germanic “Boi-heim,” meaning "home of the Boii." The name survived all the following migrations affecting the area, including the arrival of the Slavic tribes and the creation of the Czech state. Starting in the 9th century, the country began to be officially known as the Duchy of Bohemia, and later the Bohemia in the 11th century, which eventually rose in status to the Crown of Bohemia in the 14th century. The name Bohemia persisted for centuries, consisting of three historical lands; Bohemia (Čechy) in narrower meaning, Moravia (Morava) and Czech Silesia (Slezsko); and temporarily also of Upper and Lower Lusatia (from the 14th century until 1635). Due to the fact that the Bohemian part of the country had a higher hierarchical status, the three land were together called “Bohemia.” The people and the language of this land were commonly referred to as Bohemian. During the rise of the national revival in the 19th century did the derivative of the Czech endonym (using antiquated Czech or Polish spelling[8]) appear in English to distinguish between the Czech and German speaking ethnicities living in the country. From the first half of the 17th century, also the name Czechia as originally Latin appellation of the country has appeared sporadically.[9] The earliest evidence of the English substantive word "Czech" (inhabitant and language) and its adjective derivative (national) comes from 1850. The first evidence of the usage of the name Czechia [ˈtʃɛki.ə] in English comes from the report about Austrian-Prussian war in 1866.[10]

In 1918, the name and the geographical boundaries changed when the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (containing Czech lands) disintegrated and the new Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, despite initial proposals[11] for installing the traditional name “Bohemia” for the newly formed state. The name reflected the union of Czech and Slovak people and contained for the first time in history the English variant "Czech," which was until then only employed to denote ethnic or Czech-speaking Bohemians. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the name "Czechia" appeared in English, alongside the official name, as a reference to all the Czech lands[12] and as a differentiation between the Czech and Slovak part of the state. The first written evidence comes from the article "Literary History of the Czechs", published on January 4, 1925 by The New York Times.[13] The name was commonly used in the Anglophone press until the German occupation of the Czech lands in 1939.,,[14][15][16]

With the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the question of a new short-form name of the country appeared. Despite the official decision by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to recommend the name "Czechia" in the 1990s,[17] it has not been fully adopted by Czech authorities, however representatives of English speaking countries repeatedly showed the willingness to accept the name. The problem was most accurately expressed in a letter from the British embassy in Prague (April 4, 2000) signed by Giles Portman, the secretary for press and politics: "...But, Czechs still use the name Česká Republika rather than Česko, and the English equivalent, the Czech Republic, rather than Czechia. Were that pattern to change, we would have no problem at all with adapting accordingly. But we feel that the initiative for that change must come from the Czech side and not from us...“.[18]  

At present, the name Czechia is still not well known by the general public and remains rarely used except in media and scholarly circles.[19] As "Czechia" continues to be uncommon and the long form is unwieldy, the general population often use the grammatically erroneous adjectival form "Czech" for the country name[20] (similar to the use of "Dominican" for the Dominican Republic and "Saudi" for Saudi Arabia),[21]  The unwillingness of Czechs to institutionalize "Czechia" as the standard common name of the country and the use of unclear and unpractical adjectival substitution has sometimes been a subject of jokes among English speakers.[22] In 2013, the name "Czechia" was finally used by leading Czech politicians, such as Czech president Miloš Zeman.[23]

Other languages

The renaming of the country in 1918 and 1993 also occurred in the majority of other languages, with only a few (Polish Czechy, Hungarian Csehország, and Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovene, Češka, etc.) retaining the form used previously. Unlike English, many of those aforementioned languages also successfully adopted the new short-forms such as Tschechien in German, Чехия (Chekhiya) in Russian and Bulgarian, Τσεχία (Tsechia) in Greek, Cehia in Romanian, Tsjekkia in Norwegian, Tjeckien in Swedish, [Tjekkiet] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language code: dk (help) in Danish, Tsjechië in Dutch, Čekija or Çekya in Turkish. The Italian Cechia and the Portuguese Chéquia are rarely used, while the Spanish Chequia and the French Tchéquie[24] are more common.[25]

