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Czech language

Czech (čeština ), historically also known as Bohemian (lingua Bohemica), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of high mutual intelligibility, as well as to Polish to a lesser degree. Czech is a fusional language with a rich system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German.

The Czech–Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the high medieval period, and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech–Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the modern written standard became codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The most widely spoken non-standard variety, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, but is now spoken as an interdialect throughout most of Bohemia. The Moravian dialects spoken in Moravia and Czech Silesia are considerably more varied than the dialects of Bohemia.

Czech has a moderately-sized phoneme inventory, comprising ten monophthongs, three diphthongs and 25 consonants (divided into "hard", "neutral" and "soft" categories). Words may contain complicated consonant clusters or lack vowels altogether. Czech has a raised alveolar trill, which is known to occur as a phoneme in only a few other languages, represented by the grapheme ř.

Classification

Czech is a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. This branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is the most closely related language to Czech, followed by Polish and Silesian.

The West Slavic languages are spoken in Central Europe. Czech is distinguished from other West Slavic languages by a more-restricted distinction between "hard" and "soft" consonants (see Phonology below).

Medieval/Old Czech
The term "Old Czech" is applied to the period predating the 16th century, with the earliest records of the high medieval period also classified as "early Old Czech", but the term "Medieval Czech" is also used. The function of the written language was initially performed by Old Slavonic written in Glagolitic, later by Latin written in Latin script.

Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, settling on the eastern fringes of the Frankish Empire. The West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries. The diversification of the Czech-Slovak group within West Slavic began around that time, marked among other things by its use of the voiced velar fricative consonant (/ɣ/) and consistent stress on the first syllable.

The Bohemian (Czech) language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the late 13th and early 14th century and administrative documents first appear towards the late 14th century. The first complete Bible translation, the Leskovec-Dresden Bible, also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were also produced outside universities.

Literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. Jan Hus contributed significantly to the standardization of Czech orthography, advocated for widespread literacy among Czech commoners (particularly in religion) and made early efforts to model written Czech after the spoken language.

Early Modern Czech
There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century. In the 16th century, the division between Czech and Slovak becomes apparent, marking the confessional division between Lutheran Protestants in Slovakia using Czech orthography and Catholics, especially Slovak Jesuits, beginning to use a separate Slovak orthography based on Western Slovak dialects.

The publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 (the first complete Czech translation of the Bible from the original languages) became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries as it was used as a model for the standard language.

In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the only official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt (of predominantly Protestant aristocracy) which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620, the Protestant intellectuals had to leave the country. This emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years' War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, especially among the upper classes.

Modern Czech

The modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. By then the language had developed a literary tradition, and since then it has changed little; journals from that period have no substantial differences from modern standard Czech, and contemporary Czechs can understand them with little difficulty. Sometime before the 18th century, the Czech language abandoned a distinction between phonemic /l/ and /ʎ/ which survives in Slovak.

With the beginning of the national revival of the mid-18th century, Czech historians began to emphasize their people's accomplishments from the 15th through the 17th centuries, rebelling against the Counter-Reformation (the Habsburg re-catholization efforts which had denigrated Czech and other non-Latin languages). Czech philologists studied sixteenth-century texts, advocating the return of the language to high culture. This period is known as the Czech National Revival (or Renaissance).

During the national revival, in 1809 linguist and historian Josef Dobrovský released a German-language grammar of Old Czech entitled Ausführliches Lehrgebäude der böhmischen Sprache ('Comprehensive Doctrine of the Bohemian Language'). Dobrovský had intended his book to be descriptive, and did not think Czech had a realistic chance of returning as a major language. However, Josef Jungmann and other revivalists used Dobrovský's book to advocate for a Czech linguistic revival. Changes during this time included spelling reform (notably, í in place of the former j and j in place of g), the use of t (rather than ti) to end infinitive verbs and the non-capitalization of nouns (which had been a late borrowing from German). These changes differentiated Czech from Slovak. Modern scholars disagree about whether the conservative revivalists were motivated by nationalism or considered contemporary spoken Czech unsuitable for formal, widespread use.

Adherence to historical patterns was later relaxed and standard Czech adopted a number of features from Common Czech (a widespread, informally used interdialectal variety), such as leaving some proper nouns undeclined. This has resulted in a relatively high level of homogeneity among all varieties of the language.

Geographic distribution
Czech is spoken by about 10 million residents of the Czech Republic. A Eurobarometer survey conducted from January to March 2012 found that the first language of 98 percent of Czech citizens was Czech, the third-highest proportion of a population in the European Union (behind Greece and Hungary).

As the official language of the Czech Republic (a member of the European Union since 2004), Czech is one of the EU's official languages and the 2012 Eurobarometer survey found that Czech was the foreign language most often used in Slovakia. Economist Jonathan van Parys collected data on language knowledge in Europe for the 2012 European Day of Languages. The five countries with the greatest use of Czech were the Czech Republic (98.77 percent), Slovakia (24.86 percent), Portugal (1.93 percent), Poland (0.98 percent) and Germany (0.47 percent).

Czech speakers in Slovakia primarily live in cities. Since it is a recognized minority language in Slovakia, Slovak citizens who speak only Czech may communicate with the government in their language to the extent that Slovak speakers in the Czech Republic may do so.

United States
Immigration of Czechs from Europe to the United States occurred primarily from 1848 to 1914. Czech is a Less Commonly Taught Language in U.S. schools, and is taught at Czech heritage centers. Large communities of Czech Americans live in the states of Texas, Nebraska and Wisconsin. In the 2000 United States Census, Czech was reported as the commonest language spoken at home (besides English) in Valley, Butler and Saunders Counties, Nebraska and Republic County, Kansas. With the exception of Spanish (the non-English language most commonly spoken at home nationwide), Czech was the most common home language in more than a dozen additional counties in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, North Dakota and Minnesota. 70,500 Americans spoke Czech as their first language (49th place nationwide, after Turkish and before Swedish).

Vowels
Standard Czech contains ten basic vowel phonemes, and three diphthongs. The vowels are, and their long counterparts. The diphthongs are ; the last two are found only in loanwords such as auto "car" and euro "euro".

In Czech orthography, the vowels are spelled as follows:
 * Short: a, e/ě, i/y, o, u
 * Long: á, é, í/ý, ó, ú/ů
 * Diphthongs: ou, au, eu

The letter $\langleě\rangle$ indicates that the previous consonant is palatalized (e.g. něco ). After a labial it represents (e.g. běs ); but $\langlemě\rangle$ is pronounced /mɲɛ/, cf. měkký.

Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Czech and their equivalent letters in Czech orthography are as follows:

Czech consonants are categorized as "hard", "neutral", or "soft":

 * Hard:
 * Neutral:
 * Soft:

Hard consonants may not be followed by i or í in writing, or soft ones by y or ý (except in loanwords such as kilogram). Neutral consonants may take either character. Hard consonants are sometimes known as "strong", and soft ones as "weak". This distinction is also relevant to the declension patterns of nouns, which vary according to whether the final consonant of the noun stem is hard or soft.

Voiced consonants with unvoiced counterparts are unvoiced at the end of a word before a pause, and in consonant clusters voicing assimilation occurs, which matches voicing to the following consonant. The unvoiced counterpart of /ɦ/ is /x/.

The phoneme represented by the letter ř (capital Ř) is very rare among languages and often claimed to be unique to Czech, though it also occurs in some dialects of Kashubian, and formerly occurred in Polish. It represents the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill (IPA: ), a sound somewhere between Czech r and ž (example: ), and is present in Dvořák. In unvoiced environments, /r̝/ is realized as its voiceless allophone [r̝̊], a sound somewhere between Czech r and š.

The consonants can be syllabic, acting as syllable nuclei in place of a vowel. Strč prst skrz krk ("Stick [your] finger through [your] throat") is a well-known Czech tongue twister using syllabic consonants but no vowels.

Stress
Each word has primary stress on its first syllable, except for enclitics (minor, monosyllabic, unstressed syllables). In all words of more than two syllables, every odd-numbered syllable receives secondary stress. Stress is unrelated to vowel length; both long and short vowels can be stressed or unstressed. Vowels are never reduced in tone (e.g. to schwa sounds) when unstressed. When a noun is preceded by a monosyllabic preposition, the stress usually moves to the preposition, e.g. do Prahy "to Prague".

