Have you ever thought — how to judge the beauty of a language?
Whenever we look at something beautiful, we exclaim — “Wow, what a beauty!”
Don’t we?
It is said that the beauty of something lies in the eyes of the beholder. But have you ever thought — how to judge the beauty of a language?
Though I have many sweet memories of what I saw in Czechoslovakia during the sixties — it is the beauty of the Czech language that impressed me more than anything else.
Though we may judge how powerful a language is based on the extent of the precision with which it lets us express our thoughts, our ideas, our intuitions and our instincts — we may judge the extent of its beauty only by examining the system of the etymology of its words.
It would not be wrong to say that we can rate the beauty of a country not just based on its landscape and its topography or the architectural beauty of its ancient and the modern buildings but based on even the beauty of its language, the beauty of its culture and the beauty of its legacy.
Let me begin with — describing the beauty of the language of the Czech Republic.
The beauty of the Czech language based on the etymology of the Czech words
Actually, I love the Czech language because of the beauty of the etymological system used by the people who should have developed this language.
Even you would get bewitched by the beauty of the etymological system used by the founders of this language.
For instance, let us talk about the etymology of the following words derived from the word “Lék” — the Czech word for “Medicine” or “Drug”.
(i) Lékarna — the Czech word for “Pharmacy”.
(ii) Lékař — the Czech word for “Male Doctor”.
(iii) Lékařka — the Czech word for “Lady Doctor”.
(iv) Lékarnice — the Czech word for “Pharmacies”.
(v) Lékárník — the Czech word for “Male Chemist” or “Male Pharmacist”.
(vi) Lékáři — the Czech word for “Practitioners”.
(vii) Lékárníčka — the Czech word for “Lady Pharmacist”.
(viii) Lékopis — the Czech word for “Pharmacopoeia” or a “Prescription”.
(ix) Lékářská/Lékařský — the Czech word for “Medical”.
(x) Lékarnictví — the Czech word for “Pharmaceutics”.
(xi) Lékařství — the Czech word for “Medicine”.
(xii) Lékařnička — the Czech word for “First-aid Kit”.
(xiii) Lékařská Vĕda — the Czech word for “Medical Science”.
(xiv) Lékářská Pohotovost — the Czech word for “Medical Emergency”.
Have you noticed what is so beautiful about it?
What can be more beautiful about it than the fact that if you know what is meant by the word “Lék” — you can make out even what is implied by all other words in quite a contrast to the English Words, written side by side?
It is this feature of the Czech language that makes it so much — fascinating.
We simply get enthralled by the beauty of the language looking at the manner in which all related words line up in a row like cousins.
We may also see the beauty of the etymology of this language from the following words:
(i) Moc — the Czech word for “Strength”.
(ii) Nemoc — the Czech word for “Disease”.
(iii) Nemocnice — the Czech word for “Hospital”.
(iv) Nemocný Človĕk — the Czech word for “Patient”.
But as if it is not enough.
Look at the beauty of even its grammar.
The same adjective may have as many as 14 declensions based on the gender, based on the singularity or the plurality and the case, as shown below.
Look at various declensions of the adjective “Mladý” — the Czech word for “Young”, for instance.
It is quite another issue whether we call it a prop or not but its beauty lies in its so close resemblance with the grammar of the Sanskrit language.
It gives us an impression as if these languages may be sister-languages.
Various declensions of the adjective “Mladý”
The following table presents the beauty of its grammar, in its full flam.
But incidentally, the fact that in English — we don’t have any declensions as in this language and the absence of any accents and diacritics the alphabets such as á, č, é, í, ř, š, ů, ü, ý and ž have in the Czech, French and the German language; has emerged as a blessing in disguise for it ever since we have started typing words using a keyboard on the computers and the mobile phones — since it makes for a very easy-to-use type of keyboard as compared to the type of the keyboards we have to use for the languages which employ so many accents and diacritics.
The same is the case with the type of keyboard we need for typing even for the Hindi words which also has numerous accents and diacritics.
Hindi is also as beautiful a language as the Czech language so far as the beauty of the system of etymology is concerned.
For instance, look at the etymology of the Hindi word “Bhagwan”.
This is how we call “God” in Hindi.
In Czech we have “Bůh”, in French we have “Dieu”, in German we have “Gott” and “Dio” in Italian — for “God”.
The word “Bhagwan” has in its lap a word “Bhagwa” which is the Hindi word for the colour of “Ochre” which is regarded as the colour of maximum piety among Hindus.
But none of the words “God”, “Bůh”, “Dieu”, “Gott” or “Dio” have so distinctive etymology as in case of the word “Bhagwan”.
I may quote one more Hindi word “Bhoogol” of the same ilk.
It is the Hindi word corresponding to “Geography”.
While the word “Geography” embowels the prefix “Geo”; the word “Bhoogol” embowels the words “Bhoo” which is the Hindi word for the “Earth” and the word “Gol” which is the Hindi word for “Round”.
Obviously, etymology-wise, the word “Bhoogol” gets an edge over the etymology of the word “Geography” since it tells about even the shape of the Earth that it is of a round shape.
So, now, you know — how to look for the beauty of a language.
Go ahead and check, how beautiful is your language vis-à-vis any other language — you may like to compare it with.
Na Shledanou! [1]
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[1] “Na Shledanou” is the Czech word for “Good-bye”. The beauty of this word lies in what it conveys. It conveys “Till we meet again!”, which leaves us thrilled the moment someone wishes us this way — the way, the Czechs wish “Good Bye” to each other. It is better than even “Sayonara” which conveys, “If it is to be that way!”