American Language (129 page)

Nouns ending in a long
o
, in any
u
, or in a diphthong are generally avoided, for they cannot be readily inflected according to any of the twelve Czech declensions. Sometimes the plural
boys
is used instead of
boy
, becoming
bojse
in American-Czech. Words containing the sounds
qu, w, th
and
wh
, especially at their beginnings, are also avoided, for those sounds are difficult to the Czech, as is that of
h
in certain combinations. Sometimes a word is possible in one case, but not in all. Thus,
homebrew
is seldom attempted in the nominative, but in the instrumental it is used,
e.g.
, in
Otrávil se houmbruen
(He poisoned himself with homebrew), and there is a popular verb,
houmbrůovati
, to homebrew. In the same way, while
glue
is not used as a noun, the verb
zglůuju
, to glue, is in common use. The sound of
ng
is also avoided as much as possible, and words containing it are often changed. Thus
loving
becomes
lavováné
. The simple
g
, on Czech lips, assimilates to
k
, so that
pig
and
pick
are homonyms. The agent-nouns are given Czech terminations —
ák, -ař, -nák, -ista
, and the like. Thus, a drayman is an
ekspresak
, a station (depot)-agent is a
dýpař
, a street-railway employe is a
kárník
, and a lecturer is a
lekčrista
. To indicate a female the suffix
-ka
is used, or the masculine ending of the word is changed to a feminine form. Thus, a woman nurse is a
nrska
, and a woman Prohibitionist (
prohibičník
) is a
pro-hibičnice
. Sometimes a Czech feminine ending is added to an English one, as in
vejtreska
(waitress) and
čejmbrmejdka
(chambermaid
). Loan-nouns beginning with
a
often lose it,
e.g., knalidžmnt
(acknowledgment). Its loss is encouraged by the fact that in Czech the accent is always on the first syllable.

Verbs lose it for the same reason,
e.g., kjuzovati
(to accuse),
dmitovati
(to admit). In sentences, the
a
(often changed to the neutral
e
) is commonly restored, usually by being added to the preceding word, but it is omitted when the word to which it belongs stands alone. There is an exception in the case of loan-words in
a
that have the accent on the first syllable,
e.g., to agitate
, which becomes
édžitejtovati
, and
to amputate
, which becomes
empjutejtovati
. Monsignor Dudek says that practically all the English verbs in everyday use have been taken into American-Czech. They are put into the sixth conjugation “by the simple process of adding to the loanwords, as spoken, the Czech infinitive termination.” Nouns are turned into verbs very facilely,
e.g., brglařiti
(to burgle),
hauskípo-vati
(to housekeep),
kuklaksovati
(to Ku Klux),
gademovati
(to God-damn) and
sanamabičovati
(to son-of-a-bitch). There is also an immense borrowing of adjectives. Some of them,
e.g., akorat
(accurate) and
olrajt
(all right) are taken in unchanged, but in the great majority of cases they are regularly declined. Almost any noun may become an adjective by adding one of the adjectival terminations to it. And adjectives may be turned into adverbs just as readily by changing their terminal vowels to
ê;
. Monsignor Dudek thus describes the proliferation of American-Czech terms in one field, that of automobiling:

The divagations of a single loan-word are often very interesting. Consider, for example,
bečlář
(bachelor), pronounced
batchelartch
. It also appears as
bečlák
, apparently under the influence of the notion that
-or
is an agent termination, and there is a feminine form,
bečlárka
. When used as an adjective it becomes
bečlácký
or
beéčlář-ský
, and as a verb, meaning to cook for oneself (analogous to
to batch
), it is
béčovati
. But there are two other verbs, the first,
bečlovati
or
beclařiti
, signifying to be a bachelor, and the second,
zbečlařiti
signifying to be made a bachelor. The latter has produced a compound noun,
zbečlařeny muž
, meaning a man whose wife is away from home, and, by extension, a divorced man.
Butlegář
and
butlegr
(both forms of bootlegger) have been almost as productive. There is the noun
butleg
(bootleg), produced by back-formation, and there are the verbs
butlegovati
(to bootleg) and
butlegariti
(to be a bootlegger), the gerunds
butlegování
(bootlegging) and
but-legaření
(literally, bootleggering), and the compound
butlegářství
(the bootlegging trade). A Czech at home naturally finds this vocabulary puzzling. When a Czech version of a movie called “Man With Courage,” dealing with the life of the late Mayor Anton J. Čermak of Chicago and done by Czech-American actors in Hollywood, was exhibited in Prague, a large part of the dialogue baffled the Czech audiences, and a new recording had to be made in proper Czech.
⁹⁷

The Czechs at home also find it hard to understand the numerous translations of American phrases and idioms. They can make nothing of
bílý mezek
(white mule),
slepé prasátko
(blind pig),
filmová hvězda
(film star),
velký klacek
(big stick),
ohrivá voda
(firewater),
bledá tvář
(paleface) and
bílý otrokář
(white-slaver). The phrases that include loan-words puzzle them even more,
e.g., pro-gresivní republikán
(Progressive Republican),
politický fence
(political fences),
stŕyc Sam
(Uncle Sam),
trafiční kop
(traffic cop),
kampánní komise
(campaign committee),
instruovaná delegace
(instructed delegation), and
běžeti pro ofis
(to run for office). Many loan-words conflict in meaning with Czech words substantially identical. Thus
konvikt
, in Czech, is the house of a religious community, but in American-Czech it has the meaning of a
convict
. Similarly,
detailní
means
retail
in Czech, but
detailed
in American-Czech, and
kolej
means
rut
or
track
in Czech but
college
in Czech-American. The borrowings of most of the other immigrant languages are principally confined to the names of objects and acts unknown in the Old Country, and to current slang. But American-Czech, through the influence of the journalists and lecturers mentioned by Monsignor Dudek, has also taken in many somewhat pretentious words,
e.g., bakalářství
(baccalaureate),
bakalář
(bachelor of arts),
šaráda
(charade),
komercni
(commercial traveler),
kooperace
(coöperation),
decentralisace
(decentralization), and
delikt
(delinquency).

In 1930 there were 491,638 persons of Czech birth in the United States, 707,384 born in this country of Czech parentage, and 183,057 born here of partly Czech parentage, or 1,382,079 in all. Of those of Czech birth, 201,138 reported that their mother-tongue was Czech, and 240,196 that it was Slovak. The two languages are mutually intelligible, but they nevertheless differ considerably. The Czechs, says Monsignor Dudek, are scattered through virtually all the States of the Union. The largest colonies are in Illinois and Pennsylvania, with about 65,000 each. In Chicago alone there are 50,000 Czechs, and in 1931 one of them was elected mayor. They have nearly fifty publications in the United States, including six daily newspapers.
⁹⁸

As I have just noted, Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible, though by no means identical. Indeed, all the Slavonic languages are very closely allied, and the marked differences which, in Western Europe, separate English from German and French from Spanish are not encountered. It has been said that “a peasant from Slovakia, which enjoys the benefit of a central position in the Slavonic territory, is understood by a Slav from any other country.”
⁹⁹
So far as I am aware, there is no printed study of the mutations of Slovak in
this country, but Mr. James R. Istochin of Omaha, Neb., has kindly supplied me with the following notes: