Kolache (1896)

[Steve Kl.]

kolac (length mark over a, hacek over c) is the singular in Czech; kolace
(ditto) would be the plural.

However, like practically every word in Czech, it is also commonly
known in the diminutive, kolacky (plural, I am assuming of the
diminuitive kolacek, which I've never actually heard of). (Again, length
marks over the a's and hacky over the c's.)

Even though I didn't learn Czech at home, this is one item (along with
some other food terms, swears, and the phrase "come here") that is
completely native for me. My grandmother makes excellent ones; and in my
Michigan hometown, until very recently, there was a sausage dance each
year, where they made sausages (jitrnice) and kolacky and ate and danced.
Almost all of the foreign-born Czechs are dead there, now, and very few
first-generation (my grandma's 85) ones are left. I got to witness an
immense amount of the cultural aspect of this when I was a kid though.

The 'ch' spelling (which I've never seen -- then again I would have only
seen it written out in Czech) is the anglicization of the c-hacek.

They're very delicious.

-- Steve