Languages are the source of interaction and communication among the people. Different languages come with different cultures, and vice versa. Bridging the language gap is the primary need of two humans who speak different languages. There are more than 7000 languages and 147 language families. Czech and German are also two of the important and popular languages that are associated with two strong countries. Czech is a West Slavic language. They write it in a Latin font. It has a close association with the Slovak and is highly mutually intelligible. This is a fusional language that has an extensive system of morphology and practices a flexible word order. Now that we are going to talk about the mutual connection between Czech and German, it is important to mention that its vocabulary has been influenced by German and Latin greatly.
Czech translation services are imperative to deal with the complexities of this language during a business expansion. Understanding and exploring different languages can be fun. Many scholars and researchers are always hunting different languages and their similarities with others as part of their research. This can help master many facts. German and Czech are also fellow languages coming from two of the important European Union countries. The similarities and differences do exist between them. To seek the similarities and connections between both, it is imperative to understand the languages, their origin grammar, and historical connections. This can also assist through the translation process better.
Here are a few factors that prove how these languages are related to each other.
Linguistic Similarities
Linguistic similarities are inevitable among both languages due to the shared features.
Common Roots
Both languages come from proto-Germanic origin. Also, the common ancestors of the Germanic language have made these languages share an important portion of the vocabulary, grammatical positioning and structure. These make both languages similar to a certain extent.
Shared Cognates
The cognates like all other languages also exist between Czech and German language and are important to be considerate of while working on Czech and German translation services. There are many words that share a similar ancestor. They have the same words with similar pronunciation and meaning.
Consider the example of ‘ruka’ in Czech which is hand in German.
Similar Grammatical Structures
The basic grammatical structure for both languages is also similar. The word order is subject-verb-object (SVO). Also, these languages follow the four-case declension system.
Shared Loans
Being fellow languages, both have naturally adopted words from each other. These reflect the historical interactions and cultural exchange.
Have you noticed the German word ‘Kartoffel’? This is actually from the Czech. Likewise, the Czech word “špejle” which means pin is from German language. So both languages have loanwords from each other.
Historical Connections
Czech and German languages were there in practice during the rule of the Austrian Habsburg Dynasty, the Czech declined as a proper and formal language. Whereas, German went on to become the language of the elite. Though they spoke Czech in the countryside, that difference could not vanish between both anytime soon.
German impact on Czech
As mentioned above, the Czech language had a clear impact on the German language. This was particularly evident during German rule in Moravia and Bohemia. It was the time from the 16th to the 20th century. This interaction and rule also led to the adoption of German loanwords and grammatical features in the German language.
Czech Influence on German
Though a limited one, Czech also had its impact on the German language. This was mainly evident in science and technology. The German word, for instance, for machinery is ‘Maschinerie’ and this is derived from the Czech word ‘masina’ which tells about machines. So this way, it has become clear that both languages (due to a shared history and foreign rules) had been influenced by each other.
Despite all these similarities, the foreign rule and oppression, It is remarkable that these languages retain the original features. This makes them unique and distinct from other languages.
For the German language, for instance, it has three genders, which are male, female, and neuter which makes it unique. There is this word b that has been part of the language.
Czech has words that are without vowels. This makes it unique. However, due to this feature, the language gets tough to master and makes it difficult overall.
Conclusion
Czech and German languages have come a long way. These are languages that share cordial relations. During foreign rule, the Czech language was the language of the countryside whereas the elite adopted the German language. There are loanwords in both languages. Also, translation services can help to understand them as languages and their composition in a better way.
