Saturday, November 16, 2013

Czech Texans

There are plenty of descendants of Czech-speaking pioneers still in Texas. Anyone who has ever driven I-35 between the Metroplex and Austin knows to stop for kolaches in West. Lots of Czech folks still live in the La Grange area as well.

The old timers who still speak the Czech language often use an Anglicized syntax and lots of English loan words. An interesting example in the video to which I have provided a link is the use of the morpheme "ovat" to turn the word "pick" (as in pick cotton) into a Czech verb. Written, it would most likely be "pikovat." Czech often uses "ovat" for foreign verbs, but I like this example because a European Czech speaker probably would not know what it means. The video is completely in Czech but a minute or two might prove interesting to folks wanting a glimpse into a wonderful Texas culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htdfzTpPQ6U  

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