Editing Czech language (section)

{{short description|West Slavic language}}
{{Redirect|Čeština|other uses|Cestina (disambiguation){{!}}Cestina}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Czech
| nativename       = {{lang|cs|čeština}}, {{lang|cs|český jazyk}}
| pronunciation    = 
| states           = [[Czech Republic]]
| ethnicity        = [[Czechs]]
| speakers         = [[first language|L1]]: {{sigfig|9.612710|2}} million
| date             = 2012
| ref              = e27
| speakers2        = [[second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|2.708500|2}} million (2012)<ref name=e27/><br/>Total: {{sigfig|12.321210|2}} million (2012)<ref name=e27/>
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
| fam3             = [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
| fam4             = [[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]]
| fam5             = [[Czech–Slovak languages|Czech–Slovak]]
| dia1             = [[Bohemian dialects|Bohemian]]
| dia2             = [[Moravian dialects#Central Moravian|Central Moravian]]
| dia3             = [[Moravian dialects#Eastern Moravian|Eastern Moravian]]
| dia4             = [[Lach dialects|Lach]]
| script           = {{plainlist|
*[[Latin script]] ([[Czech alphabet]])
*[[Czech Braille]]}}
| nation           = {{plainlist|
* [[Czech Republic]]
* [[European Union]]}}
| minority         = {{plainlist|
* [[Austria]]<ref name=COE>{{Cite web | url=http://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/148/declarations?p_auth=63PpH3zN |title = Full list |publisher=Council of Europe}}</ref>
* [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]<ref name=COE/>
* [[Croatia]]<ref name=COE/>
* [[Poland]]<ref>Ministry of Interior of Poland: Act of 6 January 2005 on national and ethnic minorities and on the regional languages</ref>
* [[Romania]]<ref name=COE/>
* [[Slovakia]]<ref name=COE/>}}
| agency           = [[Institute of the Czech Language]]<br>(of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic]])
| iso1             = cs
| iso2b            = cze
| iso2t            = ces
| iso3             = ces
| ietf             = cs<ref name=IANA>[https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry IANA language subtag registry], retrieved October 15, 2018</ref>
| lingua           = 53-AAA-da < [[West Slavic languages|53-AAA-b...-d]]<br>(varieties: 53-AAA-daa to 53-AAA-dam)
| notice           = IPA
| glotto           = czec1258
| glottorefname    = Czech
| map              = 
| mapcaption       = 
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Balto-Slavic]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Slavic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old Czech]]
}}

'''Czech''' ({{IPAc-en|tʃ|ɛ|k}} {{respell|CHEK}}; {{langx|cs|label=[[endonym]]|čeština}} {{IPA|cs|ˈtʃɛʃcɪna|}}), historically also known as '''Bohemian'''<ref name=brit>{{cite web|title= Czech language|url= https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/149048/Czech-language |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date= 6 January 2015}}</ref> ({{IPAc-en|b|oʊ|ˈ|h|iː|m|i|ə|n|,_|b|ə|-}} {{respell|boh|HEE|mee|ən|,_|bə|-}};{{refn|{{Citation |last= Jones |first= Daniel |author-link= Daniel Jones (phonetician) |title= English Pronouncing Dictionary |editor= Peter Roach |editor2=James Hartmann |editor3=Jane Setter |place= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |orig-year= 1917 |year= 2003 |isbn= 978-3-12-539683-8 }}}} {{langx|la|lingua Bohemica}}), is a [[West Slavic languages|West Slavic language]] of the [[Czech–Slovak languages|Czech–Slovak group]], written in [[Latin alphabet|Latin script]].<ref name=brit/> Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers,<ref name=e27/> it serves as the official language of the [[Czech Republic]]. Czech is closely related to [[Slovak language|Slovak]], to the point of high [[mutual intelligibility]], as well as to [[Polish language|Polish]] to a lesser degree.<ref>{{cite book |last = Swan|first=Oscar E. |title = A grammar of contemporary Polish |year = 2002 |isbn = 0893572969 |location = Bloomington, Ind. |publisher = Slavica |oclc = 50064627 |language=en | page=5}}</ref> Czech is a [[fusional language]] with a rich system of [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and relatively flexible [[word order]]. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by [[Latin]] and [[German language|German]].

The Czech–Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the [[high medieval]] period, and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech–Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the modern written standard became codified in the context of the [[Czech National Revival]]. The most widely spoken [[nonstandard dialect|non-standard variety]], known as Common Czech, is based on the [[vernacular]] of [[Prague]], but is now spoken as an [[interdialect]] throughout most of [[Bohemia]]. The [[Moravian dialects]] spoken in [[Moravia]] and [[Czech Silesia]] are considerably more varied than the dialects of Bohemia.<ref name="rejzek">{{cite book|last = Rejzek|first=Jiří|title=Zrození češtiny|place=Prague|publisher=Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta|year=2021|isbn=978-80-7422-799-8|language=cs|pages=102, 130}}</ref>

Czech has a moderately-sized phoneme inventory, comprising ten [[monophthong]]s, three [[diphthong]]s and 25 consonants (divided into "hard", "neutral" and "soft" categories). Words may contain complicated consonant clusters or lack vowels altogether. Czech has a [[raised alveolar trill]], which is known to occur as a [[phoneme]] in only a few other languages, represented by the [[grapheme]] ''[[ř]]''.