Czech orthography

Czech alphabet
Česká abeceda
Script type
Time period
Since Jan Hus' Orthographia bohemica (early 15th century – present)
LanguagesCzech
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
Slovak alphabet
Gaj's Latin alphabet
Latvian alphabet
Lithuanian alphabet
Unicode
Subset of Latin
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Czech orthography is a system of rules for proper formal writing (orthography) in Czech. The earliest form of separate Latin script specifically designed to suit Czech was devised by Czech theologian and church reformist Jan Hus, the namesake of the Hussite movement, in one of his seminal works, De orthographia bohemica (On Bohemian orthography).

The modern Czech orthographic system is diacritic, having evolved from an earlier system which used many digraphs (although one digraph has been kept - ch). The caron is added to standard Latin letters to express sounds which are foreign to Latin. The acute accent is used for long vowels.

The Czech orthography is considered the model for many other Balto-Slavic languages using the Latin alphabet; Slovak orthography being its direct revised descendant, while the Serbo-Croatian Gaj's Latin alphabet and its Slovene descendant system are largely based on it. The Baltic languages, such as Latvian and Lithuanian, are also largely based on it. All of them make use of similar diacritics and also have a similar, usually interchangeable, relationship between the letters and the sounds they are meant to represent.[1]

  1. ^ Dvornik, Francis (1962). The Slavs in European History and Civilization. Rutgers University Press. pp. 287. ISBN 0813507995.