Czech Genealogical Word List: Difference between revisions

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==Introduction==

The '''Czech Genealogical Word List''' contains Czech words and their English translations for many words that are found in documents used to research Czech ancestors. Click [[Media:WLCzech.pdf|here]] for the PDF version of the Czech Genealogical Word List.  

Czech is a Slavic language derived from the West Slavic language family. Czech is related to Slovak and Polish and is used in the genealogical sources throughout Czechia. Czech is the language of Czechia and was the official language in the Czech lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the former Czechoslovakia. In addition, the Czech language may be found in the records of Czech communities in the United States, Canada, and other areas settled by Czechs.

Before 1918, the Czech lands were provinces of Austria, which, together with Hungary, constituted the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Records written before 1918 may be in German, Latin, or Czech. Czech records often contain German and Latin words. See the [[German Word List|German Genealogical Word List]] and the [[Latin Genealogical Word List|Latin Genealogical Word List]].

For Bohemian-German words, also consult {{FSC|357707|item|disp=Sudetendeutches Wörterbuch: Wörterbuch der Deutschen Mundarten in Böhmen und Mähren-Schlesien}} (not all volumes are available).

For explanations of the different peasant occupations in Czech records, consult [http://www.oxfordjctgenealogy.com/main/?page_id=1281 Peasant Levels & Occupations].

==Language Characteristics==

===Variant Forms of Words===

In Czech, the forms of most words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. ''Who, whose, whom'', or ''marry, marries, married''  are examples of words in English with variant forms. In Czech, any word may have different forms, depending on how it is used. This word list gives the standard form of each Czech word. The endings of Czech words in a document often differ from what you find in this list.

Surnames will have the added ending '''-ová''' or '''-á''' if the person referred to is female:  

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''Surname''<br>Novák<br>Pleva<br>Novotný<br>

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''+ female ending''<br>Nováková<br>Plevová<br>Novotná<br>

|}

Czech words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe the singular and plural forms of Czech words must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings:

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''starý muž''<br>''stará žena''<br>''staré město''<br>

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old man<br>old woman<br>old city<br>

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''staří muži''<br>''staré ženy''<br>''stará města''<br>

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old men<br>old women<br>old cities<br>

|}

This word list gives only the singular masculine form of adjectives. Thus, ''starý, stará, staré,'' and ''staří'' (all forms of “old”) are listed here as ''starý.'' <br>  

The endings of past tense verbs also change, depending on the gender and number of the subject:  

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''narodil se''<br>''narodila se''<br>''narodilo se''<br>''narodili(y) se''<br>

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he was born<br>she was born<br>it (the child) was born<br>they were born<br>

|}

Plural forms of Czech words usually change the singular word:  

Words ending in '''-a''' change to '''-y''':<br>''žena'' woman / wife  ''ženy'' women / wives

Words ending in '''-o''' change to '''-a''':<br>''město'' city  ''města'' cities

Words ending in '''-e''' and '''-í''' do not change:<br>''ulice'' street  ''ulice'' streets

Words ending in a consonant add '''-y'''. A few words add '''-i''', '''-ové''', or '''-e''' to form the plural:

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''list''<br>''muž''<br>

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page<br>man<br>

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''listy''<br>''muži''<br>

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pages<br>men<br>

|}

The plural form may change the basic word:  

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''dítě''<br>''bratr''<br>''zámek''<br>

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child<br>brother<br>palace<br>

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''děti''<br>''bratři''<br>''zámky''<br>

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children<br>brothers<br>palaces<br>

The endings of Czech words can also vary, depending on the grammatical use of the words. Czech grammar requires a different ending for a word used as a subject, a possessive, an object, or with a preposition. Czech words fall into several classes, each with its own set of grammatical endings. Certain possessive endings give the meaning “of” to a word.

*Nouns change the endings to show possession.

Nouns ending with a consonant add '''-a''' or '''-e''':  

''bratr''<br>''muž''<br>

brother<br>man<br>

''bratra''<br>''muže''<br>

of brother<br>of man<br>

Nouns ending with '''-a''' add '''-y''':<br>''sestra'' sister  ''sestry'' of sister

Nouns ending with '''-o''' add '''-a''':<br>''město'' city  ''města'' of city

Plural masculine nouns change to '''-ů''':<br>''muži'' husbands  ''mužů'' of husbands

Plural feminine or neuter nouns drop the last vowel:<br>''ženy'' wife  ''žen'' of wives

*Adjectives change the endings to show possession.

