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Chung at work / Chung pri práci

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Chung
Diglot
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Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 433 of 541
09 February 2014 at 9:26pm | IP Logged 
SLOVAK

As noted here, I’m compiling a list of verbs that use prefixes in derivation or to indicate changes in aspect.



(From S H O O T Y – ...som Grogy)

3) “Years of exercise and they grew like that for me! – Wow!”
6) “How long did you have to work out to have the belly grow like that for you?”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (3rd person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 3rd person plural present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

---

Unit 7

Dialog 2 / Dialóg 2

E: Co jsi jedl včera?

E: Čo si jedol včera?

“What did you eat yesterday?”

Cz: jedl jsi | Sk: jedol si “you ate”

For verbs in Czech whose infinitives end in –st or –zt the basic stem of the past participle ends in a consonant cluster with final –l. Excepting ísť “to go”, for verbs in Slovak whose infinitives end in –sť or –zť the basic stem of the past participle ends in –ol (i.e. not a consonant cluster)

“to eat ~ ate”, “to lay ~ laid”, “to crawl ~ crawled”, “to carry ~ carried”, “to convey ~ conveyed”
Cz: jíst ~ jedl, klást ~ kladl, lézt ~ lezl, nést ~ nesl, vézt ~ vezl
Sk: jesť ~ jedol, klásť ~ kladol, liezť ~ liezol, niesť ~ niesol, viezť ~ viezol


J: Včera jsme měli zeleninovou polévku a kuře s rýží. Měli taky vepřový řízek a bramborový salát.

J: Včera sme mali zeleninovú polievku a kurča s ryžou. Mali aj bravčový rezeň a zemiakový šalát.

“Yesterday we had vegetable soup and chicken with rice. We also had pork schnitzel and potato salad.”

Cz: mít ~ měli | Sk: mať ~ mali “to have ~ (they) had”

The respective Czech and Slovak reflexes of Proto-Slavonic *jьmati / *jьměti “to have” differ in the infinitive and their “–l-participle” (~ past participle) in addition to other forms. Compare the Czech and Slovak conjugational tables for the verb. (See here for lower observed divergence in the respective conjugational patterns of the present tense).

Cz: polévka | Sk: polievka “soup”

Different spelling reflects differ pronunciation. Compare polévka with Slovak polievka. This example also illustrates the complexity in mapping Slovak -ie- in Czech cognates. In addition to -ie- corresponding to -é-, there is also the correspondance to -í- (e.g. šťastie ~ štěstí “happiness”, vieš ~ víš “you know”) mentioned in earlier entries.

Cz: kuře | Sk: kurča “chicken”

This pair is somewhat similar to the pair of děvče and dievča explored here. These words are neuter with Slovak kurča being an alternative to kura which is also neuter.

Cz: s rýží | Sk: s ryžou “with rice”

In addition to the difference between the words in the length of –y– (i.e. long in Czech, short in Slovak), this pair gives another example of the change in the ending of feminine nouns that happened during the Middle Ages in the predecessor of Czech but not in Slovak. See here for more details on the example of chvíle and chvíľa “moment”.

This historical divergence leads to declensional differences with the feminine instrumental singular ending in the Czech noun being rather than -ou (e.g. sestra ~ se sestrou). Slovak uses -ou in instrumental singular for all feminine nouns. (cf. Colloquial Czech moje and Slovak moja “my” (feminine possessor, singular object possessed)).


E: To máte teda skvělou menzu! Téměř jako v restauraci.

E: To máte teda skvelú menzu! Takmer ako v reštaurácii.

“You have then a great cafeteria! Almost like in a restaurant.”

Cz: téměř | Sk: takmer “almost”

Each word is codified for its own language – uncontroversial difference.

Cz: restaurace | Sk: reštaurácia “restaurant”

Each word is codified for its own language, however subtle the differences are. Of note also is that this pair shows the difference in “soft” feminine declension between the languages (cf. previous discussion comparing chvíle and chvíľa “moment”). In locative singular, the respective forms are restauraci and reštaurácii.

J: Naše menza je opravdu dobrá, i když je taky poměrně drahá.

J: Naša menza je naozaj dobrá, hoci je aj pomerne drahá.

“Our cafeteria is really good even though / although it’s also rather expensive.”

Cz: opravdu | Sk: naozaj “really, seriously, truly”

The difference in the languages suggested by this pair is slightly weaker than it appears. On one hand, naozaj is found only in Slovak with a search in the descriptive dictionary of standard Czech turning up nothing for the term. On the other hand, opravdu is marked in the descriptive dictionary of Slovak from 1959-1968 as an archaic literary alternative to naozaj.

