Friday, April 15, 2016

Czechia

Welcome to Czechia!  The government has made the official English short name for the country Czechia.  The country's long name is still Czech Republic.

In the Czech language, Česko means Bohemia.  But it is the official short name for all of the Czech lands - Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.

The problem is that there is not a common short name in English.  The French Republic has France as its short name.  The Russian Federation is known as Russia.  The Hellenic Republic is better known as Greece.

After the break up of Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks seem to have gotten the name thing right.  The long name is Slovak Republic and the short name is Slovakia.  The same pattern used here is the long name being Czech Republic with Czechia as the short name.

In English, Czechia just doesn't roll of the tongue.  The concern is that it sounds a lot like the Russian semi-autonomous Republic of Chechnya.

The Czech government as also made Tschechien the official short name in German and in French it is Tchéquie.

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