Czech Yeah!
April 19, 2016 1:14 AM   Subscribe

Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic has been one of the few nations with "Republic" in its name without a shorter alternate version... until now: Welcome to Czechia. (most likely pronounced "Check-ya" because there are concerns it'll be confused with Chechnya, aka the Chechan Republic) (via Brand New which proposes a logo)

Alternate title not used because I'm not THAT frivolous: "Czechia Self Before You Wrechia Self"
posted by oneswellfoop (49 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ha! This is what I've been calling the country in English for years, because we call it Tsjechië in Dutch, and I could never remember that it wasn't actually called Czechia in English. But now it is! And from now on I'll be right when I say it!
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:23 AM on April 19, 2016 [9 favorites]


Guardian story:
Czech leaders, fed up with their country’s long and complicated full name, have proposed changing it to a single word with just three syllables: Czechia.

In a joint statement, the president, prime minister and other senior officials said they would ask the UN to update its database of geographical names with the new title, in the hope that it might take root before the country competes in the Olympics this summer.
and editorial:
In a poll conducted by the newspaper Mladá Fronta Dnes in 2013, 16,845 people said they didn’t like the new name, compared with 6,160 who did. The fact that officials think they can impose something like this shows how little respect they have for those that they govern.
Pro-rebranding site.
Partial list of unused names.
posted by pracowity at 1:41 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


most likely pronounced "Check-ya" because there are concerns it'll be confused with Chechnya

As the man who still has the kangaroo t-shirt he bought in Austria - good fucking luck with that.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:55 AM on April 19, 2016 [28 favorites]


Like Too-Ticky, I've been calling the relevant country this in English for years just because its variations on Czechia in all of the other languages I interact in and the native languages of just about all the people I talk to. Its less confusing.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:01 AM on April 19, 2016


The fact that officials think they can impose something like this shows how little respect they have for those that they govern.

Czech leaders, Czechia privilege.
posted by rory at 2:20 AM on April 19, 2016 [19 favorites]


Yeah, but if you ask the people, they'll come up with Czechia McCzechface.
posted by Devonian at 2:29 AM on April 19, 2016 [61 favorites]


Shame they didn't go for 'Bohemia'. I know it's not exactly equivalent, but then I believe the name 'Poland' has not always described exactly the same slice of land either.
posted by Segundus at 2:38 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


With that pronunciation you may need to Czechia brains at the border.
posted by fairmettle at 2:43 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I thought this was a stupid re-brand when I heard about it last week. My, Czech, wife agreed. We both felt that if this was being done for PR purposes then it is stupid. From an Anglo perspective the -ia ending is associated with more Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria etc.) and, given the fact that Czechs are keen to be (re)assigned "Central European" identity (and rail against getting assigned "Eastern European" much as some Mexicans get annoyed at Mexico not being classed as "North America" by some) then this is bizarre.
posted by Gratishades at 2:47 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Shame they didn't go for 'Bohemia'

I was listening to the BBC Worldservice the other day. Answer came it would not have gone down well with Czech citizens in (Czech) Moravia and Czech Silesia.
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:52 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


This seems a strange choice for a name that's intended for use in English specifically (if I've understood that right) – it's a pretty awkward thing to pronounce for native English speakers.
posted by Richard Holden at 2:53 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


it's a pretty awkward thing to pronounce for native English speakers

Repeat afer me: Czechia Bohemia Bulgaria Gambia Lithuania Moldovia Rumania
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:02 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Having read the pro-rebranding site linked by pracowity above I am still at a loss about the positive case for the change to Czechia. Seems to be a long list of why the arguments used to advocate for "Czech Republic" are weak, but fails to give a positive reason for "Czechia" (other than "some guys in government think this is the way forward, and they have the power to make this official, therefore bish-bash-bosh deal done).

I wouldn't be fussed if most Czechs (Czechians?) wanted to change the naming convention, or if there was some decent reasons for doing it (rather than a lack of reason for not doing it). Don't get me wrong, I don't think it is unpronounceable, unprecedented or unpractical- just unwanted, and can't fathom the motivation of the politicians driving this.
posted by Gratishades at 3:07 AM on April 19, 2016


Came for the Boaty McBoatface reference, was not disappointed.
posted by briank at 3:19 AM on April 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Is it official? I mean, have they decided it yet or will there be a referendum of some kind?
PS: Bohemia would have been a lot cooler.
posted by Jo88 at 3:43 AM on April 19, 2016


From an Anglo perspective the -ia ending is associated with more Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria etc.)