Cz: i když | Sk: aj keď “even if, even though”
Cz: ačkoli etc. | Sk: hoci “although”

For whatever reason, Naughton used different conjunctions in this passage notwithstanding the high semantic overlap between them. The main point though is that the original terms are distinct with ačkoli and hoci diverging more than i když and aj keď which consist of cognates.

Cz: poměrně | Sk: pomerne “quite, relatively”

Orthographical differences reflect pronunciation differences, subtle as these are. Compare Czech poměrně with Slovak pomerne.
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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
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Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 434 of 541
11 February 2014 at 9:17am | IP Logged 
I think that at some point you should edit and publish your log. "Comparative study of x languages" or something like that.
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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 7136 days ago

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20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 435 of 541
12 February 2014 at 6:30pm | IP Logged 
I have thought about reorganizing the notes with all of the comparisons in my log but I admit that its tediousness discourages me from doing it. I do think that the posts analyzing BCMS/SC, and Czech and Slovak are the best candidates for reorganization. All of the examples and cross-referencing to descriptive reference materials give plenty of rigor and integrity (i.e. it eliminates cherry-picking and skewing the analysis). They also put in perspective the seemingly immutable differences presented in textbooks for foreigners who are almost always unaware of the subtleties and colloquialisms that illustrate how "fuzzy" matters in the target language are.
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Chung
Diglot
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Joined 7136 days ago

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20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 436 of 541
23 February 2014 at 7:15pm | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I’ve finished the exercises for Chapter 40 of “Finnish for Foreigners I”. The last set of exercises were review of the negated forms of verbs and the comparative of adjectives and adverbs as well as comprehension questions of a recorded text. At this point I’m strongly considering switching gears by using just courses or tutorials built around authentic material instead of starting “Finnish for Foreigners II” since I feel that I need to increase my stock of vocabulary and get more exposure to the grammar that I’ve learned so far in isolation. I’m looking at Selkouutiset, Korvat auki, Ymmärrä suomea! and Vilma.



(From Aika suhteellista taas via Musta hevonen –sarjakuva+)

1) “A regular minute.”
2) “A microwave oven minute.”
3) “A treadmill minute.”
4) “A ‘hold-on-to-my-purse”-minute”

Convention for unfamiliar vocabulary in the comic strip (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular, partitive singular, partitive plural)
VERBS: 1st infinitive (1st person singular present tense, 3rd person singular past simple tense, active past participle)
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

POLISH

I started the second set of exercises in Chapter 3 of “Kiedyś wrócisz tu... część 1: Gdzie nadwiślański brzeg” which focused on a short text about fashion.



(From 22 listopada 1963 via fistaszki)

1) “Where is my poncho?”
2) “It’s raining! I can’t go to school in the rain without my poncho!”
3) “Who took my poncho?”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (nominative plural, genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (1st person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 2nd person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

TURKISH

I worked through Unit 18 of “Turkish Self-Study Course”. The main points for new grammar were using all of the possessive suffixes and the possessive pronouns for all persons. It built on the previous unit which introduced the use of the genitive suffix -(n)in etc. on the possessor and the possessive suffix of the 3rd person singular -(s)i etc. on the possessee.

***

UKRAINIAN

I’ve finished the exercises on p. 136-44 of “Beginner’s Ukrainian” which constitute most of the exercises of Chapter 8. Almost all of the exercises here were transformation drills for the genitive singular of nouns, adjectives and personal pronouns.



(From Як визначити нетверезого водія via Це Прекрасно!)

1) “Europe: sober driver vs. drunk driver.”
2) “Ukraine: sober driver vs. drunk driver.”

- тверез|-ий|-a|-e (тверез|-ого|-oï|-ого) “sober; sound”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (1st person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 3rd person plural present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

MISCELLANEOUS

N/A
______


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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 7136 days ago

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20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 437 of 541
23 February 2014 at 7:21pm | IP Logged 
SLOVAK

As noted here, I’m compiling a list of verbs that use prefixes in derivation or to indicate changes in aspect.



(From S H O O T Y – Doktor Pundor)

1) “My head hurts.”
2) “It started on the inside and now it’s in the back. – Turn around!”
3) “You have a problem. Spring is coming.”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (3rd person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 3rd person plural present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

---

See here for the rationale for and information about this exercise in comparing Czech and Slovak.