Grammar
Czech grammar, like that of other Slavic languages, is fusional; its nouns, verbs, and adjectives are inflected by phonological processes to modify their meanings and grammatical functions, and the easily separable affixes characteristic of agglutinative languages are limited. Czech inflects for case, gender and number in nouns and tense, aspect, mood, person and subject number and gender in verbs.

Parts of speech include adjectives, adverbs, numbers, interrogative words, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. Adverbs are primarily formed from adjectives by taking the final ý or í of the base form and replacing it with e, ě, y, or o. Negative statements are formed by adding the affix ne- to the main verb of a clause, with one exception: je (he, she or it is) becomes není.

Sentence and clause structure

Because Czech uses grammatical case to convey word function in a sentence (instead of relying on word order, as English does), its word order is flexible. As a pro-drop language, in Czech an intransitive sentence can consist of only a verb; information about its subject is encoded in the verb. Enclitics (primarily auxiliary verbs and pronouns) appear in the second syntactic slot of a sentence, after the first stressed unit. The first slot can contain a subject or object, a main form of a verb, an adverb, or a conjunction (except for the light conjunctions a, "and", i, "and even" or ale, "but").

Czech syntax has a subject–verb–object sentence structure. In practice, however, word order is flexible and used to distinguish topic and focus, with the topic or theme (known referents) preceding the focus or rheme (new information) in a sentence; Czech has therefore been described as a topic-prominent language. Although Czech has a periphrastic passive construction (like English), in colloquial style, word-order changes frequently replace the passive voice. For example, to change "Peter killed Paul" to "Paul was killed by Peter" the order of subject and object is inverted: Petr zabil Pavla ("Peter killed Paul") becomes "Paul, Peter killed" (Pavla zabil Petr). Pavla is in the accusative case, the grammatical object of the verb. A word at the end of a clause is typically emphasized, unless an upward intonation indicates that the sentence is a question:
 * Pes jí bagetu. – The dog eats the baguette (rather than eating something else).
 * Bagetu jí pes. – The dog eats the baguette (rather than someone else doing so).
 * Pes bagetu jí. – The dog eats the baguette (rather than doing something else to it).
 * Jí pes bagetu? – Does the dog eat the baguette? (emphasis ambiguous)

In parts of Bohemia (including Prague), questions such as Jí pes bagetu? without an interrogative word (such as co, "what" or kdo, "who") are intoned in a slow rise from low to high, quickly dropping to low on the last word or phrase.

In modern Czech syntax, adjectives precede nouns, with few exceptions. Relative clauses are introduced by relativizers such as the adjective který, analogous to the English relative pronouns "which", "that" and "who"/"whom". As with other adjectives, it agrees with its associated noun in gender, number and case. Relative clauses follow the noun they modify. The following is a glossed example:

Chc-i navštív-it universit-u, na kter-ou chod-í Jan.

want-1SG visit-INF university-SG.ACC, on which-SG.F.ACC attend-3SG John.SG.NOM

I want to visit the university that John attends.

Declension
In Czech, nouns and adjectives are declined into one of seven grammatical cases which indicate their function in a sentence, two numbers (singular and plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). The masculine gender is further divided into animate and inanimate classes.

Case
A nominative–accusative language, Czech marks subject nouns of transitive and intransitive verbs in the nominative case, which is the form found in dictionaries, and direct objects of transitive verbs are declined in the accusative case. The vocative case is used to address people. The remaining cases (genitive, dative, locative and instrumental) indicate semantic relationships, such as noun adjuncts (genitive), indirect objects (dative), or agents in passive constructions (instrumental). Additionally prepositions and some verbs require their complements to be declined in a certain case. The locative case is only used after prepositions. An adjective's case agrees with that of the noun it modifies. When Czech children learn their language's declension patterns, the cases are referred to by number:

Some prepositions require the nouns they modify to take a particular case. The cases assigned by each preposition are based on the physical (or metaphorical) direction, or location, conveyed by it. For example, od (from, away from) and z (out of, off) assign the genitive case. Other prepositions take one of several cases, with their meaning dependent on the case; na means "onto" or "for" with the accusative case, but "on" with the locative.

This is a glossed example of a sentence using several cases:

Nes-l js-em krabic-i do dom-u se sv-ým přítel-em.

carry-SG.M.PST be-1.SG box-SG.ACC into house-SG.GEN with own-SG.INS friend-SG.INS

I carried the box into the house with my friend.

Gender
Czech distinguishes three genders—masculine, feminine, and neuter—and the masculine gender is subdivided into animate and inanimate. With few exceptions, feminine nouns in the nominative case end in -a, -e, or a consonant; neuter nouns in -o, -e, or -í, and masculine nouns in a consonant. Adjectives, participles, most pronouns, and the numbers "one" and "two" are marked for gender and agree with the gender of the noun they modify or refer to. Past tense verbs are also marked for gender, agreeing with the gender of the subject, e.g. dělal (he did, or made); dělala (she did, or made) and dělalo (it did, or made). Gender also plays a semantic role; most nouns that describe people and animals, including personal names, have separate masculine and feminine forms which are normally formed by adding a suffix to the stem, for example Čech (Czech man) has the feminine form Češka (Czech woman).

Nouns of different genders follow different declension patterns. Examples of declension patterns for noun phrases of various genders follow:

Number
Nouns are also inflected for number, distinguishing between singular and plural. Typical of a Slavic language, Czech cardinal numbers one through four allow the nouns and adjectives they modify to take any case, but numbers over five require subject and direct object noun phrases to be declined in the genitive plural instead of the nominative or accusative, and when used as subjects these phrases take singular verbs. For example:

Numbers decline for case, and the numbers one and two are also inflected for gender. Numbers one through five are shown below as examples. The number one has declension patterns identical to those of the demonstrative pronoun ten.

Although Czech's grammatical numbers are singular and plural, several residuals of dual forms remain, such as the words dva ("two") and oba ("both"), which decline the same way. Some nouns for paired body parts use a historical dual form to express plural in some cases: ruka (hand)—ruce (nominative); noha (leg)—nohama (instrumental), nohou (genitive/locative); oko (eye)—oči, and ucho (ear)—uši. While two of these nouns are neuter in their singular forms, all plural forms are considered feminine; their gender is relevant to their associated adjectives and verbs. These forms are plural semantically, used for any non-singular count, as in mezi čtyřma očima (face to face, lit. among four eyes). The plural number paradigms of these nouns are a mixture of historical dual and plural forms. For example, nohy (legs; nominative/accusative) is a standard plural form of this type of noun.

Verb conjugation
Czech verbs agree with their subjects in person (first, second or third), number (singular or plural), and in constructions involving participles, which includes the past tense, also in gender. They are conjugated for tense (past, present or future) and mood (indicative, imperative or conditional). For example, the conjugated verb mluvíme (we speak) is in the present tense and first-person plural; it is distinguished from other conjugations of the infinitive mluvit by its ending, -íme. The infinitive form of Czech verbs ends in -t (archaically, -ti or -ci). It is the form found in dictionaries and the form that follows auxiliary verbs (for example, můžu tě slyšet—"I can hear you").

Aspect
Typical of Slavic languages, Czech marks its verbs for one of two grammatical aspects: perfective and imperfective. Most verbs are part of inflected aspect pairs—for example, koupit (perfective) and kupovat (imperfective). Although the verbs' meaning is similar, in perfective verbs the action is completed and in imperfective verbs it is ongoing or repeated. This is distinct from past and present tense. Any verb of either aspect can be conjugated into either the past or present tense, but the future tense is only used with imperfective verbs. Aspect describes the state of the action at the time specified by the tense.

The verbs of most aspect pairs differ in one of two ways: by prefix or by suffix. In prefix pairs, the perfective verb has an added prefix—for example, the imperfective psát (to write, to be writing) compared with the perfective napsat (to write down). The most common prefixes are na-, o-, po-, s-, u-, vy-, z- and za-. In suffix pairs, a different infinitive ending is added to the perfective stem; for example, the perfective verbs koupit (to buy) and prodat (to sell) have the imperfective forms kupovat and prodávat. Imperfective verbs may undergo further morphology to make other imperfective verbs (iterative and frequentative forms), denoting repeated or regular action. The verb jít (to go) has the iterative form chodit (to go regularly) and the frequentative form chodívat (to go occasionally; to tend to go).

