Abstract
This article deals with Czech pertaining to changes in the language resulting from contact with geographically and socio-culturally neighbouring languages. Their influence will be illustrated through examples of borrowings, both old and new.
On the one hand, these borrowings enrich Czech lexicon, and on the other, broaden the register. Furthermore, the article presents the attitudes of native speakers towards their language and standard form as a reflection of possible fears for the future of the language.
The state of contemporary Czech is compared to predictions Eisner made in his book Chrám i tvrz (A Temple and Stronghold) in 1946, and documented by a range of examples from the media, illustrating the influence of foreign languages, in particular English as a lingua franca, on Czech. The article concludes by showing how prophetic his text was and in what his prediction proved to be misconceptions.