The Czech sentences are red while the Slovak ones are blue. (…) denotes text that has been omitted because its subject matter does not tie back to the common translation thus making it ineligible for grammatical or lexical comparison.

Unit 7

Dialog 3 / Dialóg 3

E: A večeříš doma?

E: A večeriaš doma?

“Do you have supper at home?”

Cz: večeřet | Sk: večerať “to have supper”

Orthographic difference reflects difference in pronunciation and also conjugation, small as these are.


J: Ano, ale jen málo, čočku s vejcem nebo fazole, chleba se salámem a tak. Anebo si cestou domů na ulici koupím klobásu nebo párek v rohlíku s hořčicí. Potom se dívám chvíli na televizi a hned jdu spát. Během týdne vstávám brzy ráno.

J: Áno, ale len málo, fazuľku s vajíčkom, chlieb so salámou a tak. Alebo cestou domov si kupujem na ulici klobásu či párok v rožku s horčicou. Potom pozerám chviľu televíziu a hneď idem spať. Cez týždeň vstávam skoro ráno.

“Yes, but only a bit, lentils / beans with an egg or beans, bread with salami and so on. Or on the way home I’ll buy for myself on the street a sausage or wiener in a bun with mustard. Afterwards I watch TV for a bit and then I go to sleep. During the week I get up early.”

Cz: čočka | Sk: šošovka “lentil”
Cz: fazolka | Sk: fazuľka “bean”

Each word is codified for its own language when referring to a lentil. The difference between the respective words meaning “bean” is smaller though. Note that in Czech and Slovak the words for “bean” and “lentil” are in singular here even though it’s most likely that they refer many beans accompanying the egg.

Cz: párek | Sk: párok “wiener”

Each word is codified for its own language, small as the difference is. According to Czech Wikipedia, párek v rohlíku (and presumably the Slovak párok v rožku) is not quite a hot dog and from a North American point of view it’s wiener in a tubular bread roll.

Cz: hořčice | Sk: horčica “mustard”

Each word is codified for its own standard and note also that it’s another pair that shows a Czech “soft” feminine noun ending in –e with a Slovak cognate ending in -a (See here for analysis of these nouns on the example of chvíle / chvíľa)

Cz: brzy | Sk: skoro “early”

As far as I can tell, Slovak has no reflex of Proto-IE *bhArs / *bhers- “quick”. Skoro has several meanings of which several are shared by Czech and Slovak including “almost” and “nearly”. On the other hand, skoro when translated as “early” is current in Slovak but old-fashioned in Czech.. Thus skoro is a partial false friend between Czech and Slovak.

Other differences in this set of sentences have been analyzed in previous entries.


E: Máš těžký život! Hodně jídla, a málo práce!

E: Máš ťažký život! Málo jedla, veľa práce!

“You have a tough life! Lots of food, and little work! / Little food and lots of work!

For one reason or another, the author has made the senses of the Czech and Slovak lines opposite with a hint of sarcasm in the former compared to the latter.

Cz: hodně | Sk: veľa “much, lots of”

Cz: vela | Sk: hodne “much, lots of”

According to the dictionary of written Czech vela is a dialectal form or a Slovakism meaning “very; many; much”. On the other hand hodne is a synonym of veľa per the descriptive dictionary of Slovak although I haven’t encountered it as often as the latter term. There are also small differences in spelling in each pair.

Cz: jídlo | Sk: jedlo “food”

Spelling differences reflect pronunciation differences, small as these are. Note Czech –í– this time corresponding to Slovak –e–. See here for Czech –í corresponding to –ie instead in Slovak cognates.

Other differences have been analyzed previously.
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hribecek
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
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 Message 438 of 541
25 February 2014 at 2:20pm | IP Logged 
By the way, using your comparisons I usually find at least 1 new Slovak word and test my wife to see if she knows it. Today it was šošovka and the ´early´ meaning of skoro. She knew them both this time.
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Chung
Diglot
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 Message 439 of 541
31 March 2014 at 8:26am | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I’ve finished the exercises in Chapter 1 of Korvat auki. After having studied Finnish using textbooks (e.g. “Mastering Finnish”, “Kuulostaa hyvältä”), it’s a nice change to learn using somewhat more authentic material.

I recently also widened my musical tastes slightly by stumbling on the folk group, Loituma. Here’s the group’s Kun mun kultani tulisi which calls to mind a couple of Saami songs that I’ve heard.



(From Kanuuna via Supermukula)

1) “Are you sure that this human cannon works?”
2) “It says in the package that it’ll blast dirt away!”