See also

References

  1. ^ Latest from Prussia. The Mercury, page 4, Saturday 21 July 1866
  2. ^ [1]. The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic: Původ jména Čech. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  3. ^ Looking for a name – Radio Prague Radio.cz (2011-01-21). Retrieved on 2011-01-27.
  4. ^ According to the official Czech list of country names (Jména států a jejich územních částí. Český úřad zeměměřický a katastralní, Praha 2009, ISBN 978-80-86918-57-0): Česko je kodifikovaný jednoslovný název státu, který se podle ústavy oficiálně nazývá Česká republika ("Česko is a standardized one-word name of the state, which is officially named Česká republika according to its constitution")
  5. ^ Official pages
  6. ^ Pozvánka na 7. veřejné slyšení Senátu - 11. 5. 2004 (Funkční rozlišování spisovných názvů Česká republika a Česko a jejich cizojazyčných ekvivalentů)
  7. ^ 7. veřejné slyšení - 11. 5. 2004 (Funkční rozlišování spisovných názvů Česká republika a Česko a jejich cizojazyčných ekvivalentů)
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved 30th August 2012 from CollinsDictionary.com website:http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/Czech
  9. ^ The first evidence of the Latin word "Czechia" comes from the book of Czech writer Pavel Stránský "Res publica Boiema", published in Dutch town Leiden in 1634, some others were found in literature and music (musical composition of (Jan Dismas Zelenka). The most visible examples are present in Latin verse on the pulpit of St.Jacob church in Prague Old Town [2] or in the engraving from the dissertation of Th.J.Siddener from 1722
  10. ^ The Mercury (Hobart, Australia: 1860-1954), Saturday 21 July 1866
  11. ^ Edvard, Beneš (1917). Bohemia's case for independence. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-405-02734-6.
  12. ^ Munzar J., Drápela M.V.: Czechia = Bohemia + Moravia + Silesia (Moravian Geographical Report. Brno: Ústav Geoniky, 1999. s. 58-61. Moravian Geographical Report, sv. 7, č. 2.) [3],1999
  13. ^ New York Times: Literary history of Czechs (Jan.4, 1925)
  14. ^ New York Times: Soviet Note to Germany (Mar.20, 1939)
  15. ^ Palestine Post: Unified Control (Dec.28, 1939)
  16. ^ Barrier Miner: Dr. Benes Broadcasts To His Countrymen (Mar.16, 1940)
  17. ^ Recommendation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Czech embassies from 1998 [4] and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport from 1999 [5]
  18. ^ Horová E.: Record of Proceedings of the 7th Public Hearing of the Senate, May 11, 2004 (Czech)
  19. ^ For example, Murphy, Terry G.; Jordan-Bychkov, Alexander B.; Bychkova Jordan, Bella (2008). The European culture area : a systematic geography (5th ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-5671-3. in its preface states as follows: … we have opted for commonly used anglicized short forms rather than formal country names.… The one case that might be less familiar to readers concerns the Czech Republic. Increasingly one hears the short form Czechia. Even though that name is not as widely known as other truncations (e.g., Slovakia for the Slovak Republic), we have decided to use Czechia for consistency and to reflect its growing use in the country itself. National Geographic has used "Czechia" since 2005. (NG Editors) Also Czech libraries have introduced "Czechia" into their bibliographic standards. Authority database of the NL CR)
  20. ^ Bičík R., Perlín R.: Press statement on the importance of the correct use of this country’s name in foreign languages (2001)
  21. ^ http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002893.html
  22. ^ Xenophobe's Guide to the Czechs
  23. ^ MF Dnes newspaper, June 28, 2013 (in Czech)
  24. ^ Le Monde [6], Le Figaro [7]
  25. ^ República Checa in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, Real Academia Española, 2005.
Look up Czech Republic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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