Czechia Languages

Back to Czech Republic Portal Page►

Most of the people in the Czech Republic speak the Czech language. Czech is a Slavic language related to Slovak, Polish and Russian. However, Czech was not recognized as an official language until 1877 in Bohemia and 1905 in Moravia. It was seldom used as a written language until the late 1800s. Except for modern records of the 1900s, records in the Czech Republic were written mostly in Latin and German. Other languages sometimes used in Czech records include Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

Česká abeceda/The Czech Alphabet
A, a, Á, á B, b C, c, Č, č D, d, Ď, ď E, e, É, é, ě F, f G, g H, h Ch, ch I, i, Í, í J, j K, k L, l M, m N, n, Ň, ň O, o, Ó, ó P, p Q, q R, r, Ř, ř S, s, Š, š T, t, Ť, ť U, u, Ú, ú, ů V, v W, w X, x Y, y, Ý, ý Z, z, Ž, ž

The Czech alphabet uses several letters in addition to the 26 letters used in the English alphabet. These are 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, 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

Language of the Records
A basic knowledge of few languages is required to read Czech records. Obtain a copy of the various genealogical lists available at the Family History Library or click on the links below.

Language Aids
Czech Genealogical Word List

German Genealogical Word List

Latin Genealogical Word List

Polish Genealogical Word List

See the examples of the Czech Script Alphabet at a to m n to ž