- räjäyttää (räjäytän, räjäytti, räjäyttänyt) “to blast, blow up, detonate, explode”

Convention for unfamiliar vocabulary in the comic strip (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular, partitive singular, partitive plural)
VERBS: 1st infinitive (1st person singular present tense, 3rd person singular past simple tense, active past participle)
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

POLISH

I finished the second set of exercises in Chapter 3 of “Kiedyś wrócisz tu... część 1: Gdzie nadwiślański brzeg” which involved using idioms that include words for fashion accessories, and started the last set of exercises which reviewed use of the l-participle (~ “past participle”).



(From Real Life via smiech.net)

2) “Hey… Do you want to go the movies with me instead of playing Diablo 2? – Yes, yes, whatever you say, honey.”
3) “Are you listening to me at all? – Yes, I’m all for it.”
4) “I’ve been replaced by a computer game. – A damned good game…”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (nominative plural, genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (1st person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 2nd person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

TURKISH

I worked through Units 19 and 20 of “Turkish Self-Study Course”. The main points for new grammar were using the 3rd person possessive suffixes in compound nouns (e.g. diş fırça “toothbrush” (literally: “tooth” “brush-(3rd person possessive suffix)”), postpositions ortasında “in the middle of” and karşısında “opposite”, and the positive imperative for the second person singular. (e.g. gelmek “to come”; gel! “come!”).

I recently also widened my musical tastes slightly by stumbling on the Nogai singer, Arsalanbek Sultanbekov via Unilang. He is not Turkish and his song Домбыра is in his native Nogai, however it seems to appeal to Turkic-speaking people (including Anatolian Turks) all the same as it’s about the dombra which is a musical instrument closely associated with Kazakhstan and a reminder to all Turkic peoples of their heritage as steppe nomads. Many of the clips of the song on YouTube are played as background music to a bloody battle scene of a virtual suicide charge by an outnumbered force of cavalrymen loyal to Temujin (later Chingis Khan) from the movie “Mongol”. If I have my facts straight, these particular cavalarymen were from a tribe called “Mangudai” whose descendants were prominent in the founding of the Nogai Horde north of the Caspian Sea in the 15th century and from whom the modern Nogai trace their origin. The clip that I’ve linked to has Nogai subtitles in an unofficial Turkish-based transcription (Nogai is officially expressed visually in modified Cyrillic) and Turkish ones. It was a bit fun to compare Nogai and Turkish as well as recognize words in the Turkish subtitles.

***

UKRAINIAN

I’ve finished the exercises on p. 217-220 of “Modern Ukrainian” which comprise the rest of the exercises in Chapter 12. The exercises here were transformation or substitution drills for telling time or using certain verbs of motion, and comprehension questions for the chapter’s dialogues.



(From Зай та Друзі. 48 серія via comx.org.ua)

1) “Thanks guys. We partied hard tonight. – Yeah. Take it easy.”
2) “Some scary type you have as a friend. – Actually I thought that he’s your friend.”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (1st person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 3rd person plural present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

***

MISCELLANEOUS

N/A
______



Edited by Chung on 02 April 2014 at 4:15am

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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 7136 days ago

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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 440 of 541
31 March 2014 at 8:32am | IP Logged 
SLOVAK

As noted here, I’m compiling a list of verbs that use prefixes in derivation or to indicate changes in aspect.



(From S H O O T Y – ...som Grogy)

2) “You’ll never be accommodated by anyone.”
3) “It bothers you that it’s snowing…”
4) “… and then that it’s raining.
5) “The sun can’t shine every day.”

Convention for vocabulary in the comic strip that's unfamiliar to me (i.e. needed to consult a dictionary)

NOUNS & ADJECTIVES: nominative singular (genitive singular)
VERBS (where applicable using convention of imperfective > perfective): infinitive (3rd person singular present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb], 3rd person plural present tense [imperfective verb] / future tense [perfective verb])
ADVERBS & INTERJECTIONS: no extra information given

---

See here for the rationale for and information about this exercise in comparing Czech and Slovak.

The Czech sentences are red while the Slovak ones are blue. (…) denotes text that has been omitted because its subject matter does not tie back to the common translation thus making it ineligible for grammatical or lexical comparison.

Unit 7

Dialog 4 / Dialóg 4

P: Kde je Láďa? Neviděl jsem ho skoro celý měsíc.

P: Kde je Janko? Nevidel som ho hádam celý mesiac.

“Where is Láďa / Janko? I haven’t seen him for almost / I guess a whole month.”

