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Moravian dialects ( cs, moravská nářečí, moravština) are the
varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...
spoken in
Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...
, a historical region in the east of the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
. There are more forms of the Czech language used in Moravia than in the rest of the Czech Republic. The main four groups of dialects are the Bohemian-Moravian group, the Central Moravian group, the Eastern Moravian group and the Lach (Silesian) group (which is also spoken in
Czech Silesia Czech Silesia (, also , ; cs, České Slezsko; szl, Czeski Ślōnsk; sli, Tschechisch-Schläsing; german: Tschechisch-Schlesien; pl, Śląsk Czeski) is the part of the historical region of Silesia now in the Czech Republic. Czech Silesia is, ...
). While the forms are generally viewed as regional variants of Czech, some
Moravians Moravians ( cs, Moravané or colloquially , outdated ) are a West Slavic ethnographic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech or Common Czech or a mixed form of both. Along with the Si ...
(108,469 in the 2011 Census) claim them to be one separate Moravian language. Southeastern Moravian dialects form a
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
with the closely related
Slovak language Slovak () , is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken by app ...
, and are thus sometimes viewed as dialects of Slovak rather than Czech. Until the 19th century, the language used in Slavic-speaking areas of Moravia was referred to as “Moravian” or as “Czech”. When regular censuses started in
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
in 1880, the choice of main-communication languagesgerman: Umgangssprache in the forms prescribed in
Cisleithania Cisleithania, also ''Zisleithanien'' sl, Cislajtanija hu, Ciszlajtánia cs, Předlitavsko sk, Predlitavsko pl, Przedlitawia sh-Cyrl-Latn, Цислајтанија, Cislajtanija ro, Cisleithania uk, Цислейтанія, Tsysleitaniia it, Cislei ...
did not include Czech language but included the single item ''Bohemian–Moravian–Slovak''german: Böhmisch-Mährisch-Slowakisch (the others being ''German'', ''Polish'', ''Rusyn'', ''Slovene'', ''Serbo-Croatian'', ''Italian'', ''Romanian'' and ''Hungarian''). Respondents who chose Bohemian–Moravian–Slovak as their main communicating language were counted in the Austrian censuses as
Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, ...
. On the occasion of
2011 Census of the Czech Republic The 2011 Census of the Czech Republic was conducted by the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) in 2011 in accordance with Regulation no. 763/2008 of the European Parliament and Council which states that censuses must be carried out in all Member Sta ...
, several Moravian organizations (political party
Moravané Moravané (, ''Moravians'') is a small non-parliamentary political party in Moravia in the Czech Republic. History It arose in 2005 through a merger of two older local parties: ''Hnutí samosprávné Moravy a Slezska – Moravské národní sjedn ...
and
Moravian National Community {{Use dmy dates, date=October 2013 The Moravian National Community (Czech: ''Moravská národní obec'') is a non-political civic association focused on Moravian culture, history, traditions and Moravia in general. In practice, however, it also st ...
amongst others) led a campaign to promote the Moravian ethnicity and language. The
Czech Statistical Office The Czech Statistical Office ( cs, Český statistický úřad) is the main organization which collects, analyzes and disseminates statistical information for the benefit of the various parts of the local and national governments of the Czech Re ...
assured the Moravané party that filling in “Moravian” as language would not be treated as ticking off “Czech”, because forms were processed by a computer and superseding Czech for Moravian was technically virtually impossible. According to the results of the census, there was a total number of 108,469 native speakers of Moravian in 2011. Of them, 62,908 consider Moravian to be their only native language, and 45,561 are native speakers of both Moravian and Czech.


Dialects

While the former regional dialects of
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
have merged into one interdialect,
Common Czech Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin alphabet, Latin script. Spoken by over 10 mi ...
(with some small exceptions in borderlands), the territory of Moravia is still linguistically diversified. This may be due to absence of a single Moravian cultural and political centre (analogous to Prague in Bohemia) for most of the history, as well as the fact that both of its major cities—
Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
and
Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...
—used to be predominantly inhabited by a German-speaking population. The most common classification distinguishes three major groups of Moravian dialects: Central Moravian (Hanakian), Eastern Moravian (Moravian-Slovak) and Silesian (Lach). Some typical phonological differences between the Moravian dialects are shown below on the sentence ''‘Put the flour from the mill in the cart’'':


