Texas Czech Legacy Project

The Texas Czech Legacy Project (TCLP) in the Department of the Slavic and Eurasian Studies (DSES) at the University of Texas at Austin  aims to document the language and culture of Texas Czechs. Our first and most ambitious undertaking is the Texas Czech Dialect Archive (TCDA), the open-access archive of speech recordings collected from ethnic Czech Moravians in Texas. The Project is led by Lida Cope of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

SAMPLE RECORDING:

Ultimately, the TCLP will offer a web-accessible database of audio and visual materials in and about Texas Czech. Our audio recordings of interviews conducted with Texas Czechs, of cultural events, and Texas Czech music are becoming gradually available. Soon we will add print (e.g. newspapers like Svoboda and Našinec), photographs and personal artifacts, such as autobiographies and diaries.

The Texas Czech Legacy Project aims:

• To document the unique Texas Czech dialect for current and future generations of Czech Moravians in Texas. 

• To document the history and development of the original settlements to the present day through oral histories and various other cultural artifacts gathered from Texas Czechs. 

• To aid in any revitalization and documentation efforts acknowledging the Texas-grown variety of the Czech language as a resource in language learning by Czech heritage speakers in Texas.

• To facilitate collaborative projects between activists in Texas Czech organizations, local educators enthusiastic about bringing the community legacy into the classroom, and scholars at the University Texas at Austin and in the Czech Republic.

• To draw more attention to the disappearing dialect of Texas Czechs in both the United States and the Czech Republic.

For more information, go to the Texas Czech Legacy Project.