Cz: skoro | Sk: skoro (See below)

In addition to the commentary in the earlier entry about skoro in Czech and Slovak, I repeat that skoro constitutes a partial false friend between Czech and Slovak. To expand on the point, skoro are identical in Czech and Slovak when the meaning is “almost”. They become false friends when other meanings are considered with Czech skoro translateable also as “probably, I suppose, I guess” while Slovak skoro is translateable as “early”, “soon” or “quickly” (with this last meaning being archaic) in addition to “almost”

Cz: hádat (~ hádám) | Sk: hádať ~ hádam “to guess ~ probably, I guess”

Although both languages have reflexes of the Proto-Slavonic *gadati “to guess” etc. (cf. Polish: gadać “to chat”; Russian: гадать “to guess; tell fortunes”) for whatever reason, hádam “I guess” as evolved in Slovak to be a particle or interjection translateable as “maybe” or “probably”. In Czech the counterparts to hádam in this sense would be asi and snad, the first of which is matched by Slovak asi while the second is cognate with Slovak snáď (note difference in pronunciation as reflected by different spelling).

The other differences have been covered in previous entries.


E: Není doma. Včera přes den pršelo (…). Láďa seděl doma (…), četl si noviny a poslouchal rádio. Dnes chtěl jít ven. Teď je v mestě. Táta ho tam vezl asi před hodinou autem. Šel do Obecního domu. Má tam v kavárně schůzku s kamarádkou.

E: Je vonku. Včera cez deň pršalo. Janko sedel doma, čítal si noviny a počúval rádio. Dnes chcel ísť von. Teraz je v meste. Otec ho tam viezol asi pred hodinou autom. Šiel do Carltonu. Má tam v kaviarni schôdzku s kamarátkou.

He’s not at home. / He’s out. It was raining during the day yesterday. Láďa / Janko was sitting at home, he was reading the newspaper and listening to the radio. Today he wanted to go out. He’s in the city now. Dad drove him there about an hour ago. He went to the Municipal House* / the Carlton (Hotel). He has a meeting there in the café with a friend.”

* The Municipal House is a concert hall in downtown Prague.

Cz: přes | Sk: cez “through” etc.

Each preposition is unique to its language and the meanings covered can correspond to different prepositions.

E.g.

- přes den pršelo | cez deň pršalo “it was raining during / throughout the day”
- zůstanou tam přes noc | zostanú tam na noc “they’ll stay there for the night”
- bydli ve vesnici za války | bývali v dedine cez vojnu “they lived in a village during the war”
- čeká je už přes hodinu | čaká na nich už vyše hodiny “he/she’s been waiting for them for over an hour already”

Cz: pršelo (< pršet) | Sk: pršalo (< pršať) “it rained”

Despite the different vowel in the second syllable which leads to distinct particples, both verbs belong to the same conjugational class (etymologically speaking). The similarity is most apparent in the present tense

“I rain, you rain, he/she/it rains, we rain, you rain, they rain”
Cz: prším, pršíš, prší, pršíme, pršíte, prší
Sk: prším, pršíš, prší, pršíme, pršíte, pršia

Cz: seděl (< sedět) | Sk: sedel (< sedieť) “he was sitting”

The relationship is rather similar to the one observed in pršelo / pršalo above.

Both verbs belong to the same conjugational class (etymologically speaking) despite the difference in the second syllable of each form. The similarity is most apparent in the present tense.

“I sit, you sit, he/she/it sits, we sit, you sit, they sit”
Cz: sedím, sedíš, sedí, sedíme, sedíte, sedí
Sk: sedím, sedíš, sedí, sedíme, sedíte, sedia

Cz: četl (< číst) | Sk: čítal (< čítať) “he read”

When I started learning Czech, getting used to this verb took a bit of time because of how distinct it was from the cognates in Polish and Slovak with which I was already familiar. In fact the Czech reflexes appear even more divergent when I look at the counterparts in the BCMS/SC and Ukrainian

“to read; I read, you read, he/she/it reads, we read, you read, they read; I read [past tense]; read! [imperative]”
Cz: číst; čtu, čteš, čte, čteme, čtete, čtou; četl jsem; čti! / čtěte!
Sk: čítať; čítam, čítaš, číta, čítame, čítate, čitajú; čítal som; čítaj! / čítajte!