In Spanish you have Francia, Italia, Alemania, Grecia, Suecia, Islandia, Finlandia, Estonia, Letonia, Lituania, Austria, Eslovaquia and now Chequia, apart from the Eastern European countries.
posted by sukeban at 4:04 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Jo88- the link from pracowity states that it is decided in a charming appeal to authority "Fact: The decision about the name “Czechia” has been made by those who are qualified by the law to make it. November 2014 statement of the Terminological Committee of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadaster states... This is not an opinion but the outcome of the process of standardization.” Proof is in the practice I guess as it was "decided" in 2014 but no-one really uses it at present.

(RE "Bohemia" I agree it is a cool name, as my support of Bohemians football club will attest, but Bohemia is a region of Czech and, for example, the 2nd city of Czech is Brno, whose residents are proud to be Moravian, definitely not Bohemian.)
posted by Gratishades at 4:09 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Very true sukeban, but the mooted change is to do with the English rendering hence my "Anglo perspective" qualifier.
posted by Gratishades at 4:11 AM on April 19, 2016


They're making official a short name that is already used in other European languages. It's not specifically for English. If you read a press release in French, say here,
Les chefs de l’Etat, du gouvernement, de la diplomatie, les présidents des deux chambres du Parlement et le ministre de la défense ont annoncé, jeudi 14 avril, dans un communiqué de presse, qu’ils allaient demander à l’ONU d’enregistrer la forme abrégée Tchéquie en français, Czechia en anglais, Tschechien en allemand, Chequia en espagnol, etc., pour désigner le pays « partout où il n’est pas nécessaire que figure le nom officiel ».
You wouldn't get such an impression.
posted by sukeban at 4:19 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Repeat afer me: Czechia Bohemia Bulgaria Gambia Lithuania Moldovia Rumania

Sure, there are plenty of '-ia' county names already, so this makes sense in that way – it's just that adding it to 'Czech-' seems to create a bit more of a mouthful than the others (to me, anyway).
posted by Richard Holden at 4:26 AM on April 19, 2016


So far as I can see the one-word equivalent in Czech is Česko. If you're going to change the name, might as well just use the native word. Czech doesn't actually use the digraph.

(Apparently Čechy just means Bohemia, so that's out.)

posted by zompist at 4:48 AM on April 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Why does English need an exonym for Czesko, which is a perfectly cromulent name in the native language?

On preview, damn you zompist!
posted by enjoymoreradio at 4:51 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Zompist, that is not how languages work. You don't refer to the greatest economy in Asia by Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó.
posted by sukeban at 4:52 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


No you don't, sukeban, but it's worth asking why we don't call it the People's Republic of Zhonghua at least.
posted by enjoymoreradio at 4:54 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


I have written them a wholly original national anthem:

Republic of, czech yeah!
Coming again to save the mother fucking day, yeah
Republic of, Czechia!
Freedom is the only way, yeah
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:54 AM on April 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


As far as I can tell, the country's name is pronounced roughly "Chesko" in Czech. I think that would have been a fine English name as well.

Jinx. Double Jinx.
posted by 256 at 5:02 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


If Bohemia had been chosen I think we all know what the anthem would have been.
posted by dazed_one at 5:02 AM on April 19, 2016 [13 favorites]


As far as I can tell, the country's name is pronounced roughly "Chesko" in Czech. I think that would have been a fine English name as well.

Are there any other examples of a government deliberately choosing a foreign pronunciation over the local version for branding purposes like this? It would be like Angela Merkel getting rid of the name "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" in order to rename the country "Germany" or "Allemagne."
posted by Dip Flash at 5:07 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you read a press release in French

It's interesting that they go with Tchéquie, Tschechien, and Chequia to conform to other languages but they stick to their own Cz- for the English version instead of using a more logical (for English) Ch- construction. I suppose that weird (for English) Cz, like the CZ sticker on car bumpers, is a somewhat universal signifier for the country.
posted by pracowity at 5:10 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Retaining the Cz maintains a point of difference from Chechnya, which could be useful. If I saw Czechia in print without knowing about this decision, I'd have a good guess what nation was meant. But Chechia would leave me confused.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 5:17 AM on April 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I seem to remember that the MI6 nickname for the region during the Cold War was Czecho. Shame the country's landlocked, or you could have Czecho Beach.
posted by Devonian at 5:25 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


No you don't, sukeban, but it's worth asking why we don't call it the People's Republic of Zhonghua at least.

