I suppose in ten years, relevant sports broadcasts, newspaper and other media organizations will begin using Czechia instead of the Czech Republic, probably under intense pressure from a very vociferous lobby of Czech translators — if only to shut them up about the matter.
However they will almost certainly pronounce it Čečia, because the political powers that be have failed to take into consideration the usual rules of pronunciation in English. And let’s face it: your average Anglo-Saxon is not a linguist.
This will, of course, annoy all Czechs, who will marvel at the collective ignorance of the Anglo-sphere. Newspapers like Mlada fronta dnes will report widely on the issue. Teeth will gnash.
Of course as matters stand now, in many parts of the world people still refer to this part of the world as “Czechoslovakia.” The Czechs themselves unwittingly encourage that as Czechs and Slovaks tend to band together and form Czechoslovakian sports clubs, hold Czechoslovakian beauty pageants and attend Czechoslovakian pubs with other expats abroad.
Even some people in neighboring countries don’t seem to have got the news of the Velvet Divorce, known less popularly and more prosaicly as the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
Some background information:
Of course, the word Czechia has existed in English for decades, perhaps longer, in theory but for some reason it has never caught on, probably because of the horrible way it sounds to English ears.
Which is why it is usually referred to as the Czech Republic.
Nevertheless, the Czech (Czechian?) parliament, wishing to take a break from clandestinely slurping up the slop of EU funds earmarked for construction projects, have pushed really hard for the adoption of the word Czechia by EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD and requested that various organizations, such as the UN, hereby refer to the Czech Republic as Czechia. A suggestion of course, although some Czech translators seem to think it should be a requirement. (One wonders what penalty the Czech government would inflict on a hypothetical Indiana farm boy uttering the taboo phrase ‘The Czech Republic" but no matter. I know all too well how difficult matters of international law can be to parse.)
I am sure the UN, ever too polite to say what they really think, has complied with the Czechian parliament’s request. Though I must confess I don’t care enough about the matter to have really investigated the matter.
The Czech Republic’s current president, the King of the Goblins, Miloš Zeman, speaking between shots of slivovice, has also strongly mumbled his support for the awful sounding name.
pictured above: Czechian president Miloš Zeman
Similarly, Google maps has also changed the name of the country on the map, and it is reasonable to assume that many maps printed in the future will follow suit.
Of course few people will ever see these maps, but it’s a start.
This has caused considerable — and apparently endless — debate and controversy among the Czech - English translation community*, with the majority of native English speaking translators coming hard down on the side of “It sounds bloody awful, as if I were retching the contents of my bowels into a toilet bowl”; while most native Czech speaking translators strongly stand on the “Czechia — it’s what’s for breakfast!” side.
As an English speaker, of course, I fall on the side of the former. And continue to use “the Czech Republic”, which, while admittedly imperfect, does not rake at my all-too-dainty ears the way “Czechia” does.
It goes without saying that, living in a free country, I am free to use whatever word in my own language that I want. Exceptions might be made when translating, doubtless: someone using “Cesko” to refer to this country should correctly be translated as "Czechia” — I am willing to grit my teeth and go along along with that, wincing and moaning all the way. That’s why products like Tums were invented, after all.
Yet, that does not stop me from getting hordes of unwelcome private messages on Quora.com urging me to use the word, which I hereby promise I will do as soon as it stops sounding horrible to my ears. I also pledge not to be so rude as to request the other side not use their preferred word, the putrid sounding Czechia.
Hopefully anybody reading this will see the above statement as a sort of contract. A deal if you will: You use your word; we’ll use ours.
Perhaps familiarity will eventually make the sound of Czechia acceptable to my ears. It probably will.
Meanwhile, the majority of ordinary Czechs who have brought up the subject to me — I never bring the subject up, personally — seem to either dislike the sound of Czechia (while agreeing with me that the sound of "Bohemia” or just “Czesko” is preferable); or they just don’t care about the issue whatsoever.
In the words of my girlfriend, court-appointed translator Jana Š—————ova:
Why on earth would anybody care about this issue? What does it matter?
And lest you think from the above words that Jana is some sort of cigarette smoking black-turtlenecked existentialist, a la Jean-Paul Sartre, let me assure you: she is not. She likes picking wild bilberries and skiing as much as the next Czech.
pictured above: not my girlfriend
I expect the vast majority of English speakers to start using Czechia around the time they stop using Czechoslovakia.
Anyway, to reiterate, how long until people referring to the country all join the chanting pro-Czechia brigade? At a guess, I will say ten years. A new generation will eventually rise, after all, a generation that neither remembers Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic.
And Czechia will have found its place at last.
*A small community, really, but very vocal about this issue.
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