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Czech Language Translation Services
An Accent on Accuracy
The highest quality translations, brisk turnaround schedules,
competitive rates, and sharing of our knowledge, are all requisites for ALT's
success. The complete and accurate translation of your company's communications
is vital to your success. That's why ALT is obsessed with providing the best
translators for YOUR project. High-quality translations are the product of a
highly talented and experienced translation team with expertise in your
industry. ALT puts all the pieces together to make it happen.
Why Choose Advanced Language Translation Inc for English to Czech or
Czech to English Translation?
Advanced Language Translation’s Professional Czech translation
services utilize only native speakers to ensure quality and precision
translations for your target audience. With Czech in particular, a deep
understanding of Czech culture is needed for translation to be successful. When
doing business in Czech Republic, professional human translation is a must. Do
not expect to close a business deal or impress your clients with spotty
software translation. Only through human translation, edited and customized to
your target audience, can your meaning be honestly conveyed and your audience
not be offended.
We are proud of our excellent reputation for reliable and high
quality Czech to English and English to Czech translation services. We have
assembled teams of translators from around the world, with an array of skills
and specialties and can custom fit the knowledge and strengths of our teams to
your specific projects. To demonstrate our commitment to quality and our
dedication to our clients, we offer free consultations and provide an industry
leading 180-day warranty on translation!
We provide quick and easy custom
quotes for your Czech translation and localization needs.
Interesting Facts about the Czech Language
The earliest preserved texts in Czech were written in the 13th century. They
were mainly hymns written in Bohemia. The first books were printed in
the 1470s, also in Bohemia.
The first grammar of the Czech language (Gramatika ceská) dates
back to 1533. It was written by Beneš Optát, Petr Gzel and Václav Filomates.
The first systematic general grammar was written in 1603 by Vavrinec Benedikti
z Nudožer (Grammaticae bohemicae libri duo). .
Czech has very strong linguistic traditions, especially in translation.
About 28 % of Czech, as well as Slovak, television time was spent on translated
material in late 90s.
In Czech pronunciation the stress always falls on the first syllable of a
word..
Czech has 4 genders (neuter, feminine and 2 masculine -
animate, inanimate), 7 cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative,
Instrumental, Locative, Vocative) and 2 numbers.
History of the Czech Language
The Czech language belongs to the western group of Slavic
languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian, high and low Sorbian and
Polabian (now extinct). It is also related, although more loosely, to the east
and south Slavic language groups.
Czech was separated from other Slavic languages between
the 10th and 16th century by a number of major sound changes. Closer to 16th
century, Czech also lost the dual number and 2 Slavic past tenses, which were
present in Slavonic. At the same time the number of declensions and the
significance of the verbal aspect increased.
Czech dialects form four major groups - Bohemian, Central
Moravian, Eastern Moravian and Silesian. The basis for standard written Czech
is the Prague dialect. The colloquial form of Czech is called Common Czech.
Common Czech has its roots in the central part of Bohemia, but it is widely
spoken in other areas as well. While Bohemian dialects are more or less uniform
due to the influence of Common Czech, the group of Silesian dialects is the
most diverse and some of them are very close to Polish. The eastern Moravian
dialect represents a transition from Czech to Slovak.
Historically and geographically, Czech was influenced by a
number of languages. The strongest influence had Old Church Slavonic, Latin and
German.
Written Language
Until the end of the 13th century, Czech used the Latin
alphabet without modifications. When more complex texts appeared, a more
complex writing system became necessary. Digraphs and trigraphs were used to
write down the sounds that didn’t have Latin equivalents. However, around
the 15th century the religious reformer Jan Hus introduced a diacritical
writing system, i.e., diacritical marks were to be placed over some Latin
letters to distinguish the palatal and palatalized consonants and long vowels
(c, d, n, r, s, t, a, e, I, o, u, y). In the 16th century the long u was also
added to the list. The only digraph that survived the reforms is ch.
This is how modern Czech alphabet looks:
Czech Language Statistics
• About 12 million people speak Czech.
• Although, the majority of Czech speakers lives in the Czech
Republic, a significant
number of them live in the US (1.4 million), Canada, Ukraine and
also in Poland,
Austria and Israel.
• The Czech Republic boasts a 99% literacy rate.
Translation Issues with Czech
Advanced Language Translation Inc has extensive experience with
commercial and technical translations from English to Czech and from Czech into
English. We have also amassed years of experience in typesetting Czech content.
Here are some of the common issues with English to Czech translation that we
have learned:
• Even though typesetting of Czech doesn’t pose any major technical
obstacles
hyphenation may be an issue. Be sure your desktop publishing/word
processing
software has the ability to support Czech hyphenation dictionaries
or consider using
left-aligned text without hyphenation.
• Czech uses a Latin 2 script, which may require the use of special
fonts. Some
applications, such as the US version of Quark Xpress or
FrameMaker, do not support
Latin 2 scripts. Thus, in FrameMaker "t" is
missing. Since stripping off diacritical marks
can change the meaning of the word, it is important that language
specialists handle
localization and/or formatting (DTP) of your documents and the
software that supports
Latin-2 scripts is used.
• In order to view or type Czech on a Windows computer, the
appropriate keyboard
together with Central European fonts should be installed. For Mac
users, Apple CE
fonts and CE keyboards should be installed (try
http://aatseel.org/fonts/maceelatin.html).
• Typical text expansion ranges from 15 to 20%
Czech Language Vital Information
Speaking Population: 12
Million
Where Spoken: Czech Republic
Writing Systems: Latin 2
Code Pages:
Unicode Supported: Yes
Common Phrases: (phonetic pronunciations in parentheses)
Czech: cesky (CHEHskee)
Hello: Dobry' den (DObree den)
Good-bye: Na shledanou (nas
KHLEdanow)
Please: Prosím (PROseem)
Thank you: Dekuji vam (DYEkooyi
vam)
Yes: ano (A no)
No: Ne (ne)
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