The government of the PRC preferred China as a translation of Zhōngguó.
posted by sukeban at 5:34 AM on April 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Segundus: Shame they didn't go for 'Bohemia'. I know it's not exactly equivalent, but then I believe the name 'Poland' has not always described exactly the same slice of land either.

Why don't you just go ahead and call the Netherlands 'Holland' while you're at it. I double clog dare ya.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:51 AM on April 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


It would be like Angela Merkel getting rid of the name "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" in order to rename the country "Germany" or "Allemagne."

They aren't getting rid of Česká republika. Dueling analogies are usually awful, but I would think it's closer to:

It's like a world where in English everyone kept calling it the German Federal Republic and Merkel registered the name "Germany" as an officially-accepted shorthand in English rather than insisting on "Deutschland."
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:22 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


You don't refer to the greatest economy in Asia by Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó.

But we now call its capital Beijing. Similarly, people have adapted to Hannover, Kyiv, Livorno, Mumbai, Gdansk. And country names are not exempt: Iran, Burkina Faso, Congo/Zaire/Congo, Sri Lanka, Myanmar.
posted by zompist at 6:30 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I can understand why they did this, but I can't help but think that for English speakers who remember Czechoslovakia, "Czecho" might have worked better - 'This part became Czecho, and this part Slovakia'.
posted by fings at 6:41 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Plenty of discussion in the article about why they specifically did not go with Cesko, i.e. Czechs don't like it:

Even today, it isn’t fully accepted: According to the Economist, former Czech president Vaclav Havel once said that the word made his “flesh creep.” Some suggested that the name was a reminder of the country’s split from Slovakia, though others said it just sounds nasty: The word is “short and harsh sounding,” one Czech cartographer told Radio Prague in 2004. [...] Some foreign authorities suggested that the Czechs’ reluctance to use the word “Cesko” had contributed to their own decisions not to use the word.
posted by capricorn at 6:51 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


CHECK-YA Is pretty easy to say but the problem is reading it makes me try to say CHECK-EE-YA which is more face contorting. A linguist can probably explain .
posted by freecellwizard at 6:59 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


This confuses me. I find both of those really, and equally, easy to say. It can't just be me.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:02 AM on April 19, 2016


Devonian: "Shame the country's landlocked, or you could have Czecho Beach."

Some people think it has a coastline.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:31 AM on April 19, 2016


This whole thing reminds me of a scene in the greatest ever episode of The Sopranos:

Paulie: "He's a Czechoslovakian interior decorator."

Chris: [confused] "Really? His apartment looked like shit."
posted by veedubya at 7:35 AM on April 19, 2016


IDK, as someone who is at least 50% Czech it kinda makes me think that whenever anyone asks me what my ethnicity is I can say, "Czech-yeaaaaaaaahhh" with tremendous enthusiasm while wearing my tacky little "Czech Me Out" shirt that I think I got from Threadless a few years ago...
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:33 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


So are they basically copying off their former compatriots and now neighbors in Slovakia? The official name is "The Slovak Republic" but it seems that no one calls it that.
posted by Hactar at 8:42 AM on April 19, 2016


They're making the change so it's easier for English speakers to deal with, not because it looks better or sounds nicer? I guess that's why they call it Praguematism.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:15 AM on April 19, 2016 [14 favorites]


I have heard "Tchéquie" in nearly every French-speaking country I've lived in -- long before this was made official!

I think generally it makes sense and I will make the switch without protest.
posted by lecorbeau at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Moldovia Rumania

Moldova, even. And Romania.

(Unless you were referring to the former Principality of Moldavia or the half of that historical country that's still a part of Romania.)
posted by effbot at 3:22 PM on April 19, 2016


Moldovia Rumania
Moldova, even. And Romania.


It just goes to show that whatever you do, us dumb english-speechers will frequently get it wrong.
"Italia? Is that anywhere near Italy?"

Czech and Double Czech.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:48 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Czechmate.
posted by WizardOfDocs at 5:43 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


People who came from (or had their families come from) Czechia/Czech Republic have been hearing these puns for decades... and before the split-up, so have people from Slovakia. As a lifelong punster, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the Slovaks. But if you'd like to join us here in San Luis Obispo, California in embracing the puns based on S.L.O.=Slow, you will be welcomed with open arms. Slowly.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:05 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


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