Central Moravian

Central Moravian dialects, or Hanakian dialects (''Hanak dialects'', ''Haná dialects'', cs, hanácké nářečí, hanáčtina), are spoken in the central part of Moravia around
Znojmo Znojmo (; german: Znaim) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian ...
,
Třebíč Třebíč (; german: Trebitsch; yi, טרייביטש Treybitsh) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. The beginnings of the town's history are connected with the establishment of a Benedictine ...
,
Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
,
Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...
,
Přerov Přerov (; german: Prerau) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 41,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Bečva River. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the Czech Republic. The historic cent ...
, Zábřeh and
Šumperk Šumperk (; german: Mährisch Schönberg) is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 26,000 inhabitants. It is the centre of the north of Moravia and, due to its location, is known as "The Gate to the Jeseníky mountains ...
. While the Central Moravian group traditionally contained many dialects native to specific microregions, today's spoken language across Central Moravia is moving towards a unified "Common Hanakian dialect" ( cs, obecná hanáčtina). Features of this group include * A prevalence of the vowels ''e'' and ''é'' in place of ''i''/''y'' (''ryba'' > ''reba'', ''život'' > ''ževot''), ''í''/''ý'' (''mlýn'' > ''mlén''), and ''ej'' (''nedělej'' > ''nedělé''). * ''O'' and ''ó'' in place of ''u'' and ''ou'', respectively (''ruka'' > ''roka'', ''mouka'' > ''móka''). By extension, the third person plural ending of verbs which would be ''-í'' in standard Czech, and ''-ej(í)'' or ''-ou'' in Common Czech, is ''-ijó'', or sometimes just ''-ó'' in Central Moravian (''prosí/prosej(í)'' > ''prosijó'', ''hrají/hrajou'' > ''hrajijó/hrajó''). The instrumental ending ''-í'' is also replaced by ''-ó'' (''s naší kočkou'' > ''s našó kočkó''). * The ending ''-a'' instead of ''-e'' for feminine nouns and possessive adjectives is retained, as in Slovak (e.g. ''naša slepica'' for Standard Czech ''naše slepice''). * The verb “to be” has the 1st person singular present tense form ''su'' rather than ''jsem''. * In contrast to Common Czech, the ''-l'' on past tense verbs is always retained (''nesl'' and never ''nes''). The dialects spoken in and around
Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
have seen a lot of lexical influence from Hantec slang, a jargon incorporating many German and Yiddish loanwords into the local Central Moravian dialect. Although by the 21st century the slang had greatly declined in use, some vocabulary from Hantec is still used commonly in everyday speech, for example ''šalina'' instead of ''tramvaj'' for “tram”, from German ''elektrische Linie''. The Hanakian dialect has a literary presence. Writers who have written in Hanakian dialect include Alois and Vilém Mrštík, Ondřej Přikryl and Jakub Obrovský. Written Hanakian dialect often distinguishes between "wide" or "open" ''ê'' and ''ô'' (as in ''rêba'', ''rôka''), and "closed" ''e'' and ''o'', to reflect dialects which pronounce these two sounds differently.


Smrť kmotřička (example text)

Czech translation:


Eastern Moravian

Eastern Moravian dialects are transitional dialects between Czech and Slovak. They are spoken in the strip of land extending from
Břeclav Břeclav (; german: Lundenburg) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Town parts of Charvátská Nová Ves and Poštorná are administrative parts of Břeclav. Etymol ...
to Hodonín,
Kyjov Kyjov (; german: Gaya or Geyen) is a town in Hodonín District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. A ...
,
Uherské Hradiště Uherské Hradiště (; german: Ungarisch Hradisch, hu, Magyarhradis) is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. The agglomeration with the two neighbouring towns of Staré Město and Kunovice has over ...
,
Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; german: Zlin) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 73,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice river. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the ...
and
Vsetín Vsetín () is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. Originally a small town, Vsetín has become an important centre of industrial, economic, cultural and sports life during the 20th century. Administ ...
. The Eastern group contains two dialects of specific interest, the
Moravian Wallachia Moravian Wallachia ( cs, Moravské Valašsko, or simply ''Valašsko''; ro, Valahia Moravă) is a mountainous ethnoregion located in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovak border, roughly centered on the cities ...
n dialect ( cs, valašské nářečí, valašština) and the Moravian-Slovak dialect ( cs, slovácké nářečí, moravská slovenština). Features of Eastern Moravian dialects include: * The distinction between soft ''l'' and hard ''ł'' (pronounced is usually retained (''hlava'', ''dělat'' = ''hłava'', ''děłat''). By extension, the final ''-l'' in past tense verbs is often rendered ''-u''. * ''aj'' sometimes retained instead of ''ej'' (''vejce'' = ''vajco'', ''dej'' = ''daj''). * In contrast to Common Czech, ''-ý-'' always prevails over ''-ej-'' (''dobrý'', ''strýc'' and never ''dobrej'', ''strejc''). * Infinitives end in ''-ť'' rather than ''-t'', as in Slovak (''být'' = ''býť'') * The Moravian-Slovak dialect shares several other features with Slovak, including the use of the long ĺ and ŕ (''hloubka'' = ''hĺbka'', ''hrnout'' = ''ohŕňat''). * Wallachian dialects preserve the present transgressive, which is usually considered archaic in standard Czech aside from in a few arbitrary phrases.