Adjectives ending in '''-ý''' change to '''-ého''':<br>''narozený'' born  ''narozeného'' of the born

Adjectives ending in '''-á''' change to '''-é''':<br>''křtěná'' baptized  ''křtěné'' of the baptized

Adjectives ending in '''-é''' change to '''-ého''':<br>''neznámé'' unknown  ''neznámého'' of the unknown

Adjectives ending in '''-í''' change to '''-ího''':<br>''první'' first  ''prvního'' of the first

Plural adjectives ending in '''-ý''' or '''-í''' add '''-ch''':  

''zemřelý''<br>''erbovní''<br>

''zemřelých''<br>''erbovních''<br>

of the deceased<br>of the heraldic<br>

''Syn zemřelého Josefa Nováka a Anny Plevové'' means “son of the deceased Josef Novák and of Anna Plevová (Pleva).”

''Manželství mezi Karlem Václavem Havlem a Barborou Marií Kozárovou'' means “marriage between Karel Václav Havel and Barbora Marie Kozárová (Kozár).”           

For charts of Czech patterns of declension see this [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_declension article on Wikipedia].         

In genealogical sources surnames may also be spelled in the language of the the text. In German text, Czech surnames may be spelled according to German phonetics. So ''Černý'' may be spelled ''Tscherny''. Or, German names can be spelled in Czech phonetics, so ''Schmidt'' may be spelled ''Šmid''. Surnames can also be translated into the language of the text. Smith, for example could be translated as ''Schmidt'' (German), ''Kovař'' (Czech), ''Kovács'' (Hungarian), or ''Faber'' (Latin).   

'''''Prepositions'''''  

Prepositions also change the grammatical case of the word(s) following them. Some of the most common prepositions you may encounter in genealogical records are:

'''z or ze''' means from > followed by genitive case

'''u''' means nearby (often used in place names) > followed by genitive case

'''s or se''' means with > followed by instrumental case

'''v or ve''' means in > followed by locative case

'''po''' means after, but also used in the sense of widow of > followed by locative case

'''mezi''' means between > followed by instrumental case

'''nad''' means above (often used in place names) > followed by instrumental case

'''pod''' means below > followed by instrumental case

'''před''' means before > followed by instrumental case

===Alphabetical Order===

Written Czech uses several letters in addition to the 26 letters used in the English alphabet: á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ,ú, ů, ý, ž. The letter combination ''ch'' is also considered a single letter and is alphabetized after ''h''. Letters ''q, w,'' and ''x'' are used only in words of foreign origin. Czech dictionaries and indexes use the following alphabetical order:  

a,á b c,č d,ď e,é,ě f g h ch i,í j k l m n,ň o,ó p (q) r,ř s,š t,ť u,ú,ů v (w) (x) y,ý z,ž

This word list follows the standard English alphabetical order. However, when you work with alphabetized Czech records, use the Czech alphabetical order.  

===Spelling===

Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. In Czech, the following spelling variations are common:  

'''i, y''' and '''j''' used interchangeably<br>'''s''' and '''z''' used interchangeably<br>'''w''' used for '''v'''<br>'''rz''' used for '''ř'''<br>'''sz''' used for '''š'''<br>'''cz''' used for '''č'''<br>

In Czech words are pronounced as they are written.

*[[Czechia Reading Aids]] Translated examples of birth, marriage, and death records, both civil registration and church records, in both German and Czech.

This word list includes the words ''most commonly found in genealogical sources''. For further help, use a Czech-English dictionary. Several are available at the FamilySearch Library in the European collection. The call numbers begin with 491.86321. The following dictionary is helpful when you do genealogical research and is available through most bookstores which carry Czech books:

*Fronek, Josef. ''Anglicko-český, česko-anglický slovník.'' (English-Czech, Czech-English dictionary). Praha: Leda, 2003, c1998. (FS Library book 491.86321)

The following dictionary is also available on microfilm and microfiche for use in FamilySearch Centers:

*Cheshire, Harold T. ''Česko-anglický slovník.'' (Czech-English Dictionary). Praha: J. Otto, 1935. (FS Library book 491.86321 C424c; film 1181683 item 1-2; fiche 6001286-6001287).

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the FamilySearch Catalog under CZECH LANGUAGE—DICTIONARIES or in the Locality section under CZECH REPUBLIC—LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES. These include other dictionaries and language helps, such as Czech grammar books.  