Many verbs have only one aspect, and verbs describing continual states of being—být (to be), chtít (to want), moct (to be able to), ležet (to lie down, to be lying down)—have no perfective form. Conversely, verbs describing immediate states of change—for example, otěhotnět (to become pregnant) and nadchnout se (to become enthusiastic)—have no imperfective aspect.

Tense
The present tense in Czech is formed by adding an ending that agrees with the person and number of the subject at the end of the verb stem. As Czech is a null-subject language, the subject pronoun can be omitted unless it is needed for clarity. The past tense is formed using a participle which ends in -l and a further ending which agrees with the gender and number of the subject. For the first and second persons, the auxiliary verb být conjugated in the present tense is added.

In some contexts, the present tense of perfective verbs (which differs from the English present perfect) implies future action; in others, it connotes habitual action. The perfective present is used to refer to completion of actions in the future and is distinguished from the imperfective future tense, which refers to actions that will be ongoing in the future. The future tense is regularly formed using the future conjugation of být (as shown in the table on the left) and the infinitive of an imperfective verb, for example, budu jíst—"I will eat" or "I will be eating". Where budu has a noun or adjective complement it means "I will be", for example, budu šťastný (I will be happy). Some verbs of movement form their future tense by adding the prefix po- to the present tense forms instead, e.g. jedu ("I go") > pojedu ("I will go").

Mood
Czech verbs have three grammatical moods: indicative, imperative and conditional. The imperative mood is formed by adding specific endings for each of three person–number categories: -Ø/-i/-ej for second-person singular, -te/-ete/-ejte for second-person plural and -me/-eme/-ejme for first-person plural. Imperatives are usually expressed using perfective verbs if positive and imperfective verbs if negative. The conditional mood is formed with a conditional auxiliary verb after the participle ending in -l which is used to form the past tense. This mood indicates hypothetical events and can also be used to express wishes.

Verb classes
Most Czech verbs fall into one of five classes, which determine their conjugation patterns. The future tense of být would be classified as a Class I verb because of its endings. Examples of the present tense of each class and some common irregular verbs follow in the tables below:

Orthography

Czech has one of the most phonemic orthographies of all European languages. Its alphabet contains 42 graphemes, most of which correspond to individual phonemes, and only contains only one digraph: ch, which follows h in the alphabet. The characters q, w and x appear only in foreign words. The háček (ˇ) is used with certain letters to form new characters: š, ž, and č, as well as ň, ě, ř, ť, and ď (the latter five uncommon outside Czech). The last two letters are sometimes written with a comma above (ʼ, an abbreviated háček) because of their height. Czech orthography has influenced the orthographies of other Balto-Slavic languages and some of its characters have been adopted for transliteration of Cyrillic.

Czech orthography reflects vowel length; long vowels are indicated by an acute accent or, in the case of the character ů, a ring. Long u is usually written ú at the beginning of a word or morpheme (úroda, neúrodný) and ů elsewhere, except for loanwords (skútr) or onomatopoeia (bú). Long vowels and ě are not considered separate letters in the alphabetical order. The character ó exists only in loanwords and onomatopoeia.

Czech typographical features not associated with phonetics generally resemble those of most European languages that use the Latin script, including English. Proper nouns, honorifics, and the first letters of quotations are capitalized, and punctuation is typical of other Latin European languages. Ordinal numbers (1st) use a point, as in German (1.). The Czech language uses a decimal comma instead of a decimal point. When writing a long number, spaces between every three digits, including those in decimal places, may be used for better orientation in handwritten texts. The number 1,234,567.89101 may be written as 1234567,89101 or 1 234 567,891 01. In proper noun phrases (except personal and settlement names), only the first word and proper nouns inside such phrases are capitalized (Pražský hrad, Prague Castle).

Varieties
The modern literary standard and prestige variety, known as "Standard Czech" (spisovná čeština) is based on the standardization during the Czech National Revival in the 1830s, significantly influenced by Josef Jungmann's Czech–German dictionary published during 1834–1839. Jungmann used vocabulary of the Bible of Kralice (1579–1613) period and of the language used by his contemporaries. He borrowed words not present in Czech from other Slavic languages or created neologisms. Standard Czech is the formal register of the language which is used in official documents, formal literature, newspaper articles, education and occasionally public speeches. It is codified by the Czech Language Institute, who publish occasional reforms to the codification. The most recent reform took place in 1993. The term hovorová čeština (lit. "Colloquial Czech") is sometimes used to refer to the spoken variety of standard Czech.

The most widely spoken vernacular form of the language is called "Common Czech" (obecná čeština), an interdialect influenced by spoken Standard Czech and the Central Bohemian dialects of the Prague region. Other Bohemian regional dialects have become marginalized, while Moravian dialects remain more widespread and diverse, with a political movement for Moravian linguistic revival active since the 1990s.

These varieties of the language (Standard Czech, spoken/colloquial Standard Czech, Common Czech, and regional dialects) form a stylistic continuum, in which contact between varieties of a similar prestige influences change within them.

Common Czech
The main Czech vernacular, spoken primarily in Bohemia including the capital Prague, is known as Common Czech (obecná čeština). This is an academic distinction; most Czechs are unaware of the term or associate it with deformed or "incorrect" Czech. Compared to Standard Czech, Common Czech is characterized by simpler inflection patterns and differences in sound distribution.

Common Czech is distinguished from spoken/colloquial Standard Czech (hovorová čeština), which is a stylistic variety within standard Czech. Tomasz Kamusella defines the spoken variety of Standard Czech as a compromise between Common Czech and the written standard, while Miroslav Komárek calls Common Czech an intersection of spoken Standard Czech and regional dialects.

Common Czech has become ubiquitous in most parts of the Czech Republic since the later 20th century. It is usually defined as an interdialect used in common speech in Bohemia and western parts of Moravia (by about two thirds of all inhabitants of the Czech Republic). Common Czech is not codified, but some of its elements have become adopted in the written standard. Since the second half of the 20th century, Common Czech elements have also been spreading to regions previously unaffected, as a consequence of media influence. Standard Czech is still the norm for politicians, businesspeople and other Czechs in formal situations, but Common Czech is gaining ground in journalism and the mass media. The colloquial form of Standard Czech finds limited use in daily communication due to the expansion of the Common Czech interdialect. It is sometimes defined as a theoretical construct rather than an actual tool of colloquial communication, since in casual contexts, the non-standard interdialect is preferred.

Common Czech phonology is based on that of the Central Bohemian dialect group, which has a slightly different set of vowel phonemes to Standard Czech. The phoneme /ɛː/ is peripheral and usually merges with /iː/, e.g. in malý město (small town), plamínek (little flame) and lítat (to fly), and a second native diphthong /ɛɪ̯/ occurs, usually in places where Standard Czech has /iː/, e.g. malej dům (small house), mlejn (mill), plejtvat (to waste), bejt (to be). In addition, a prothetic v- is added to most words beginning o-, such as votevřít vokno (to open the window).

Non-standard morphological features that are more or less common among all Common Czech speakers include:
 * unified plural endings of adjectives: malý lidi (small people), malý ženy (small women), malý města (small towns) – standard: malí lidé, malé ženy, malá města;
 * unified instrumental ending -ma in plural: s těma dobrejma lidma, ženama, chlapama, městama (with the good people, women, guys, towns) – standard: s těmi dobrými lidmi, ženami, chlapy, městy. In essence, this form resembles the form of the dual, which was once a productive form, but now is almost extinct and retained in a lexically specific set of words. In Common Czech the ending became productive again around the 17th century, but used as a substitute for a regular plural form.
 * omission of the syllabic -l in the masculine ending of past tense verbs: řek (he said), moh (he could), pích (he pricked) – standard: řekl, mohl, píchl.
 * tendency of merging the locative singular masculine/neuter for adjectives with the instrumental by changing the locative ending -ém to -ým and then shortening the vowel: mladém (standard locative), mladým (standard instrumental) > mladým (Common Czech locative), mladym (Common Czech instrumental) > mladym (Common Czech locative/instrumental with shortening).

Examples of declension (Standard Czech is added in italics for comparison):

mladý člověk – young man/person, mladí lidé – young people, mladý stát – young state, mladá žena – young woman, mladé zvíře – young animal

Bohemian dialects

Apart from the Common Czech vernacular, there remain a variety of other Bohemian dialects, mostly in marginal rural areas. Dialect use began to weaken in the second half of the 20th century, and by the early 1990s regional dialect use was stigmatized, associated with the shrinking lower class and used in literature or other media for comedic effect. Increased travel and media availability to dialect-speaking populations has encouraged them to shift to (or add to their own dialect) Standard Czech.

