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Czech
čeština, český jazyk
Spoken in	Czech Republic Vojvodina, Serbia Banat, Romania Texas, USA[1]
Region	Central Europe
Native speakers	13 million[citation needed]  (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic West Slavic Czech-Slovak Czech
Writing system	Czech alphabet (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in	Czech Republic  European Union  Slovakia (partially)
Regulated by	Czech Language Institute
Language codes
ISO 639-1	cs
ISO 639-2	cze (B) ces (T)
ISO 639-3	ces
Linguasphere	53-AAA-da < 53-AAA-b...-d (varieties: 53-AAA-daa to 53-AAA-dam)
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Czech ( /ˈtʃɛk/; čeština Czech pronunciation: [ˈt͡ʃɛʃcɪna]) is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, with Polish and Sorbian.

Official status[link]

Czech is widely spoken by most inhabitants of the Czech Republic. As given by appropriate laws, courts and authorities can enact and write out documents and judgements in the Czech language (also, financial authorities in the Slovak language). Czech can also be used in all official proceedings in Slovakia as granted by Article 6 of Slovak Minority Language Act 184/1999 Zb.

According to article 37, paragraph 4 of Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms people who do not speak Czech have the right to get an interpreter in a court of law. Instructions for use in Czech must be added to all marketed goods. The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the Constitution for all national and ethnic minorities.

Czech is also one of the 23 official languages in the European Union (since May 2004).

Mutual intelligibility[link]

Speakers of Czech and Slovak usually understand both languages in their written and spoken form, thus constituting a pluricentric language, though some dialects or heavily accented speech in either language might present difficulties to speakers of the other (in particular, Czech speakers may find Eastern Slovak dialects difficult to comprehend). Younger generations of Czechs living after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 (therefore generally less familiar with Slovak) might also have some problems with a certain number of words and expressions which differ considerably in the two languages, and with false friends. Nevertheless, these differences do not impede mutual intelligibility significantly.

Name[link]

The name čeština "Czech" is derived from a Slavic tribe of Czechs (Čech, pl. Češi; archaic Čechové) that inhabited Central Bohemia and united neighbouring Slavic tribes under the reign of the Premyslid dynasty (Přemyslovci). According to a legend, it is derived from the Forefather Čech, who brought the tribe of Czechs into its land. The variant English name "Bohemian" was used until the late 19th century, reflecting the original English name of the Czech state derived from the Celtic tribe of Boii who inhabited the area since the 4th century BC.

History[link]

The Czech language developed from the Proto-Slavic language at the close of the 1st millennium.

Phonology[link]

In Czech, as in Slovak, Croatian, and Serbian, there are many words that do not have vowels: zmrzl (frozen solid), ztvrdl (hardened), scvrkl (shrunk), čtvrthrst (quarter-handful), blb (dimwit), vlk (wolf), or smrt (death). The consonants l and r can be the nucleus of a syllable in Czech. Examples of this which Czechs share among themselves are strč prst skrz krk 'stick a finger down [your] throat' and smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh 'morel full of spots was dampened by fogs'. The same phenomenon occurs in English, for example in the second syllable in the word 'bottle'. In Slavic languages, /l, r/ as syllabic nuclei are usually the result of the disappearance of [ɛ], [o], or [a] (contrast for example the Russian cognates for vlk and smrt, 'volk' and 'sm'ert'').

Czech features a phoneme that is said to be unique to the language, the consonant ř. The phonetic description of the sound is a raised alveolar non-sonorant trill. Its IPA transcription is [r̝].

Vowels[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

There are 10 vowels in Czech which are regarded as individual phonemes. There are 5 short and 5 long vowels.

Long vowels are indicated by an acute accent or a ring.

/iː/ is represented by letters í and ý

/uː/ is represented by letters ú and ů

/ɛː/ is represented by letter é

/aː/ is represented by letter á

/oː/ is represented by letter ó

Short vowels

/ɪ/ is represented by letters i and y

/u/ is represented by letter u

/ɛ/ is represented by letters e and ě

/a/ is represented by letter a

/o/ is represented by letter o

Note that ě is not a separate vowel. Analogous to y, ý and ů, it is a grapheme kept for historical reasons (see Czech orthography). ó exists only in loanwords.

/r/ and /l/ (and sometimes also /m/ and /n/) can be syllabic, i.e. they can take the vowel's role as the nucleus of a syllable, e.g. vlk (wolf).

Diphthongs[link]

There are three diphthongs in Czech:

/au̯/ represented by au (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)

/eu̯/ represented by eu (in words of foreign origin only)

/ou̯/ represented by ou

When these groups come together at morpheme boundaries, they do not form diphthongs in standard Czech; for instance naučit, neučit, poučit ([-au-, -eu-, -ou-] or [-aʔu-, -eʔu-, -oʔu-]). In native Czech words, only ou exists as a diphthong. Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are likewise not regarded as diphthongs; they may also be pronounced with /j/ between the vowels [ɪja, ɪjɛ, ɪjɪ, ɪjo, ɪju].

