A member of the
Slavonic branch of the
Balto-Slavic family, and grammatically very similar to
Polish. Usually considered to be
mutually intelligible with
Slovak, except by Slovak
nationalists.
Vowel length is indicated by an acute, but there is also a U with a circle above it, Ů, as in the composer Martinů, now with the same value as u-acute. The vowels I and Y are pronounced the same but I causes palatalization of some previous consonants. There is also an E with a háček over it, Ě, pronounced JE. The name of this accent comes from Czech. The hooked T and D are palatal.
Czech uniquely has the rolled fricative written R-hacek (Ř if that shows up on your browser), as in Dvořák. This is voiceless after voiceless consonants.
Here are the specifically Czech letters, taken from my Using Unicode in E2:
Č Č č č C-hacek
Ď Ď ď ď D-hook
Ě Ě ě ě E-hacek
Ň Ň ň ň N-hacek
Ř Ř ř ř R-hacek
Š Š š š S-hacek
Ť Ť ť ť T-hook
Ů Ů ů ů U-circle
Ž Ž ž ž Z-hacek
Note: 'Family' can refer to any main group, not necessarily the highest reconstructible.