On 1st January 2009, the Czech Republic takes over the (rotating) presidency of the European Union for six months. Here, in the latest of our regular series, we present ten things you didn't know about the Czech Republic and the Czech language.
1) The country was part of Czechoslovakia until the 'velvet divorce' of 1993.
2) The Czech language is closely related to Slovak: the two languages are mutually intelligible.
3) The Czech Republic is about the same size as Scotland.
4) Along with Russian (and many other east European languages), Czech is a Slavic language
5) The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, displays three flags in his office: the Czech flag, the EU flag and the NATO flag.
6) In Czech, the letters q, w and x are only used in foreign words.
7) The Czech Republic is bordered by four other countries: Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
8) About 1½ million Czech-speakers live outside the Czech Republic.
9) The composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) and the writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) are towering figures from Czech culture.
10) The word robot comes from the Czech language — it was first used in a 1921 play by Karel Čapek.