Speakers Stats/features of the speakers

The number of speakers: native language

Zelów dialect is still significant for social, cultural, and religious life, and is native language for a large part of local Czech population. Despite attempts to revive the language in Zelów, the number of Czech-speaking inhabitants is decreasing. What is more, Czechs in Poland live in a considerable dispersion, which hinders communication in Czech (Wróblewski 2012: 50Wróblewski 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wróblewski, Piotr 2012. „Kim są zelowscy Czesi?”, w: Lech M Nijakowski (red.) Czesi, seria „Mniejszości narodowe i etniczne w Polsce”. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sejmowe.
).

The number of speakers: on a daily basis

According to the data from the 2002 National Census, 1126 people declared speaking Czech at home. The data from the 2011 Census have not been published yet. Presently only few people from the youngest generation decide to speak Czech, even in the home environment.
The situation in the Czech corner is worse still: at the beginning of the 20th century merely 57 local people could speak fluent Czech, and presently it is used by only few people (Pałys 2007: 11ffPałys 2007 / komentarz/comment/r /
Pałys, Piotr 2007. Skupiska czeskie w Kłodzkiem, Raciborskiem, Głubczyckiem i Żytawskiem wobec czechosłowackich planów zmiany granic państwowych po II wojnie światowej. Toruń: Dom Wydawniczy Duet.
; Wróblewski 2012: 53Wróblewski 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wróblewski, Piotr 2012. „Kim są zelowscy Czesi?”, w: Lech M Nijakowski (red.) Czesi, seria „Mniejszości narodowe i etniczne w Polsce”. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sejmowe.
).

The age of speakers

According to the data from the 2002 National Census, people below 17 years old comprise 10% of the overall population of the Czech minority in Poland, people who are 18 to 64 years old – ca. 53%, and people who are 65 years and above – ca. 37%.
In the Kuowa-Zdrój region, Czech language is spoken mainly by middle-aged and elderly Czechs, and less frequently by younger people; the language is used almost exclusively at home. In 1988, there were merely 40 Czech native speakers (Siatkowski 1997: 1635fSiatkowski 1997 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski, Janusz 1997. „Polnisch-Tschechisch”, w: Hans Goebl et al. (red.) Kontaktlinguistik. Contact Linguistics. Linguistique de contact. T.2. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, s. 1634-1640.

).
The number of Czech speakers in Zelów constantly decreases – in the district with 15,000 inhabitants, there are ca. 300-400 people of Czech origin. They usually live in a wide dispersion which hinders communication in Czech, and is caused by migration of young Czechs to big cities. Moreover, mixed marriages occur more and more frequently, leading to Polish becoming dominant language. Another reason for a decrease in the interest in Czech language is emphasis on teaching languages of Western Europe, which are perceived as more appealing and useful (Wlekły 2008Wlekły 2008 / komentarz/comment/r /
Wlekły, Mirosław 2008. Małe Czechy w samym sercu Polski. URL: http://polishexpress.polacy.co.uk/index.php?str=art&id=2596 [dostep: 12.01.2012 r.].
). Presently, the Czech language is spoken by the youngest generation only in few homes of the region.