The Czech Statistical Office in 2003 recognized the following Bohemian dialects:
 * Nářečí středočeská (Central Bohemian dialects)
 * Nářečí jihozápadočeská (Southwestern Bohemian dialects)
 * Podskupina chodská (Chod subgroup)
 * Podskupina doudlebská (Doudleby subgroup)

 * Nářečí severovýchodočeská (Northeastern Bohemian dialects)
 * Podskupina podkrknošská (Krkonoše subgroup)

Moravian dialects
The Czech dialects spoken in Moravia and Silesia are known as Moravian (moravština). In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, "Bohemian-Moravian-Slovak" was a language citizens could register as speaking (with German, Polish and several others). In the 2011 census, where respondents could optionally specify up to two first languages, 62,908 Czech citizens specified Moravian as their first language and 45,561 specified both Moravian and Czech.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, some varieties of Czech resembled Slovak; the southeastern Moravian dialects form a continuum between the Czech and Slovak languages, using the same declension patterns for nouns and pronouns and the same verb conjugations as Slovak.

A popular misconception holds that eastern Moravian dialects are closer to Slovak than Czech, but this is incorrect; in fact, the opposite is true, and certain dialects in far western Slovakia exhibit features more akin to standard Czech than to standard Slovak.

The Czech Statistical Office in 2003 recognized the following Moravian dialects:
 * Nářečí českomoravská (Bohemian–Moravian dialects)
 * Nářečí středomoravská (Central Moravian dialects)
 * Podskupina tišnovská (Tišnov subgroup)

 * Nářečí východomoravská (Eastern Moravian dialects)
 * Podskupina slovácká (Moravian Slovak subgroup)
 * Podskupina valašská (Moravian Wallachian subgroup)

 * Nářečí slezská (Silesian dialects)

Sample
In a 1964 textbook on Czech dialectology, Břetislav Koudela used the following sentence to highlight phonetic differences between dialects:

Mutual intelligibility with Slovak
Czech and Slovak have been considered mutually intelligible; speakers of either language can communicate with greater ease than those of any other pair of West Slavic languages. Following the 1993 dissolution of Czechoslovakia, mutual intelligibility declined for younger speakers, probably because Czech speakers began to experience less exposure to Slovak and vice versa. A 2015 study involving participants with a mean age of around 23 nonetheless concluded that there remained a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages. Grammatically, both languages share a common syntax.

One study showed that Czech and Slovak lexicons differed by 80 percent, but this high percentage was found to stem primarily from differing orthographies and slight inconsistencies in morphological formation; Slovak morphology is more regular (when changing from the nominative to the locative case, Praha becomes Praze in Czech and Prahe in Slovak). The two lexicons are generally considered similar, with most differences found in colloquial vocabulary and some scientific terminology. Slovak has slightly more borrowed words than Czech.

The similarities between Czech and Slovak led to the languages being considered a single language by a group of 19th-century scholars who called themselves "Czechoslavs" (Čechoslované), believing that the peoples were connected in a way which excluded German Bohemians and (to a lesser extent) Hungarians and other Slavs. During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), although "Czechoslovak" was designated as the republic's official language, both Czech and Slovak written standards were used. Standard written Slovak was partially modeled on literary Czech, and Czech was preferred for some official functions in the Slovak half of the republic. Czech influence on Slovak was protested by Slovak scholars, and when Slovakia broke off from Czechoslovakia in 1938 as the Slovak State (which then aligned with Nazi Germany in World War II), literary Slovak was deliberately distanced from Czech. When the Axis powers lost the war and Czechoslovakia reformed, Slovak developed somewhat on its own (with Czech influence); during the Prague Spring of 1968, Slovak gained independence from (and equality with) Czech, due to the transformation of Czechoslovakia from a unitary state to a federation. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, "Czechoslovak" has referred to improvised pidgins of the languages which have arisen from the decrease in mutual intelligibility.

Vocabulary
Czech vocabulary derives primarily from Slavic, Baltic and other Indo-European roots. Although most verbs have Balto-Slavic origins, pronouns, prepositions and some verbs have wider, Indo-European roots. Some loanwords have been restructured by folk etymology to resemble native Czech words (e.g. hřbitov, "graveyard" and listina, "list").

Most Czech loanwords originated in one of two time periods. Earlier loanwords, primarily from German, Greek and Latin, arrived before the Czech National Revival. More recent loanwords derive primarily from English and French, and also from Hebrew, Arabic and Persian. Many Russian loanwords, principally animal names and naval terms, also exist in Czech.

Although older German loanwords were colloquial, recent borrowings from other languages are associated with high culture. During the nineteenth century, words with Greek and Latin roots were rejected in favor of those based on older Czech words and common Slavic roots; "music" is muzyka in Polish and музыка (muzyka) in Russian, but in Czech it is hudba. Some Czech words have been borrowed as loanwords into English and other languages—for example, robot (from robota, "labor") and polka (from polka, "Polish woman" or from "půlka" "half").

Example text
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Czech:
 * Všichni lidé rodí se svobodní a sobě rovní co do důstojnosti a práv. Jsou nadáni rozumem a svědomím a mají spolu jednat v duchu bratrství.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
 * All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

title: Czech language


text:
Capsid

A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or may not correspond to individual proteins, are called capsomeres. The proteins making up the capsid are called capsid proteins or viral coat proteins (VCP). The capsid and inner genome is called the nucleocapsid.

Capsids are broadly classified according to their structure. The majority of the viruses have capsids with either helical or icosahedral structure. Some viruses, such as bacteriophages, have developed more complicated structures due to constraints of elasticity and electrostatics. The icosahedral shape, which has 20 equilateral triangular faces, approximates a sphere, while the helical shape resembles the shape of a spring, taking the space of a cylinder but not being a cylinder itself. The capsid faces may consist of one or more proteins. For example, the foot-and-mouth disease virus capsid has faces consisting of three proteins named VP1–3.

Some viruses are enveloped, meaning that the capsid is coated with a lipid membrane known as the viral envelope. The envelope is acquired by the capsid from an intracellular membrane in the virus' host; examples include the inner nuclear membrane, the Golgi membrane, and the cell's outer membrane.

Once the virus has infected a cell and begins replicating itself, new capsid subunits are synthesized using the protein biosynthesis mechanism of the cell. In some viruses, including those with helical capsids and especially those with RNA genomes, the capsid proteins co-assemble with their genomes. In other viruses, especially more complex viruses with double-stranded DNA genomes, the capsid proteins assemble into empty precursor procapsids that include a specialized portal structure at one vertex. Through this portal, viral DNA is translocated into the capsid.

Structural analyses of major capsid protein (MCP) architectures have been used to categorise viruses into lineages. For example, the bacteriophage PRD1, the algal virus Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus-1 (PBCV-1), mimivirus and the mammalian adenovirus have been placed in the same lineage, whereas tailed, double-stranded DNA bacteriophages (Caudovirales) and herpesvirus belong to a second lineage.

Icosahedral
The icosahedral structure is extremely common among viruses. The icosahedron consists of 20 triangular faces delimited by 12 fivefold vertexes and consists of 60 asymmetric units. Thus, an icosahedral virus is made of 60N protein subunits. The number and arrangement of capsomeres in an icosahedral capsid can be classified using the "quasi-equivalence principle" proposed by Donald Caspar and Aaron Klug. Like the Goldberg polyhedra, an icosahedral structure can be regarded as being constructed from pentamers and hexamers. The structures can be indexed by two integers h and k, with $$h \ge 1$$ and $$k \ge 0$$; the structure can be thought of as taking h steps from the edge of a pentamer, turning 60 degrees counterclockwise, then taking k steps to get to the next pentamer. The triangulation number T for the capsid is defined as:
 * $$ T = h^2 + h \cdot k + k^2 $$

In this scheme, icosahedral capsids contain 12 pentamers plus 10(T − 1) hexamers. The T-number is representative of the size and complexity of the capsids. Geometric examples for many values of h, k, and T can be found at List of geodesic polyhedra and Goldberg polyhedra.

