How easily understood is Slovak by a Czech, I hear the two are fairly mutually intelligible, how much so? Is the difference like American and British English? Or more like the difference between Spanish and Portuguese?
2007-10-24 05:04:18 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Czechs and Slovaks can understand each other....
the difference b/w Czech and Slovak is bigger than US / UK English but not as big as Spanish Portuguese...
Czech and Slovak alphabets are slightly different... e.g. Czech has ř (which Slovak doesn't have)... on the other hand Slovak has ä ô (and other letters) that Czech doesn't have...
I believe that UK/US alphabets are identical...
There are also grammatical differences b/w the languages.
In some cases Czech and Slovak have different words for different things...
But for the most part Czechs and Slovaks are able to understand/figure out what the other one is saying....
e.g. the sentence "I was"
Czech: Já jsem byl.
Slovak: Ja som bol.
see... not a very big difference...
I hope this clarifies the differences a little bit...
2007-10-24 05:39:09 · answer #1 · answered by bustedsanta 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no problem with understanding.
in the past we used to have the common news on TV, many local /Slovak/ reporters use the language in the Czech news.
Only the youngest generation /children born after the 1989 Velvet revolution or after splitting the Czechoslovakia into two countries.
Many mixed families etc. It is probably more distant then the B.E. and A.E. but certainly it is no problem.
/speaking of the usual language. the Slovak language has its variants from the east of Slovakia, which are pretty uncomprehensible even to the average Slovaks./
2007-10-24 06:35:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
more than american and british english. less than spanish and portuguese.
i have slovak friends who visited prague never having learned a word of true czech. they said they had no trouble making themselves understood, though they sometimes had to repeat what they had just said using different words, and they usually had to speak slowly and clearly.
an english speaker who grew up in a suburb of glasgow or edinburgh might not be immediately intelligible on the streets of canterbury, but would certainly be able to make themselves understood with minimal effort.
i get the impression from both my slovak and czech friends that the czech / slovak divide is very similar.
2007-10-24 05:12:48 · answer #3 · answered by synopsis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I speak both languages. I wouldnt say they are very similar but once i read a book in slovak or czech i understand perfectly both of them. They both belong to slavic languages and they are as close as portugese and italian. Ive lived in both countries. When i came to Czech republic i had no problem understanding them, and if u talk more slowly than fast they r able to understand me too.
2007-10-27 14:51:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
When I am reading a book I do not realize whether it is Czech or Slovak. For practical purposes it is as one language.
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2007-10-25 04:08:58 · answer #5 · answered by oregfiu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the two are very similar, however not quite as much as American and British English. It's easy to understand the other; it feels like they're speaking the language with a strong accent when you listen to most words.
2007-10-25 07:41:25 · answer #6 · answered by Tir 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They fear prices will increase if they switch to the Euro, so they still use Czech crowns.
2016-05-25 11:55:24 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