Can any of you translate the following bit of Czech into English – “Zdravím předladatele”?
A visitor to Omniglot has asked for help with this.
Category: Czech (čeština)
Word of the day – šišlat
The word šišlat is Czech and is usually translated as to lisp. However it refers to a form of speech impediment that involves substituting s /s/ sounds with sh /ʃ/ sounds. For example, slimák (slug) is pronounced šlimák. This isn’t quite the same as a lisp in English, which usually involves replacing s /s/ sounds with th /θ/ sounds.
Can you think of a good English version of šišlat?
I’ve come up with “to shish”.
Word of the day – poklop
Poklop is a Czech word I came across today which means trapdoor or hatch. I’m not sure of its etymology, but I just like the sound of this word.
An alternative word for the same thing is padací dveře (lit. “falling door”). Related words include padací most drawbridge, (lit. “falling bridge”) and padací mříž portculis, (lit. “falling bar/grating/grid”).
Back to Brighton
I arrived back in Brighton yesterday afternoon after a week in the Czech Republic and Germany, which was great fun.
Prague was stunning and well worth another visit – the day and a bit I had there wasn’t really enough to take it all in. August is apparently a better time to visit, as it tends to get really busy in September and October.
During the first few days of cycling it rained quite a bit and was also quite windy. We also went along some busy roads through areas with a fair amount of heavy industry. Fortunately the weather and scenery improved later on during the week and we had a very enjoyable ride along the Elbe, mainly on well-maintained cycle paths. The towns we passed through or stayed in were attractive and picturesque; the food was plentiful, quite tasty and reasonably priced; and the people we met were generally friendly and welcoming.
There were 12 others in the group I travelled with, most from the UK, but also a couple of Canadians and an Australian. We ranged in age from 30something to 60something and got on well together. We also had a Polish tour leader, who rode with us, and a Polish driver, who took our luggage from hotel to hotel. Our tour leader spoke good English and a bit of German. He managed to communicate with people in the Czech Republic mainly in Polish with bits of Czech mixed in. The driver spoke Polish and some English, and while he couldn’t understand much Czech, he could understand Slovak quite well.
I used my Czech at every opportunity. Only one Czech person commented on this, asking if I was Czech. Everybody else just talked Czech to me and I did my best to understand them. I also tried out the few Polish phrases I know on our tour leader, and learned a bit more from him. In Germany I tried to speak German to people and found that those who could speak English often did so with me, even if I continued speaking German to them.
I picked up quite a few new Czech words from signs and menus – when you come across them in context every day, they soon sink in. The sight, feel, smell and taste of the food also helps me remember the menu words.
There were two native Welsh speakers in the group and I talked to them a bit in Welsh. They told me that I speak Welsh well with a good accent, and were impressed that my Welsh is self-taught. In 2003 while I was on holiday in northern Portugal, I met some Welsh speakers, but at that time I couldn’t have more than a very limited conversation. Since then I’ve been determined to become fluent in Welsh, and seem to be making good progress.
Bohemia and Saxony by bike
Tomorrow I’m off for week’s holiday in the Czech Republic and Germany with Explore Worldwide. I’ll be flying to Prague early tomorrow morning, then cycling north along the Vltava and Elbe rivers to Meissen in Germany, via Mělník, Litoměřice, Děčín, Pirna, Dresden, and quite a few castles, churches, cathedrals and palaces. After that I’ll go back to Prague by coach, spend a day there, and then return home.
The tour involves five days of actual cycling covering about 30 miles / 45 km a day. Most of the route is along rivers and is apparently flat or downhill, with only occasional uphill sections. So though I haven’t been doing much cycling since I moved to Brighton, apart from some semi-regular unicycling, I’m sure I’ll be able to cope.
I’m also looking forward to having a chance to try out my Czech, and to speaking some German as well.
Počasí (Weather)
Dnes bylo hezky, teplo a slunečno. Šla Šel jsem do na nábřeží. Věřím, že zítra bude taky pĕknĕ.
It’s been a bright, warm sunny day in Brighton today. I spent the afternoon down on the seafront practising my unicycling, juggling and other circus skills. I hope it will be nice again tomorrow.