Many exceptions to this rule exist: For example, the polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses have pentamers instead of hexamers in hexavalent positions on a quasi T = 7 lattice. Members of the double-stranded RNA virus lineage, including reovirus, rotavirus and bacteriophage φ6 have capsids built of 120 copies of capsid protein, corresponding to a T = 2 capsid, or arguably a T = 1 capsid with a dimer in the asymmetric unit. Similarly, many small viruses have a pseudo T = 3 (or P = 3) capsid, which is organized according to a T = 3 lattice, but with distinct polypeptides occupying the three quasi-equivalent positions

T-numbers can be represented in different ways, for example T = 1 can only be represented as an icosahedron or a dodecahedron and, depending on the type of quasi-symmetry, T = 3 can be presented as a truncated dodecahedron, an icosidodecahedron, or a truncated icosahedron and their respective duals a triakis icosahedron, a rhombic triacontahedron, or a pentakis dodecahedron.

Prolate
An elongated icosahedron is a common shape for the heads of bacteriophages. Such a structure is composed of a cylinder with a cap at either end. The cylinder is composed of 10 elongated triangular faces. The Q number (or Tmid), which can be any positive integer, specifies the number of triangles, composed of asymmetric subunits, that make up the 10 triangles of the cylinder. The caps are classified by the T (or Tend) number.

The bacterium E. coli is the host for bacteriophage T4 that has a prolate head structure. The bacteriophage encoded gp31 protein appears to be functionally homologous to E. coli chaperone protein GroES and able to substitute for it in the assembly of bacteriophage T4 virions during infection. Like GroES, gp31 forms a stable complex with GroEL chaperonin that is absolutely necessary for the folding and assembly in vivo of the bacteriophage T4 major capsid protein gp23.

Helical

Many rod-shaped and filamentous plant viruses have capsids with helical symmetry. The helical structure can be described as a set of n 1-D molecular helices related by an n-fold axial symmetry. The helical transformation are classified into two categories: one-dimensional and two-dimensional helical systems. Creating an entire helical structure relies on a set of translational and rotational matrices which are coded in the protein data bank. Helical symmetry is given by the formula P = μ x ρ, where μ is the number of structural units per turn of the helix, ρ is the axial rise per unit and P is the pitch of the helix. The structure is said to be open due to the characteristic that any volume can be enclosed by varying the length of the helix. The most understood helical virus is the tobacco mosaic virus. The virus is a single molecule of (+) strand RNA. Each coat protein on the interior of the helix bind three nucleotides of the RNA genome. Influenza A viruses differ by comprising multiple ribonucleoproteins, the viral NP protein organizes the RNA into a helical structure. The size is also different; the tobacco mosaic virus has a 16.33 protein subunits per helical turn, while the influenza A virus has a 28 amino acid tail loop.

Functions
The functions of the capsid are to: The virus must assemble a stable, protective protein shell to protect the genome from lethal chemical and physical agents. These include extremes of pH or temperature and proteolytic and nucleolytic enzymes. For non-enveloped viruses, the capsid itself may be involved in interaction with receptors on the host cell, leading to penetration of the host cell membrane and internalization of the capsid. Delivery of the genome occurs by subsequent uncoating or disassembly of the capsid and release of the genome into the cytoplasm, or by ejection of the genome through a specialized portal structure directly into the host cell nucleus.
 * protect the genome,
 * deliver the genome, and
 * interact with the host.

Origin and evolution
It has been suggested that many viral capsid proteins have evolved on multiple occasions from functionally diverse cellular proteins. The recruitment of cellular proteins appears to have occurred at different stages of evolution so that some cellular proteins were captured and refunctionalized prior to the divergence of cellular organisms into the three contemporary domains of life, whereas others were hijacked relatively recently. As a result, some capsid proteins are widespread in viruses infecting distantly related organisms (e.g., capsid proteins with the jelly-roll fold), whereas others are restricted to a particular group of viruses (e.g., capsid proteins of alphaviruses).

A computational model (2015) has shown that capsids may have originated before viruses and that they served as a means of horizontal transfer between replicator communities since these communities could not survive if the number of gene parasites increased, with certain genes being responsible for the formation of these structures and those that favored the survival of self-replicating communities. The displacement of these ancestral genes between cellular organisms could favor the appearance of new viruses during evolution.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Capsid


text:
Chloramphenicol

Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. This includes use as an eye ointment to treat conjunctivitis. By mouth or by injection into a vein, it is used to treat meningitis, plague, cholera, and typhoid fever. Its use by mouth or by injection is only recommended when safer antibiotics cannot be used. Monitoring both blood levels of the medication and blood cell levels every two days is recommended during treatment.

Common side effects include bone marrow suppression, nausea, and diarrhea. The bone marrow suppression may result in death. To reduce the risk of side effects treatment duration should be as short as possible. People with liver or kidney problems may need lower doses. In young infants, a condition known as gray baby syndrome may occur which results in a swollen stomach and low blood pressure. Its use near the end of pregnancy and during breastfeeding is typically not recommended. Chloramphenicol is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that typically stops bacterial growth by stopping the production of proteins.

Chloramphenicol was discovered after being isolated from Streptomyces venezuelae in 1947. Its chemical structure was identified and it was first synthesized in 1949. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication.

Medical uses
The original indication of chloramphenicol was in the treatment of typhoid, but the presence of multiple drug-resistant Salmonella typhi has meant it is seldom used for this indication except when the organism is known to be sensitive.

In low-income countries, the WHO no longer recommends only chloramphenicol as first-line to treat meningitis, but recognises it may be used with caution if there are no available alternatives.

During the last decade chloramphenicol has been re-evaluated as an old agent with potential against systemic infections due to multidrug-resistant gram positive microorganisms (including vancomycin resistant enterococci). In vitro data have shown an activity against the majority (> 80%) of vancomycin resistant E. faecium strains.

In the context of preventing endophthalmitis, a complication of cataract surgery, a 2017 systematic review found moderate evidence that using chloramphenicol eye drops in addition to an antibiotic injection (cefuroxime or penicillin) will likely lower the risk of endophthalmitis, compared to eye drops or antibiotic injections alone.

Spectrum
Chloramphenicol has a broad spectrum of activity and has been effective in treating ocular infections such as conjunctivitis, blepharitis etc. caused by a number of bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli. It is not effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The following susceptibility data represent the minimum inhibitory concentration for a few medically significant organisms. Each of these concentrations is dependent upon the bacterial strain being targeted. Some strains of E coli, for example, show spontaneous emergence of chloramphenicol resistance.
 * Escherichia coli: 0.015 – 10,000 μg/mL
 * Staphylococcus aureus: 0.06 – 128 μg/mL
 * Streptococcus pneumoniae: 2 – 16 μg/mL

Resistance
Three mechanisms of resistance to chloramphenicol are known: reduced membrane permeability, mutation of the 50S ribosomal subunit, and elaboration of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. It is easy to select for reduced membrane permeability to chloramphenicol in vitro by serial passage of bacteria, and this is the most common mechanism of low-level chloramphenicol resistance. High-level resistance is conferred by the cat-gene; this gene codes for an enzyme called chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, which inactivates chloramphenicol by covalently linking one or two acetyl groups, derived from acetyl-S-coenzyme A, to the hydroxyl groups on the chloramphenicol molecule. The acetylation prevents chloramphenicol from binding to the ribosome. Resistance-conferring mutations of the 50S ribosomal subunit are rare.

Chloramphenicol resistance may be carried on a plasmid that also codes for resistance to other drugs. One example is the ACCoT plasmid (A=ampicillin, C=chloramphenicol, Co=co-trimoxazole, T=tetracycline), which mediates multiple drug resistance in typhoid (also called R factors).

As of 2014 some Enterococcus faecium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains are resistant to chloramphenicol. Some Veillonella spp. and Staphylococcus capitis strains have also developed resistance to chloramphenicol to varying degrees.

Aplastic anemia
The most serious side effect of chloramphenicol treatment is aplastic anaemia ('AA'). This effect is rare but sometimes fatal. The risk of AA is high enough that alternatives should be strongly considered. Treatments are available but expensive. No way exists to predict who may or may not suffer this side effect. The effect usually occurs weeks or months after treatment has been stopped, and a genetic predisposition may be involved. It is not known whether monitoring the blood counts of patients can prevent the development of aplastic anaemia, but patients are recommended to have a baseline blood count with a repeat blood count every few days while on treatment. Chloramphenicol should be discontinued if the complete blood count drops. The highest risk is with oral chloramphenicol (affecting 1 in 24,000–40,000) and the lowest risk occurs with eye drops (affecting less than one in 224,716 prescriptions).

