Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
No. The Czechs and Slovaks are two different ethnic groups. They have two separate languages although they're closely related and with a little practice they can learn to understand each other pretty well.But I would remind you that Czechoslovakian people are called Czechs. . . .
The land of the Czechs used to be known as Bohemia, and in fact the Czechs were generally called "Bohemians" by others and never objected, even though the Bohumil were a Celtic people who lived there 1500 years ago. My mother's family were Bohemians and they called themselves that in English. They didn't expect anyone else to be able to pronounce or spell "Czech," which is the Polish spelling of their own name for themselves. (I don't have the character set to spell it in the Czech language.)
The country of Czechoslovakia was formed in the 20th century by combining the two countries of Bohemia and Slovakia. Americans often referred to both Czechs and Slovaks as "Czechs," the same way Europeans refer to all Americans as "Yankees" even though that only applies to people from the Northeast. Our Southerners put up with it graciously, and so did the Slovaks.
The country split into "the Czech Republic" and "Slovakia" after Perestroika.
The fine distinction between slang and offensive language is not the same in all anglophone countries, so please don't depend on what you learned in the UK to be true in America. I know Alison Moyet used that word in a song lyric, just to mean "a downtrodden person," without raising any hackles in Britain, but do not throw it around here or you might end up being extremely regretful. As you can see, I won't even let what we refer to here as "the N-word" go out through my company's server with my ID.I don't consider the word n***** to be offensive, after all, Indians were called that by the British, so it must be the Queen's language.