The Czech language (definitely a minor language) seems elusive from being one of the most beautiful languages in the world. The distinction is that the language are actually two separate languages.
Imagine North American and British English written how they actually pronounce them. It would be separate languages. But the same written form makes them cohesive.
In Bohemia which creates the majority of Czech historical lands, people speak Common Czech (or the insignificant dialects based on Common Czech). And it is really distant from the standard formal Czech language.
It includes novelties that are such novelties that are 700 – 500 years old. I know very well this separate language phenomenon you can find in other tongues as well, but I want to show it in my native tongue. However, people in Moravia have dialects that are far closer to the standard Czech.
The official variant has elements that are centuries old (window – standard “okno”, informal “Common Czech” with prothetic “v” goes as “vokno” that has its beginning from the 13th century. The verb “to be” – “být” is replaced by “bejt” from the 15th century on as well. Moravians prefer the old varieties.
African-American Vernacular English and Standard English as separate as Czech language
Imagine that the majority of Americans would speak African-American English in their homes, jobs, and official places. However, “Standard American” would be official. And this is the case in the Czech Republic.
When I am talking to my doctor (and we are both from the Bohemian part of the Czech lands), we are always using the informal variety. However, when we write to each other, we never use informal language. It same goes for public office and so on (speaking is informal, and writing is always formal).
Moravian people, however, don’t speak “Common Czech” but completely understand it because of modern media and commuting. Some of them are offended because they consider it a dirty dialect.
The accent also differs. Moravians call it “singing” and it is quite true. The old Prague accents were mocked as the singing ones.
However, the problems had been bigger in the Middle Ages as people from Bohemia (mostly illiterate) first heard Moravian dialects that were so different. And vice versa.
There had been no such pressure so that everyone would speak Standard Czech. Unlike France and Germany, for example.
So “To okno by mělo být otevřené” (formal Czech or Moravian) to “To vokno by mělo bejt votevřený” makes it separate languages. It is like: “I don’t have time for anything” to “I ain’t got no time for nothing”.
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