Thiamphenicol, a related compound with a similar spectrum of activity, is available in Italy and China for human use, and has never been associated with aplastic anaemia. Thiamphenicol is available in the U.S. and Europe as a veterinary antibiotic, but is not approved for use in humans.

Bone marrow suppression
Chloramphenicol may cause bone marrow suppression during treatment; this is a direct toxic effect of the drug on human mitochondria. This effect manifests first as a fall in hemoglobin levels, which occurs quite predictably once a cumulative dose of 20 g has been given. The anaemia is fully reversible once the drug is stopped and does not predict future development of aplastic anaemia. Studies in mice have suggested existing marrow damage may compound any marrow damage resulting from the toxic effects of chloramphenicol.

Leukemia
Leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow, is characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells. The risk of childhood leukemia is increased, as demonstrated in a Chinese case–control study, and the risk increases with length of treatment.

Gray baby syndrome
Intravenous chloramphenicol use has been associated with the so-called gray baby syndrome. This phenomenon occurs in newborn infants because they do not yet have fully functional liver enzymes (i.e. UDP-glucuronyl transferase), so chloramphenicol remains unmetabolized in the body. This causes several adverse effects, including hypotension and cyanosis. The condition can be prevented by using the drug at the recommended doses, and monitoring blood levels.

Hypersensitivity reactions
Fever, macular and vesicular rashes, angioedema, urticaria, and anaphylaxis may occur. Herxheimer's reactions have occurred during therapy for typhoid fever.

Neurotoxic reactions
Headache, mild depression, mental confusion, and delirium have been described in patients receiving chloramphenicol. Optic and peripheral neuritis have been reported, usually following long-term therapy. If this occurs, the drug should be promptly withdrawn. It is theorized that this is caused by chloramphenicol's effects on the metabolism of B-Vitamins, specifically B-12.

Pharmacokinetics
Chloramphenicol is extremely lipid-soluble; it remains relatively unbound to protein and is a small molecule. It has a large apparent volume of distribution and penetrates effectively into all tissues of the body, including the brain. Distribution is not uniform, with highest concentrations found in the liver and kidney, with lowest in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid. The concentration achieved in brain and cerebrospinal fluid is around 30 to 50% of the overall average body concentration, even when the meninges are not inflamed; this increases to as high as 89% when the meninges are inflamed.

Chloramphenicol increases the absorption of iron.

Use in special populations
Chloramphenicol is metabolized by the liver to chloramphenicol glucuronate (which is inactive). In liver impairment, the dose of chloramphenicol must therefore be reduced. No standard dose reduction exists for chloramphenicol in liver impairment, and the dose should be adjusted according to measured plasma concentrations.

The majority of the chloramphenicol dose is excreted by the kidneys as the inactive metabolite, chloramphenicol glucuronate. Only a tiny fraction of the chloramphenicol is excreted by the kidneys unchanged. Plasma levels should be monitored in patients with renal impairment, but this is not mandatory. Chloramphenicol succinate ester (an intravenous prodrug form) is readily excreted unchanged by the kidneys, more so than chloramphenicol base, and this is the major reason why levels of chloramphenicol in the blood are much lower when given intravenously than orally. Chloramphenicol passes into breast milk, so should therefore be avoided during breast feeding, if possible.

Dose monitoring
Plasma levels of chloramphenicol must be monitored in neonates and patients with abnormal liver function. Plasma levels should be monitored in all children under the age of four, the elderly, and patients with kidney failure. Because efficacy and toxicity of chloramphenicol are associated with a maximum serum concentration, peak levels (one hour after the intravenous dose is given) should be 10–20 μg/mL with toxicity > 40 μg/mL; trough levels (taken immediately before a dose) should be 5–10 μg/mL.

Drug interactions
Administration of chloramphenicol concomitantly with bone marrow depressant drugs is contraindicated, although concerns over aplastic anaemia associated with ocular chloramphenicol have largely been discounted.

Chloramphenicol is a potent inhibitor of the cytochrome P450 isoforms CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 in the liver. Inhibition of CYP2C19 causes decreased metabolism and therefore increased levels of, for example, antidepressants, antiepileptics, proton-pump inhibitors, and anticoagulants if they are given concomitantly. Inhibition of CYP3A4 causes increased levels of, for example, calcium channel blockers, immunosuppressants, chemotherapeutic drugs, benzodiazepines, azole antifungals, tricyclic antidepressants, macrolide antibiotics, SSRIs, statins, cardiac antiarrhythmics, antivirals, anticoagulants, and PDE5 inhibitors.

Drug antagonistic
Chloramphenicol is antagonistic with most cephalosporins and using both together should be avoided in the treatment of infections.

Drug synergism
Chloramphenicol has been demonstrated a synergistic effect when combined with fosfomycin against clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium.

Mechanism of action
Chloramphenicol is a bacteriostatic agent, inhibiting protein synthesis. It prevents protein chain elongation by inhibiting the peptidyl transferase activity of the bacterial ribosome. It specifically binds to A2451 and A2452 residues in the 23S rRNA of the 50S ribosomal subunit, preventing peptide bond formation. Chloramphenicol directly interferes with substrate binding in the ribosome, as compared to macrolides, which sterically block the progression of the growing peptide.

History
Chloramphenicol was first isolated from Streptomyces venezuelae in 1947 and in 1949 a team of scientists at Parke-Davis including Mildred Rebstock published their identification of the chemical structure and their synthesis.

In 1972, Senator Ted Kennedy combined the two examples of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the 1958 Los Angeles Infant Chloramphenicol experiments as initial subjects of a Senate Subcommittee investigation into dangerous medical experimentation on human subjects.

In 2007, the accumulation of reports associating aplastic anemia and blood dyscrasia with chloramphenicol eye drops led to the classification of "probable human carcinogen" according to World Health Organization criteria, based on the known published case reports and the spontaneous reports submitted to the National Registry of Drug-Induced Ocular Side Effects.

Names
Chloramphenicol is available as a generic worldwide under many brandnames and also under various generic names in eastern Europe and Russia, including chlornitromycin, levomycetin, and chloromycetin; the racemate is known as synthomycetin.

Formulations
Chloramphenicol is available as a capsule or as a liquid. In some countries, it is sold as chloramphenicol palmitate ester (CPE). CPE is inactive, and is hydrolysed to active chloramphenicol in the small intestine. No difference in bioavailability is noted between chloramphenicol and CPE.

Manufacture of oral chloramphenicol in the U.S. stopped in 1991, because the vast majority of chloramphenicol-associated cases of aplastic anaemia are associated with the oral preparation. No oral formulation of chloramphenicol is available in the U.S. for human use.

In molecular biology, chloramphenicol is prepared in ethanol.

Intravenous
The intravenous (IV) preparation of chloramphenicol is the succinate ester. This creates a problem: Chloramphenicol succinate ester is an inactive prodrug and must first be hydrolysed to chloramphenicol; however, the hydrolysis process is often incomplete, and 30% of the dose is lost and removed in the urine. Serum concentrations of IV chloramphenicol are only 70% of those achieved when chloramphenicol is given orally. For this reason, the dose needs to be increased to 75 mg/kg/day when administered IV to achieve levels equivalent to the oral dose.

Oily
Oily chloramphenicol (or chloramphenicol oil suspension) is a long-acting preparation of chloramphenicol first introduced by Roussel in 1954; marketed as Tifomycine, it was originally used as a treatment for typhoid. Roussel stopped production of oily chloramphenicol in 1995; the International Dispensary Association Foundation has manufactured it since 1998, first in Malta and then in India from December 2004.

Oily chloramphenicol was first used to treat meningitis in 1975 and numerous studies since have demonstrated its efficacy. It is the cheapest treatment available for meningitis (US$5 per treatment course, compared to US$30 for ampicillin and US$15 for five days of ceftriaxone). It has the great advantage of requiring only a single injection, whereas ceftriaxone is traditionally given daily for five days. This recommendation may yet change, now that a single dose of ceftriaxone (cost US$3) has been shown to be equivalent to one dose of oily chloramphenicol.

