Politically (as well as Geographically and Grammatically) Correct Dictionary
- If the full name of the country is the Czech Republic, what do I call it for short?
- Right after, "How do I get porn pictures," this is probably the second most frequently asked question on the Net. :-) Officially, there is no unofficial name. Both of the most popular expressions have problems: 'Czechia' to most natives has an unpleasant connotation and 'Czech' is simply an adjective, such as 'Great' or 'United' and therefore sounds incomplete. Onthe other hand, artificial creations such as 'Czecholand' and 'Czechomoravia' sound, well...artificial.
- Then why not use the same expression the natives have for their own country?
- Because in Czech language there isn't one either. The most common one, 'Cesko' has an unpleasant after-taste to some Czechs including President Havel, who (along with others) spoke out against it.
- So what is one to do?
- Use CZ for now...
- What about Bohemia?
- Historically, Bohemia has always been the geographical region inhabited by the Czech people. However, the Czech Republic also includes Moravia, a geographical region east of Bohemia (The translation of 'Bohemia' in Czech is 'Cechy' and Moravia is 'Morava').
- Do Moravians speak Moravian then?
- Nope. Moravians speak Czech with one of the Moravian dialects. There are Bohemian dialects of Czech as well - we'll have a quiz on that later.
- How does Silesia, Ruthenia and Slovenia fit into all of this?
- Silesia is the northeastern region of the Czech Republic, in northern Moravia. Ruthenia, now part of Ukraine, was the eastern-most part of Slovakia before WWII. And Slovenia is an independent country to the south. It borders Italy and it used to be a part of Yugoslavia.
- Alright, I mean Slovakia...
- Czechoslovakia split in January 1993, (the year this site was started), after 74 years of existence. The eastern part - Slovakia - became an independent country. Incidentally, 'Slovaks speaking Slovak language' somehow sounds better than 'Slovakians speaking Slovakian language'. Don't ask me why at this e-mail address: sever@fas.harvard.edu
SO NOW I KNOW - PLEASE TAKE ME BACK