The chapter of my Czech course that I’m currently working on covers transport, travel and weather. It also introduces the past and future tenses. The topics mentioned in each chapter seem to be fairly random.
Here are a few more weather-related expressions in Czech, with some lovely consonant clusters:
Je mlha – there’s a mist
Je větrno – it’s windy
Prší – it’s raining
Snĕží – it’s snowing
Mrzne – It’s freezing
Slunce svítí – the sun is shining
Tuning into Czech
Last Saturday I went out with some Czech and Slovak friends, and was pleased to discover that I could get the gist of what they were talking about in Czech and Slovak. Although I could only catch the odd word and phrase, this was enough to get a basic idea of the subjects under discussion.
Before I started studying Czech, it just sounded like a continuous stream of meaningless sound. Now I can distinguish individual words in that stream and even know what some of them mean. My brain is gradually tuning into the language, a process that will take quite a while. I’m in no hurry though.
My language studies
I’ve decided to try a slightly different approach to my language studies. Up till now I’ve been listening to Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh language radio for several hours each almost every day. In the evenings I read novels in either Welsh or Irish, and also learn a bit more Czech. I’ve also been learning songs in the Celtic languages, particularly Irish.
This week I’ll be concentrating on one language for two days at a time. So today and tomorrow I’m focusing on Welsh – listening to Radio Cymru during the day and going through a lesson in Cadw Sŵn in the evening. On Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be listening to Radió na Gaeltachta during the day and studying from Turas Teanga or another of my Irish courses in the evening. Then on Friday and Saturday I’ll listen to Radio nan Gaidhael and study from one of my Scottish Gaelic courses in the evening.
I’ll continue to study some Czech every day, to read Irish, Welsh and maybe even Scottish Gaelic novels, and to learn songs. By the way, can any of you recommend any good novels in Celtic languages, or in French, German, Spanish or Chinese?
Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic are the languages I most want to become fluent in at the moment. My other languages are less of a prioity, though I do get to practise Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish quite often on Skype and MSN.
Slavic similiarities
While talking with a Bulgarian contact today, we were discussing the conjugation of the verb ‘to juggle’ in Bulgarian, as you do, and I was struck by how similar Bulgarian verb endings are to Czech ones. Below is the present tense of this verb with the Bulgarian on the left and the Czech on the right.
- жонглирам (žongliram) / žonglovam – I juggle
- жонглираш (žongliraš) / žonglovaš – you juggle
- жонглира (žonglira) / žonglova – he/she/it juggles
- жонглираmе (žonglirame) / žonglovame – we juggle
- жонглирате (žonglirate) / žonglovate – you (pl) juggle
- жонглират (žonglirat) / žonglovají – they juggle
The more I learn about the Slavic languages, the more similarities I see between them. So far my knowledge is limited to a smattering of Russian, a little Czech, and a few Bulgarian words, so my impressions and thoughts may change as I learn more. One encouraging factoid I’ve discovered is that Czech only has about seven irregular verbs.
I also came across an interesting site today which contains useful words and phrases in a number of Slavic languages, with translations in English and Japanese.
Correction: the Czech conjugation of the verb ‘to juggle’ is actually:
- žongluji – I juggle
- žongluješ – you juggle
- žongluje – he/she/it juggles
- žonglujeme – we juggle
- žonglujete – you (pl) juggle
- žonglují – they juggle
There are Czech verbs with endings similar to the Bulgarian ones above, but not ‘to juggle’, unfortunately.
Word of the day – výslovnost
Výslovnost is the Czech word for pronunciation, and appears in this week’s Czech lesson. I’m currently working my way quite slowly and thoroughly through Colloquial Czech and am spending a week or two on each lesson. I don’t move on to the next lesson until I’m familiar with all the slovníček (vocabulary), mluvnice / gramatika (grammar) and výslovnost.
Some people advise you to listen to a language a lot before you try to speak it. Listening to the languages you’re learning as much as possible is very useful and beneficial, but I don’t know if you should put off trying to speak the language until you’ve listening to it for several weeks or months.
What are your thoughts on this?