Eye drops
Chloramphenicol is used in topical preparations (ointments and eye drops) for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. Isolated case reports of aplastic anaemia following use of chloramphenicol eyedrops exist, but the risk is estimated to be of the order of less than one in 224,716 prescriptions. In Mexico, this is the treatment used prophylactically in newborns for neonatal conjunctivitis.

Veterinary uses
Although its use in veterinary medicine is highly restricted, chloramphenicol still has some important veterinary uses. It is currently considered the most useful treatment of chlamydial disease in koalas. The pharmacokinetics of chloramphenicol have been investigated in koalas.

title: Chloramphenicol


text:
Cut-up technique

The cut-up technique (or découpé in French) is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially by writer William S. Burroughs. It has since been used in a wide variety of contexts.

Technique
The cut-up and the closely associated fold-in are the two main techniques:

 * Cut-up is performed by taking a finished and fully linear text and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text, such as in poems by Tristan Tzara as described in his short text, TO MAKE A DADAIST POEM.
 * Fold-in is the technique of taking two sheets of linear text (with the same linespacing), folding each sheet in half vertically and combining with the other, then reading across the resulting page, such as in The Third Mind. It is a joint development between Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

William Burroughs cited T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem, The Waste Land, and John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy, which incorporated newspaper clippings, as early examples of the cut ups he popularized.

Gysin introduced Burroughs to the technique at the Beat Hotel. The pair later applied the technique to printed media and audio recordings in an effort to decode the material's implicit content, hypothesizing that such a technique could be used to discover the true meaning of a given text. Burroughs also suggested cut-ups may be effective as a form of divination saying, "When you cut into the present the future leaks out." Burroughs also further developed the "fold-in" technique. In 1977, Burroughs and Gysin published The Third Mind, a collection of cut-up writings and essays on the form. Jeff Nuttall's publication My Own Mag was another important outlet for the then-radical technique.

In an interview, Alan Burns noted that for Europe After The Rain (1965) and subsequent novels he used a version of cut-ups: "I did not actually use scissors, but I folded pages, read across columns, and so on, discovering for myself many of the techniques Burroughs and Gysin describe".

In literature
A precedent of the technique occurred during a Dadaist rally in the 1920s in which Tristan Tzara offered to create a poem on the spot by pulling words at random from a hat. Collage, which was popularized roughly contemporaneously with the Surrealist movement, sometimes incorporated texts such as newspapers or brochures. Prior to this event, the technique had been published in an issue of 391 in the poem by Tzara, dada manifesto on feeble love and bitter love under the sub-title, TO MAKE A DADAIST POEM.

In the 1950s, painter and writer Brion Gysin more fully developed the cut-up method after accidentally rediscovering it. He had placed layers of newspapers as a mat to protect a tabletop from being scratched while he cut papers with a razor blade. Upon cutting through the newspapers, Gysin noticed that the sliced layers offered interesting juxtapositions of text and image. He began deliberately cutting newspaper articles into sections, which he randomly rearranged. The book Minutes to Go resulted from his initial cut-up experiment: unedited and unchanged cut-ups which emerged as coherent and meaningful prose. South African poet Sinclair Beiles also used this technique and co-authored Minutes To Go.

Argentine writer Julio Cortázar used cut ups in his 1963 novel Hopscotch.

In 1969, poets Howard W. Bergerson and J. A. Lindon developed a cut-up technique known as vocabularyclept poetry, in which a poem is formed by taking all the words of an existing poem and rearranging them, often preserving the metre and stanza lengths.

A drama scripted for five voices by performance poet Hedwig Gorski in 1977 originated the idea of creating poetry only for performance instead of for print publication. The "neo-verse drama" titled Booby, Mama! written for "guerilla theater" performances in public places used a combination of newspaper cut-ups that were edited and choreographed for a troupe of non-professional street actors.

Kathy Acker, a literary and intermedia artist, sampled external sources and reconfigured them into the creation of shifting versions of her own constructed identity. In her late 1970s novel Blood and Guts in High School, Acker explored literary cut-up and appropriation as an integral part of her method.

In film
Antony Balch and Burroughs created a collaboration film, The Cut-Ups that opened in London in 1967. This was part of an abandoned project called Guerrilla Conditions meant as a documentary on Burroughs and filmed throughout 1961–1965. Inspired by Burroughs' and Gysin's technique of cutting up text and rearranging it in random order, Balch had an editor cut his footage for the documentary into little pieces and impose no control over its reassembly. The film opened at Oxford Street's Cinephone cinema and had a disturbing reaction. Many audience members claimed the film made them ill, others demanded their money back, while some just stumbled out of the cinema ranting "it's disgusting". Other cut-up films include Ghost at n°9 (Paris) (1963–1972), a posthumously released short film compiled from reels found at Balch's office after his death, and William Buys a Parrott (1982), Bill and Tony (1972), Towers Open Fire (1963) and The Junky's Christmas (1966).

In music
In 1962, the satirical comedy group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, got their name after using the cut-up technique, resulting in "Bonzo Dog Dada": "Bonzo Dog", after the cartoon Bonzo the Dog, and "Dada" after the Dada avant-garde art movement. The group's eventual frontman, Vivian Stanshall, would quote about wanting to form a band with that name. The "Dada" in the phrase was eventually changed to "Doo-Dah".

From the early 1970s, David Bowie used cut-ups to create some of his lyrics. In 1995, he worked with Ty Roberts to develop a program called Verbasizer for his Apple PowerBook that could automatically rearrange multiple sentences written into it. Thom Yorke applied a similar method in Radiohead's Kid A (2000) album, writing single lines, putting them into a hat, and drawing them out at random while the band rehearsed the songs. Perhaps indicative of Thom Yorke's influences, instructions for "How to make a Dada poem" appeared on Radiohead's website at this time.

Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire reported to Inpress magazine's Andrez Bergen that "I do think the manipulation of sound in our early days – the physical act of cutting up tapes, creating tape loops and all that – has a strong reference to Burroughs and Gysin." Another industrial music pioneer, Al Jourgensen of Ministry, named Burroughs and his cut-up technique as the most important influence on how he approached the use of samples.

Many Elephant 6 bands used decoupe as well, one prominent example of this is seen in "Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye" by Neutral Milk Hotel.

title: Cut-up technique


text:
Talk:Congressional Medal of Honor

Older talk - I have edited the Medal of honor page slightly to reflect the correct reference to the decoration, according to the Federal Code of Military Regulations. P.H. - Kyoukan, UASC 23:26, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

The name of the medal is NOT the Congressional Medal of Honor. It certainly is the Medal of Honour. Perhaps under US Medal of Honor. - The name of the medal is NOT the Congressional Medal of Honor. It certainly is not the Medal of Honour. Perhaps under US Medal of Honor.

Ok, you're correct; it's commonly called that but the actual name is the Medal of Honor. (Please inform the Congressional Medal of Honor Society). ;-) Anyway, the problem is that if we have to specify further than simply "Medal of Honor," why not make it at least what it's commonly called? No one (to my knowledge) says "U.S. Medal of Honor."

And so but I was confused about the civilian award; that's called the Medal of Freedom. --KQ

The society is a Congressional chartered society, apparently hence the name. It could be the source of the name confusion. Some people see attaching Congressional to the name as a confusion of the separation of powers since the military report to the President(executive branch), not the Congress (legislative branch). I don't see the real issue myself since Congress passed the laws that provided for all the awards (distinguished service cross, silver star, etc.) However I know old soldiers have yelled at me for using the wrong name for the medal. --rmhermen

If there are other countries that use "Medal of Honor" how will we designate them? If not British Medal of Honor, French Medal of Honor (No those countries don't apparently have Medals of Honor) We do not use US Medal of Honor but we don't usually use US Declaration of Independence either, just Declaration of Independence. --rmhermen

Good points. I'll leave it in your hands then, but I would like to put in my vote for Congressional Medal of Honor over U.S. Medal of Honor, since the first one is actually commonly used. --Koyaanis Qatsi

Untrue. Marines may call the Medal of Honor "CMOH," but as a submariner I never heard a sailor make that mistake. See, for example, http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq38-1.htm, which links to every citation for all Navy and Marine Corps recipients ... and never once uses the word "Congressional." --the Epopt

Whether or not the article should be at Congressional Medal of Honour, it definitely should not be at Medal of Honor. Pizza Puzzle

Army Regulation 600-8-22 Military Awards contains 58 references to “Medal of Honor”, there is not a single instance of the word “Congressional” preceding it.

title: Talk:Congressional Medal of Honor


text:
Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome

Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (CIDS) is a medical condition present at birth marked by impaired physical and mental development, due to insufficient thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) often caused by insufficient dietary iodine during pregnancy. It is one cause of underactive thyroid function at birth, called congenital hypothyroidism, historically referred to as cretinism (obsolete). If untreated, it results in impairment of both physical and mental development. Symptoms may include goiter, poor length growth in infants, reduced adult stature, thickened skin, hair loss, enlarged tongue, a protruding abdomen; delayed bone maturation and puberty in children; and mental deterioration, neurological impairment, impeded ovulation, and infertility in adults.