Lachian dialects

Lachian dialects The Lach dialects, also known as Lachian dialects ( cs, lašská nářečí, laština, pl, gwary laskie), are a group of West Slavic dialects that form a transition between the Polish and Czech language. They are spoken in parts of Czech Siles ...
(''Lach dialects'', cs, lašské nářečí, laština), spoken in north-eastern Moravia and the adjacent regions of Silesia around
Opava Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a historical capital of ...
,
Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...
,
Frýdek-Místek Frýdek-Místek (, pl, Frydek-Mistek; german: Friede(c)k-Mistek) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 54,000 inhabitants. The historic centres of both Frýdek and Místek are well preserved and are protecte ...
and
Frenštát pod Radhoštěm Frenštát pod Radhoštěm (; german: Frankstadt (unter dem Radhoscht)) is a town in Nový Jičín District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is ...
, are transitional dialects sharing more features of Polish. Defining phonological features include loss of distinction between long and short vowels, a feature colloquially known as “krátký zobák” (“short beak”) in Czech, stress shifted to the penultimate syllable of the word, as in Polish, rather than the first syllable, alveolar consonants ''d'', ''t'' and ''n'' often shifted to their palatal counterparts, and a distinction between “hard” (
post-alveolar Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
or retroflex) ''š'', ''ž'', ''č'' and “soft” (
alveolo-palatal In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal artic ...
) ''ś'', ''ź'', ''ć'', as in Polish. Silesian dialects also contain many
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
loanwords unfamiliar to other Czech dialects. The Lachian dialects are closely related to the Cieszyn Silesian dialect, spoken in the area around
Karviná Karviná (; pl, Karwina, , german: Karwin) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 50,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Olza River in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. Karviná is known as an indust ...
,
Český Těšín Český Těšín (; pl, Czeski Cieszyn ; german: Tschechisch-Teschen) is a town in the Karviná District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. Český Těšín lies on the west bank of the Olza ...
and Třinec as well as on the Polish side of the border.


Bohemian-Moravian dialects

Bohemian-Moravian dialects, or South-eastern Bohemian dialects, spoken in the
Bohemian-Moravian Highlands The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands ( cs, Českomoravská vrchovina or ''Vysočina''; german: Böhmisch-Mährische Höhe) is a geomorphological macroregion and mountain range in the Czech Republic. Its highest peaks are the Javořice at and Devět ...
in western Moravia around
Dačice Dačice (; german: Datschitz) is a town in Jindřichův Hradec District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,100 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. It i ...
,
Jihlava Jihlava (; german: Iglau) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 50,000 inhabitants. Jihlava is the capital of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava River on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. Historically, Jihlava ...
and
Žďár nad Sázavou Žďár nad Sázavou (; german: Saar) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. It is situated on a major rail link between Prague and Brno. The town both industrial and tourist centre. It is known ...
are a transitional group between dialects of Bohemia and Moravia, sharing some features in common with
Common Czech Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin alphabet, Latin script. Spoken by over 10 mi ...
and others more in common with Central Moravian.


Linguistic features


Phonology

Moravian dialects preserve numerous archaic phonological features that are no longer used in contemporary Czech, but can still be found in many other Slavic languages. The following tables list selected cognates, pointing out the archaisms and showing their equivalents in the other languages:


Absence of the Czech ′a > e vowel shift


Absence of the Czech ′u > i vowel shift


Retaining the -šč- group


Retaining palatal consonants


Grammar

While Moravian grammar tends to be similar to
Czech grammar Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech R ...
, there are some defining features. For instance, Moravian dialects apply a uniform pattern to the 3rd person plural ending of class IV ''-it'' verbs, and class III ''-et'' verbs, which in standard Czech traditionally varied in an unintuitive fashion: Moravian dialects also occasionally use
preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s in a different fashion to Standard and Common Czech, usually mirroring usage in Slovak (e.g. ''něco k jídlu'' > ''něco na jídlo'' for "something to eat", sk, niečo na jedlo) or Polish (e.g. ''pojď ke mně'' > ''choď do mě'', for "come to me", pl, chodź do mnie).


Standardisation

Since the end of the 20th century, the private association Moravian Language Institute (''Ústav jazyka moravského''), founded by waiter and amateur linguist Jan Kozohorský, has made attempts to standardise a literary Moravian language. The movement has been criticised by linguistics professors at
Masaryk University in Brno Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the sec ...
as controversial and with strong political undertones.


Notes

;Content notes ;Citations


References

* BLÁHA, Ondřej. Moravský jazykový separatismus: zdroje, cíle, slovanský kontext. In Studia Moravica. Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis Facultas Philosophica – Moravica. Olomouc : UP v Olomouci, 2005. ISSN 1801-7061. Svazek III. * Bartoš, František. Moravian Dialectology, Brno 1895. * * Šustek, Zbyšek: Otázka kodifikace spisovného moravského jazyka (The question of codifying a written Moravian language). University of Tartu, 1998. Availabl
online
(Czech) * Šrámek, R.: Zur heutigen Situation des Tschechischen. In: Ohnheiser, I. / Kienpointner, M. / Kalb, H.: Sprachen in Europa. Sprachsituation und Sprachpolitik in europäischen Ländern. Innsbruck 1999. * Vintr, Josef: Das Tschechische. Hauptzüge seiner Sprachstruktur in Gegenwart und Geschichte. München: Sagner 2001.


External links


Multidialectal Czech-Moravian online dictionary
{{Silesia topics West Slavic languages Languages of the Czech Republic Moravia Czech dialects