What % in the country/territory/region

According to the National Census of Population and Homes in Poland, 2811 people declared Czech nationality. According to the National Census of Population and Homes from 2001, Czech nationality was declared by 831 people, 386 of whom had Polish citizenship (Chałupczak & Browarek 2000: 224Chałupczak & Browarek 2000 / komentarz/comment/r /
Chałupczak, Henryk & Tomasz Browarek 2000. Mniejszości narodowe w Polsce 1918–1995. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.
; Nijakowski 2012: 7Nijakowski 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Nijakowski, Lech M. (red.) 2012. „Wprowadzenie” do tomu Czesi, seria „Mniejszości narodowe i etniczne w Polsce”. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sejmowe.
; Kościak 2012: 59Kościak 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kościak, Barbara 2012. „Zwyczaje zelowskich potomków czeskich emigrantów”, w: Lech M. Nijakowski (red.) Czesi, seria „Mniejszości narodowe i etniczne w Polsce”. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sejmowe.
).
In 1876, there were 2860 Czechs in the congregation in Husiniec. There was also a school with two working teachers and 220 pupils not only from Husiniec (Ger. Hussinetz; 1300 members of Czech minority inhabited the town), but also from village Górne Gościeńcice (Czech. Horní Poděbrady/Ger. Ober Podjebrad – 300 inhabitants), Pencz (Penč/Pentsch – 110), Garnczary (Ger. Töppendorf – 310), Eichwald (135), and Melta (107). The remaining Protestant congregations were established in Grodziec (Czech Bedřichův Hradec) near Opole, and in Tabór Wielki near Syców, where lived, respectively, 2251 and 1876 Czechs (Vaculík 2011: 3fVaculík 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Vaculík, Jaroslav 2011. „Czechs in Lower Silesia in the 18th-20th Century”, Czech-Polish Historical and Pedagogical Journal. Brno: Masaryk University.
).
At the beginning of the 20th century, ca. 5,500 people of Czech origin inhabited the Kłodzko area (600 of them in Kłodzko itself). According to the Census from 1905, there were ca. 6,700 of Czech people in Poland, 3,200 of whom lived in the Czech corner itself. Shortly before World War II, ca. 5,000 people from Kudowa and the neighbouring areas spoke Czech on the daily basis (Siatkowski 1997: 1635fSiatkowski 1997 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski, Janusz 1997. „Polnisch-Tschechisch”, w: Hans Goebl et al. (red.) Kontaktlinguistik. Contact Linguistics. Linguistique de contact. T.2. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, s. 1634-1640.

; Kubin 1913Kubin 1913 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kubín, Josef Stefan 1913. Lidomluva Čechů kladských. Praga.
). In 1954-1958, only ca. 500 people in the region spoke Czech. The majority of them lived in the following towns (the data from 1958): Czermna (ca. 120 Czech-speaking inhabitants), Słone (ca. 100; before the expulsion more than 1000), Zakrz (30), Brzozowice (30), Pstrążna (41), Bukowina (6) and Jakubowice (47) (Siatkowski 1962a: 4ffSiatkowski 1962a / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski, Janusz 1962a. Dialekt czeski okolic Kudowy. Fonetyka, słowotwórstwo. Część I. Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.
). In 1988, there were only 40 autochthones who spoke the language; the decrease was caused mainly by migration of whole families to Germany and the Czech Republic, and by dying out of the elderly local population (Siatkowski 1997: 1635fSiatkowski 1997 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski, Janusz 1997. „Polnisch-Tschechisch”, w: Hans Goebl et al. (red.) Kontaktlinguistik. Contact Linguistics. Linguistique de contact. T.2. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, s. 1634-1640.

; Siatkowski 1997Siatkowski 1997 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski, Janusz 1997. „Polnisch-Tschechisch”, w: Hans Goebl et al. (red.) Kontaktlinguistik. Contact Linguistics. Linguistique de contact. T.2. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, s. 1634-1640.

; Siatkowski 1996: 188Siatkowski 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski Janusz 1996. Czesko-polskie kontakty językowe. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Energeia.
).

The number of monolingual speakers

There are no data concerning Czech monolinguals who inhabit Poland. In 1990, Karol Dejna  (1990: 6Dejna 1990 / komentarz/comment/r /
Dejna, Karol 1990. Słownik gwary czeskiej mieszkańców Kucowa. Wrocław: Ossolineum.
), a scholar who conducts research on Kuców dialect, described Czech inhabitants of the town as bilinguals who used a dialect of Czech language, as well as the local dialect of Polish. As far as Kuców and the neighbouring villages are concerned, Polish-Czech-German trilingualism can be observed there as well (Siatkowski 1996: 189Siatkowski 1996 / komentarz/comment/r /
Siatkowski Janusz 1996. Czesko-polskie kontakty językowe. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Energeia.
).

What other languages do they use?

Apart from dialects of Czech language, Czech people in Poland use Polish, and in some cases German in the region of Kłodzko Valley.