In order to find and use specific types of Czech records, you will need to know some key words in Czech. This section gives key genealogical terms in English with Czech translations. For example, in the first column you will find the English word ''marriage''. In the second column you will find Czech words with meanings such as ''marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined'', and other words used in Czech records to indicate marriage.

|seznam, rejstřík, index

|sňatek, sňatky, manželství, svatba, oddavky, oddací, oddaný, oddat, oženil se (man), vdala se (woman)

|name, given

|manželka, choť, žena

In some genealogical records, numbers are spelled out. This is especially true with dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In actual usage, days of the month are written in ordinal form with a possessive grammatical ending. In the following list, the ordinal number in its standard form is given first, followed by the possessive form (in some cases only the possessive ending is listed):

1 jeden, jedna, jedno                      1st první, prvního<br>2 dva, dvě                                      2nd druhý, druhého<br>3 tři                                                3rd třetí, třetího<br>4 čtyři                                            4th čtvrtý, čtvrtého<br>5 pět                                              5th pátý, pátého<br>6 šest                                            6th šestý, šestého<br>7 sedm                                          7th sedmý, sedmého<br>8 osm                                            8th osmý, osmého<br>9 devět                                            9th devátý, devátého<br>10 deset                                        10th desátý, desátého<br>11 jedenáct                                    11th jedenáctý, -ého<br>12 dvanáct                                    12th dvanáctý, -ého<br>13 třináct                                      13th třináctý, -ého<br>14 čtrnáct                                      14th čtrnáctý, -ého<br>15 patnáct                                      15th patnáctý, -ého<br>16 šestnáct                                    16th šestnáctý, -ého<br>17 sedmnáct                                  17th sedmnáctý, -ého<br>18 osmnáct                                    18th osmnáctý, -ého<br>19 devatenáct                                19th devatenáctý, -ého<br>20 dvacet                                        20th dvacátý, -ého<br>21 dvacet jeden, -jedna, -jedno          21st dvacátý první, dvacátého prvního<br>22 dvacet dva                                  22nd dvacátý druhý, dvacátého druhého<br>23 dvacet tři                                    23rd dvacátý třetí, dvacátého třetího<br>24 dvacet čtyři                                24th dvacátý čtvrtý, dvacátého čtvrtého<br>25 dvacet pět                                  25th dvacátý pátý, dvacátého pátého<br>26 dvacet šest                                26th dvacátý šestý,dvacátého šestého<br>27 dvacet sedm                              27th dvacátý sedmý, dvacátého sedmého<br>28 dvacet osm                                28th dvacátý osmý, dvacátého osmého<br>29 dvacet devět                              29th dvacátý devátý, dvacátého devátého<br>30 třicet                                        30th třicátý, třicátého <br>40 čtyřicet                                      40th čtyřicátý, -ého<br>50 padesát                                    50th padesátý, -ého<br>60 šedesát                                    60th šedesátý, -ého<br>70 sedmdesát                                70th sedmdesátý, -ého<br>80 osmdesát                                  80th osmdesátý, -ého<br>90 devadesát                                  90th devadesátý, -ého<br>100 sto                                        100th stý, -ého<br>200 dvěstě                                    200th dvoustý, -ého<br>300 třista                                      300th třístý, -ého<br>400 čtyřista                                  400th čtyřistý, -ého<br>500 pětset                                    500th pětistý, -ého<br>600 šestset                                  600th šestistý, -ého<br>700 sedmset                                700th sedmistý, -ého<br>800 osmset                                  800th osmistý, -ého<br>900 devětset                                900th devítistý, -ého<br>1000 tisíc                                    1000th tisící, -ího

*''dvacátého osmého srpna, jeden tisíc osm set'' ''padesát dva''

*[on the twenty-eighth of August, one thousand eight hundred fifty and two]  28 August 1852

For example, 25 February 1848 could be written as:<br>    25. února 1848<br>    25. 2. 1848<br>    25. II. 1848

|leden, ledna

Czech records may indicate the exact time when the birth, marriage, or death occurred. This is usually spelled out.

This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list. In this list, optional versions of Czech words or variable endings (such as some plural or feminine endings) are given in parentheses. Some Czech phrases and their translations are listed [in brackets] under the most significant Czech word, not the first word, of the phrase. Words in parentheses in the English column clarify the definition.

|perhaps, about, maybe, circa

|-

|he will, she will, it will

|-

'''C, Č'''