Photo: René Volfík, iROZHLAS.cz
Experts have argued over the exact origins of Czech’s distinctive word for ‘elephant’. It shares this word with other Slavic languages (for example, Polish słoń, Russian слон), but where Slavic as a whole got it from is a linguistic puzzle.
The prevailing theory seems to be that Slavic adopted it from one of a group of languages known as the Turkic family.
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