Reading time: 10-15 minutes To listen to this piece and my mixed success at pronouncing both modern-day Czech and ancient Slavic, click here: To hear the sounds denoted between /slashes/, click here for an interactive IPA. The Czech language has, among language learners and lovers, a fairly fierce reputation. Over the intricacies of its grammarContinue reading “Why does Czech sound like that?”
Tag Archives: Czech
An A-Z of the Languages and Loanwords of the English Lexicon – from Arabic to Zulu!
Reading time: 20-25 minutes Among language lovers and loathers alike, it’s well known that the modern lexicon of English is drawn from different sources. While a solid chunk of English vocabulary has a Germanic origin, much also comes from French, in a large part due to Duke William of Normandy and some battle that happenedContinue reading “An A-Z of the Languages and Loanwords of the English Lexicon – from Arabic to Zulu!”
Cheat Your Way to Czech II: Learning (and Loving) the Lexicon
Reading time: 10 – 15 minutes For many people, myself definitely included, the most difficult part of learning a new language is the vocabulary. There’s just always so much of it and, unlike grammar, I find it hard to condense down into learnable bites. The world is full of things, so language is full ofContinue reading “Cheat Your Way to Czech II: Learning (and Loving) the Lexicon”
Cheat Your Way to Czech: Czech Sounds and I
Reading time: 10 – 15 minutes Introduction to the Series Now the Czech language may have a reputation for difficulty, but it isn’t entirely fair. Like in any language, things in Czech exist for a good reason, even though that reason may not be very obvious. There is actually very little in the language thatContinue reading “Cheat Your Way to Czech: Czech Sounds and I”
Learning Czech – My Top Ten Terrors
It is a truth widely acknowledged that the Czech language is a bit tricky to learn. Naturally, ‘difficulty’ and ‘ease’ in second-language acquisition are inexact and unscientific concepts – a native Slovak speaker, for example, will have a far better time picking up Czech than someone like me, doomed to speak English. However, there areContinue reading “Learning Czech – My Top Ten Terrors”
Danny L. Bate 