In developed countries, thyroid function testing of newborns has assured that in those affected, treatment with the thyroid hormone thyroxine is begun promptly. This screening and treatment have virtually eliminated the consequences of the disease.

Signs and symptoms
Iodine deficiency causes gradual enlargement of the thyroid gland, referred to as a goiter. Poor length growth is apparent as early as the first year of life. Adult stature without treatment ranges from 100 to 160 cm, depending on severity, sex, and other genetic factors. Other signs include thickened skin, hair loss, enlarged tongue, and a protruding abdomen. In children, bone maturation and puberty are severely delayed. In adults, ovulation is impeded and infertility is common.

Mental deterioration is common. Neurological impairment may be mild, with reduced muscle tone and coordination, or so severe that the person cannot stand or walk. Cognitive impairment may also range from mild to so severe that the person is nonverbal and dependent on others for basic care. Thought and reflexes are slower.

Cause
Iodine_deficiency_world_map-DALYs_per_million_persons-WHO2012.svg (DALY) lost from iodine deficiency in 2012 in proportion to a million people

{{legend|#ffff20|52–163}} {{legend|#ffe820|181–217}} {{legend|#ffd820|221–221}} {{legend|#ffc020|222–310}} {{legend|#ffa020|320–505}} {{legend|#ff9a20|512–610}} {{legend|#f08015|626–626}} {{legend|#e06815|653–976}} {{legend|#d85010|984–1,242}} {{legend|#d02010|1,251–3,159}} ]] Around the world, the most common cause of congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (endemic cretinism) is dietary iodine deficiency.

Iodine is an essential trace element, necessary for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Iodine deficiency is the most common preventable cause of neonatal and childhood brain damage worldwide. Although iodine is found in many foods, it is not universally present in all soils in adequate amounts. Most iodine, in iodide form, is in the oceans, where the iodide ions are reduced to elemental iodine, which then enters the atmosphere and falls to earth in rain, introducing iodine to soils. Soil deficient in iodine is most common inland, in mountainous areas, and in areas of frequent flooding. It can also occur in coastal regions, where iodine might have been removed from the soil by glaciation, as well as leaching by snow, water and heavy rainfall. Plants and animals grown in iodine-deficient soils are correspondingly deficient. Populations living in those areas without outside food sources are most at risk of iodine deficiency diseases.

Differential diagnosis
Dwarfism may also be caused by malnutrition or other hormonal deficiencies, such as insufficient growth hormone secretion, hypopituitarism, decreased secretion of growth hormone-releasing hormone, deficient growth hormone receptor activity and downstream causes, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) deficiency.

Prevention
There are public health campaigns in many countries which involve iodine administration. As of December 2019, 122 countries have mandatory iodine food fortification programs.

Treatment
Congenital iodine deficiency has been almost eliminated in developed countries through iodine supplementation of food and by newborn screening utilizing a blood test for thyroid function.

Treatment consists of lifelong administration of thyroxine (T4). Thyroxine must be dosed as tablets only, even to newborns, as the liquid oral suspensions and compounded forms cannot be depended on for reliable dosing. For infants, the T4 tablets are generally crushed and mixed with breast milk, formula milk or water. If the medication is mixed with formulas containing iron or soya products, larger doses may be required, as these substances may alter the absorption of thyroid hormone from the gut. Monitoring TSH blood levels every 2–3 weeks during the first months of life is recommended to ensure that affected infants are at the high end of normal range.

History

A goiter is the most specific clinical marker of either the direct or indirect insufficient intake of iodine in the human body. There is evidence of goiter, and its medical treatment with iodine-rich algae and burnt sponges, in Chinese, Egyptian, and Roman ancient medical texts. In 1848, King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia commissioned the first epidemiological study of congenital iodine deficiency syndrome, in northern Savoy where it was frequent. In past centuries, the well reported social diseases prevalent among the poorer social classes and farmers, caused by dietary and agricultural monocultures, were: pellagra, rickets, beriberi, scurvy in long-term sailors, and the endemic goiter caused by iodine deficiency. However, this disease was less mentioned in medical books because it was erroneously considered to be an aesthetic rather than a clinical disorder.

Congenital iodine-deficiency syndrome was especially common in areas of southern Europe around the Alps and was often described by ancient Roman writers and depicted by artists. The earliest Alpine mountain climbers sometimes came upon whole villages affected by it. The prevalence of the condition was described from a medical perspective by several travellers and physicians in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At that time the cause was not known and it was often attributed to "stagnant air" in mountain valleys or "bad water". The proportion of people affected varied markedly throughout southern Europe and even within very small areas; it might be common in one valley and not another. The number of severely affected persons was always a minority, and most persons were only affected to the extent of having a goitre and some degree of reduced cognition and growth. The majority of such cases were still socially functional in their pastoral villages.

More mildly affected areas of Europe and North America in the 19th century were referred to as "goitre belts". The degree of iodine deficiency was milder and manifested primarily as thyroid enlargement rather than severe mental and physical impairment. In Switzerland, for example, where soil does not contain a large amount of iodine, cases of congenital iodine deficiency syndrome were very abundant and even considered genetically caused. As the variety of food sources dramatically increased in Europe and North America and the populations became less completely dependent on locally grown food, the prevalence of endemic goitre diminished. This is supported by a 1979 WHO publication which concluded that "changes in the origin of food supplies may account for the otherwise unexplained disappearance of endemic goitre from a number of localities during the past 50 years".

The early 20th century saw the discovery of the relationships of neurological impairment with hypothyroidism due to iodine deficiency. Both have been largely eliminated in the developed world.

Terminology
The term cretin was originally used to describe a person affected by this condition, but, as with words such as spastic and lunatic, it underwent pejoration and is now considered derogatory and inappropriate. Cretin became a medical term in the 18th century, from an Occitan and an Alpine French expression, prevalent in a region where persons with such a condition were especially common (see below); it saw wide medical use in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was a "tick box" category on Victorian-era census forms in the UK. The term spread more widely in popular English as a markedly derogatory term for a person who behaves stupidly. Because of its pejorative connotations in popular speech, current usage among health care professionals has abandoned the noun "cretin" referring to a person. The noun cretinism, referring to the condition, still occurs in medical literature and textbooks but its use is waning.

The etymology of cretin is uncertain. Several hypotheses exist. The most common derivation provided in English dictionaries is from the Alpine French dialect pronunciation of the word Chrétien ("(a) Christian"), which was a greeting there. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the translation of the French term into "human creature" implies that the label "Christian" is a reminder of the humanity of the affected, in contrast to brute beasts. Other sources suggest that Christian describes the person's "Christ-like" inability to sin, stemming, in such cases, from an incapacity to distinguish right from wrong.

Other speculative etymologies have been offered:
 * From creta, Latin for chalk, because of the pallor of those affected.
 * From cretira, Grison-Romanche creature, from Latin creatus.
 * From cretine, French for alluvium (soil deposited by flowing water), an allusion to the condition's suspected origin in inadequate soil.

title: Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome


text:
Cretin

Cretin may refer to:

 * An archaic term for a patient with congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (cretinism)
 * A pejorative term, similar to idiot

People

 * Guillaume Crétin (c. 1460–1525), a French poet
 * Joseph Crétin (1799–1857), an American bishop

Education

 * Cretin Hall, a residence hall at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota
 * Cretin-Derham Hall High School, a co-educational Catholic high school in Minnesota

Other

 * Cape Cretin, a headland in the Huon Gulf in Papua New Guinea
 * "Cretin", a song by Revocation from the album Chaos of Forms, 2011

title: Cretin