Names of the Czech Republic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More than a decade after the split of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the latter continues to be known by several competing names in English and Czech. While "Czech Republic" (Czech: Česká republika) is the unquestioned long-form name, Czech authorities, geographers and linguists have had difficulty convincing people to use the officially preferred short forms of "Czechia" [ˈtʃɛkɪə] and Česko [ˈtʃɛskɒ].

1 Czechia
2 Česko
3 Promotion of the official names
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Czechia

In 1993, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted Czechia as the short form of the country's name, though the official website of the Czech Republic, http://czech.cz/, operated by the ministry, currently uses the long name (2006). Still, the Czech government increasingly uses the name in English publications. But while similar names, such as Tschechien in German, the Russian Чехия (Chechia), the Italian Cechia and the Danish Tjekkiet, have caught on, few English speakers use the word Czechia. In Spanish, both Chequia and República Checa are used.

As Czechia remains uncommon, and the long form Czech Republic is unwieldy, people often resort to the adjective Czech. The Czech national ice hockey team brands itself as Czech Team rather than Team Czechia or Team Czech Republic. English speakers (and Czechs speaking English) sometimes refer to the country simply as Czech

[edit] Česko

The Czech counterpart to "Czechia" is "Česko." Unlike the English word, the word "Česko" has achieved some popularity; it is widely used in media, but is still opposed by many Czech people.

While the promotion of the word "Czechia" is primarily a marketing concern, the word "Česko" touches on important issues of national identity in the Czech Republic. The country consists of three historic lands — Bohemia (in Czech, Čechy), Moravia (Morava) and Czech Silesia (Slezsko). Of the three historical areas, Bohemia is the largest and the traditional seat of power. The same word — český — means both "Czech" and "Bohemian."

Many people use the word "Čechy" to refer to the entire Czech Republic; for example, "v Čechách", literally "in Bohemia", will be used by Prague speakers to mean, "in the Czech Republic". This is also the case in Polish, where Czechy refers both to Bohemia and to the whole Czech lands. Such an usage may be compared to using the word "England" to refer to all of the United Kingdom, "Holland", to refer to the Netherlands, or, historically, "Russia" to refer to the Soviet Union. Just as Scots and Ukrainians may be offended in those cases, Moravians and Silesians may not appreciate the use of "Čechy" to refer to their country. On the other hand, similar shift of meaning of "Austria" and "Poland", historically referring only to what's now known as "Upper and Lower Austria" and "Greater Poland", does not seem to be cause of controversy.

The Czech government adopted "Česko" as the country's official Czech-language short-form name in 1993. (The name had existed for centuries but was rarely used until 1993). The word combines the adjective "český" with the -sko suffix traditionally used for territories in the language. For some Czechs, the word sounds strange and harsh.

In the middle 1990s, TV NOVA started to use the word "Česko" because of the personal influence of Vladimír Železný, who was then in charge of the station. The use of the word "Česko" by the Czech media and public has increased in recent years.

[edit] Promotion of the official names

Some Czech politicians and public figures have expressed concern at the disuse of "Czechia" and "Česko." In 1997, an organization to promote the names was established. The following year, a conference of professionals aimed at encouraging the use of the names was held at Charles University in Prague. The Czech Senate held a session on the issue in 2004.

Some examples of the use of "Czechia" can be found at [1],[2],[3], [4], [5] and [6]. None of the examples listed here come from an official Czech institution, except the last one (Embassy of the Czech Republic in Singapore). The search engine of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently gives no examples of usage of "Czechia." (Some examples are available from Google; see [7] [8] [9] [10].) As of June 2006, "Czech Republic" registered 369 million Google hits to 2 million for "Czechia."