BCMS/SC čitati; čitam, čitaš, čita, čitamo, čitate, čitaju; čitao sam; čitaj! / čitajte!
Polish: czytać; czytam, czytasz, czyta, czytame, czytacie, czytają; čítal som; čítaj! / čítajte!
Ukrainian: читати; читаю, читаєш, читає, читаємо, читаєте, читають; я читав; читай! / читайте!

Cz: poslouchal (< poslouchat) | Sk: počúval (< počúvať) “listened”

As far as I know, each word is unique to its own language, however each language does have reflexes of the Proto-Slavonic (or Proto-Indo-European) forms albeit these may be not immediately apparent.

Slovak poslúchať is a formal counterpart to Czech poslouchat however in Slovak it refers to listening to follow someone’s advice or guidance (cf. “I must listen to my doctor”) as opposed to listening to someone or something for pleasure (cf. “Let’s listen to some trance”). There is also Slovak sluch “(sense of) hearing” which matches Czech sluch. These forms arise from Proto-Indo-European *k'lewe- “to hear” via Proto-Slavonic *sluxь “hearing, rumour”

Slovak počúvať and its cognates lead to a reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European *(s)kawə-/-o “to hear, smell, see” via Proto-Slavonic *čuti “to sense”. A Czech reflex is čít “to feel, perceive, smell”. Other cognates include BCMS/SC čuti “to hear; smell”, Polish czuć “to feel”, English show, Latin cavēre “to avoid, beware” (cf. caveat emptor “Buyer beware”) and Greek ακούω “to hear, listen.

Cz: chtěl (< chtít) | Sk: chcel (< chcieť) “he wanted”

The reflexes of Proto-Slavonic *xotěti / *xъtěti “to want” are different in each of Czech and Slovak with the difference less apparent in the present tense.

“to want; I want, you want, he/she/it wants, we want, you want, they want; I wanted; want! [imperative]”
Cz: chtít; chci, chceš, chce, chceme, chcete, chtějí; chtěl jsem; chtěj! / chtějte!
Sk: chcieť; chcem, chceš, chce, chceme, chcete, chcú; chcel som; chci! / chcite!

Cz: táta | Sk: tata “dad”
Cz: otec | Sk: otec “father”

For some reason Naughton used different terms to translate “father” even though the similarity is apparent to any native speaker. The difference in the words for “dad” is the long “a” (á) in the Czech form which is short in the corresponding Slovak form.

Cz: vézl (< vézt) | Sk: viezol (< viezť) “he took (by vehicle)”

To expand on the differences between vézt and viezť mentioned here, here’s a fuller comparison of the conjugation.

“to take; I take, you take, he/she/it takes, we take, you take, they take; I went; go! [imperative]”
Cz: vézt; vezu, vezeš, veze, vezeme, vezete, vezou; vezl jsem; vez! / vezte!
Sk: viezť; veziem, vezieš, vezie, vezieme, veziete, vezú; viezol som; vez! / vezte!

Cz: šel (< jít) | Sk: (i)šiel (< ísť) “he went”

To expand on the differences between jít and ísť explored here, here’s a fuller comparison of the conjugation.

“to go; I go, you go, he/she/it goes, we go, you go, they go; I went; go! [imperative]”
Cz: jít; jdu, jdeš, jde, jdeme, jdete, jdou; šel jsem; jdi! / jděte!
Sk: ísť; idem, ideš, ide, ideme, idete, idú; (i)šiel som; iď! / iďte!

Cz: kavárna | Sk: kaviareň “café”

The difference in form also leads to different declensional patterns despite the obvious similarity and their being feminine. Czech kavárna is declined like a “hard” feminine noun whereas Slovak kaviareň is declined like a “soft” feminine noun on the strength of the respective endings.

“café” (singular) (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental)

Cz: kavárna, kavárnu, kavárny, kavárně, kavárně, kavárnou
Sk: kaviareň, kaviareň, kaviarne, kaviarni, kaviarni, kaviarňou

Cz: schůzka | Sk: schôdzka “appointment, meeting”

Different spelling reflects different pronunciation even though these are very similar to each other.

Cz: kamarádka | Sk: kamarátka “female friend”

See here for comparison of kamarád with kamarát.

All other differences have been covered in previous entries.


P: Kdo je to?

P: Kto je to?

“Who is it?”


E: Američanka, jmenuje se Sylvia. Láďa ji učí česky.

E: Američanka, volá sa Katka. Janko ju učí slovenčinu.

“It’s an American girl, her name is Sylvia / Katka. Láďa / Janko is teaching her Czech / (the) Slovak (language).”

Differences in preceding lines have been covered in previous entries.


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