Language Research

SCHOOLS

The state education system in the Czech Republic guarantees teaching in the Polish language in preschools, and at primary and secondary schools in the North Moravian region. In the district of Karvina, there is also a primary school with Slovak as the language of instruction. Minority languages are taught also at state and private language schools. Special courses exist at philosophical and pedagogical faculties, including studies of the Slovak, Polish, German, Romany, Hungarian and Ukrainian languages.

The Roma minority holds an exceptional position within the educational system. It has not yet formulated its demand for its own education and it continues to reject segregated education in the Romany language. The state administration is endeavoring to facilitate the use of the Romany language at schools as a supportive language in communication. At some schools Roma assistants help in this respect.

MEDIA

Minority broadcasting of the Czech Radio is structured into independent sections preparing programs for the Slovak, Roma, German, Polish, Hungarian and Ukrainian minority. The programs are transmitted several times a week by nation-wide studios. There is a special program for Roma called "Romale", transmitted twice a month on a nation-wide basis.

Updated (September 2003)

POLISH CZECHS COLLECT SIGNATURES FOR BILINGUAL SIGNS

The Polish-speaking minority in the Czech Republic started to collect signatures to fulfill the requirements of the law, according to which minorities have the right to bilingual signage if:

1. they make up 10 percent of the overall population in a municipality according to the last census and
2. 40 percent of the adult minority members sign a petition in support of indications in the minority language.

Èeský; Tìšín/Czeski Cieszyn is a town that lies on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland in the historic region of Silesia. The percentage of Polish speakers stands at 16.1 percent based on the last census. In other thirty municipalities in the surrounding region the Polish-speaking minority constitutes from 10 to 44 percent of the population. The proportion of Polish speakers has been falling consistently since the First World War.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918, Cieszyn/Tigrave;šín/Teschen was divided into two parts, Cieszyn and Èeský Tìšín. This division left more than 130,000 Poles on the Czech side of the new border.

Since then Czech authorities have changed all Polish topographic terms into Czech ones. The children in Czech schools are not taught about the history of the Polish minority and the majority of them think that Poles have recently migrated here from Poland.

The similarities between the Czech and the Polish languages often allow Poles to speak their mother tongue when dealing with local officials. However, there are no legal obligations for the use of minority languages by authorities in the Czech Republic and there is also little sympathy shown in most cases.

Source: Eurolang News, Prague, September 19, 2003, by Peter Josika, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4394

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Updated (November 2003)

CZECH POLES SEEK BILINGUAL DOCUMENTS

The Polish minority living in the Czech Republic has recently entered into negotiations with the Czech Interior Ministry to introduce bilingual documents in the areas with a Polish-speaking population. Birth, marriage and death certificates are currently available only in Czech.

Polish is spoken by a large proportion of the population in the northeast part of the country (in the historic region of Silesia). According to the latest census there are thirty municipalities with a Polish-speaking population of between 10 and 44 percent. The largest bilingual city in the region is Cieszyn/Tìšín, which was divided between Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and Poland after the end of World War I.

Before World War II, in the first Czechoslovak Republic, people were relatively free to choose the language in which they wanted their documents to be issued. In Polish and German speaking towns and villages, birth, marriage and death certificates were usually issued in the local language.

However, this practice was not reintroduced after the war, when Czech became the only permitted language for all official documentation. Even Polish names were translated into Czech and Polish alphabetical characters could not be used. Adding of the ending "ová" to every female surname, regardless of the person's linguistic background, caused specific contention.

Since 2002 the members of national minorities can again use their own characters in all official documents though this right is rarely practiced.

Source: Eurolang News, Prague, November 17, 2003, by Peter Josika, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4502

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Updated (December 2003)

BROADCASTING

There are only two public broadcasters in the Czech Republic, Czech Television (CT), with two channels, and Czech Radio (CR), with seven channels. In 1993 and 1994, two private television operators got licenses to broadcast over the whole territory of the Czech Republic. Currently, there is one national public television operator (with two channels), two private television operators, 12 regional television operators, 16 local television operators, 10 satellite operators and 11 cable operators.

No programs for national minorities in their languages are broadcast regularly on CT except irregular broadcasting of documentaries (about different minorities). However, CT currently broadcasts two multicultural programs, one documentary ("Velky vuz") and the other one interview-type program ("Rozhovory") presented by a Romany and Chinese interviewer once a fortnight. These programs are in the Czech language and their aim is rather to inform the majority population about minorities. The amount and duration of the programs for minorities aired by CT have actually decreased.

On the other hand, CR broadcasts programs intended specifically for national minorities. For the Slovak minority, there is a weekly 55-minute news bulletin ("Stretnutie"), 60 minutes of entertainment programs per month, 60 minutes of music programs per month, as well as other news programs. For the German and Roma minorities (alternately) 30 minutes of programming daily and also a weekly 30-minute news bulletin in Romany ("O Roma vakeren") and 30 minutes of news and music programs per month.

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

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Updated (May 2004)

NO SIGN OF BILINGUAL SIGNS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

As we have previously reported (in September and November 2003) representatives of the Polish minority in the Czech Republic have been collecting signatures in support of local bilingual signs.

Based on the Czech minority protection legislation, recognized autochthonous minorities have the right to bilingual signage if they constitute 10 percent of the population in a municipality, and if 40 percent of the adult minority members support this idea in a petition.

According to the latest statistics published by the Czech Statistical Office, there are 97 municipalities with more than 10 percent of the minority population in the Czech Republic: 31 Polish, 18 German, 47 Slovak and 1 Roma.

Hrádek is the town with the greatest proportion of Polish speakers, when Poles constitute 43 percent of the population. The largest cities with a Polish-speaking minority are Ceský Tešín/Czeski Cieszyn and Tøinec/Trzyniec with 16 and 17 percent respectively. Recently, the required 40 percent of the adult population of two towns (Chotìbuz/Kocobêdz and Petrovice u Karviné/Piotrowice) had signed their local petitions, which were then sent to Prague for further instructions on the implementation. However, government authorities have so far failed to respond.

Although paragraph 8 of the Law No. 273/2001 specifically mentions the right to bilingual signage in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Acts No. 128/2000 and 273/2001 (10 and 40 percent rules), the law cannot be implemented until necessary administrative guidelines exist. However, those are not due to come into existence until the next amendment to the Administrational Law in late 2005, at the earliest.

The greatest percentage of German speakers can be found in the Northwest Bohemian border settlement of Mìdìnec/Kupferberg (25 percent). Most of these are elderly people, the small remainder of the former Sudeten German population that escaped the post-war expulsion.

The Germans have not started collecting signatures yet. The Slovaks are even less interested in this matter.

Source: Eurolang News, Biel/Bienne, April 14, 2004, by Peter Josika, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4508

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Updated (December 2004)

GERMAN MINORITY NEWSPAPER LAUNCHED IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The German minority of Western Bohemia will have their first newspaper since the expulsion of the majority of German speakers from this territory once known as the Sudetenland.

Two German national papers are already published in Prague: the privately owned "Die Prager Zeitung" and the "Landeszeitung". The new "Karlsbader¹ Zeitung" will be the first paper published in the region where a considerable part of the historic German population still lives. Initially it will have a monthly circulation of 15,000 copies.

Source: Eurolang News, by Peter Josika, in Prague, November 30, 2004, http://www.eurolang.net/

¹ Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary is a world famous spa resort where German speakers made up the majority until 1945/46.

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