Consonants[link]

• /r̝/ is a specific raised alveolar non-sonorant trill which can be pronounced both voiced and voiceless (regarded as two allophones of one phoneme).

The consonants in parentheses are regarded as allophones of other consonants:

[ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ when preceding velar consonants (/k/ and /ɡ/).

[ɡ] is a voiced allophone of /k/ when preceding a voiced consonant, except in loanwords

[d͡z] is an allophone of /t͡s/ when preceding a voiced consonant

The glottal stop [ʔ], which appears as a separator between two vowels or word-initially before a vowel, is not considered a separate phoneme or an allophone of one.

/ʃ/ is represented by the letter š

/ʒ/ is represented by the letter ž

/ɲ/ is represented by the letter ň

/c/ is represented by the letter ť

/ɟ/ is represented by the letter ď

/ɦ/ is represented by the letter h

/x/ is represented by the digraph ch

/ts/ is represented by the letter c

/tʃ/ is represented by the letter č

/dʒ/ is represented by the digraph dž

/r̝/ is represented by the letter ř

The other consonants are represented by the same characters (letters) as in the IPA.

(See also: Czech alphabet)

Stress[link]

The primary stress is always fixed to the first syllable of a stressed unit, which is usually identical to a word. The exceptions are:

• Monosyllabic prepositions form a unit with following words (if the following word is not longer than three syllables). The stress is placed on the preposition: e.g. Praha (Prague) → do Prahy (to Prague).
• Some monosyllabic words (e.g. mi (me), ti ((to) you), to (it), se, si (oneself), jsem (am), jsi (are)) are clitics — they are not stressed and form a unit with preceding words. A clitic cannot be the first word in a sentence, because it requires a preceding word to form a unit with. Example: Napsal jsem ti ten dopis, I have written the letter to you.

Long words have secondary stress, which is usually placed on every odd syllable after the primary stress, e.g. nejkrásnější (the most beautiful).

Stress in Czech denotes boundaries between words, but does not distinguish word meanings. It also has no influence on the quality or quantity of vowels. Vowels are not reduced in unstressed syllables and both long and short vowels can occur in either stressed or unstressed syllables.

Syntax and Morphology[link]

As in most Slavic languages, many words (especially nouns, verbs and adjectives) have many forms (inflections). In this regard, Czech and the Slavic languages are closer to their Indo-European origins than other languages in the same family that have lost much inflection. Moreover, Colloquial Czech differs considerably from the standard language, even in many morphological features.

Word order[link]

The word order in Czech serves a similar function to sentence stress and articles in English. Often all the permutations of words in a clause are possible. While the permutations mostly share the same meaning, they differ in the topic–focus articulation.

For example: Češi udělali revoluci (The Czechs made a revolution), Revoluci udělali Češi (It was the Czechs who made the revolution), and Češi revoluci udělali (The Czechs did make a revolution). Usually the word order follows the pattern based on importance of the words expressed – from the least important to the most important. By saying Revoluci udělali Češi the speaker stresses that it was the Czechs and not, e.g. the Germans or Slovaks, who made a revolution. By saying Češi revoluci udělali, the speaker stresses that the revolution has been done, this being far more important than that it was the Czechs who stood behind it. Combined with sentence voice melody, which is the same for each type of sentence – announcing, questioning and an imperative, and which marks the end of each sentence, one can easily understand the important context of what is said by just listening to the final word in each sentence.

By using different melodies can be stress moved to different word and to add information. For example: Češi udělali revoluci (The Czechs made a revolution) pronounced with acoustic stress to word revoluci with little delay before this word means: The Czechs did make a revolution as (and only as) a response to a concrete situation. This same meaning can also be shown in written form: Češi udělali – revoluci.

Parts of speech[link]

• Noun (podstatné jméno)
• Adjective (přídavné jméno)
• Pronoun (zájmeno)
• Numeral (číslovka)
• Verb (sloveso)
• Adverb (příslovce)
• Preposition (předložka)
• Conjunction (spojka)
• Particle (částice)
• Interjection (citoslovce)

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numbers are declined (seven cases over a number of declension models) and verbs are conjugated; the other parts of speech are not inflected (with the exception of comparative formation in adverbs).

Dialects[link]

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Its factual accuracy is disputed. Tagged since April 2011. It may contain original research. Tagged since April 2011.

In the Czech Republic two distinct variants or interdialects of spoken Czech can be found, both corresponding more or less to geographic areas within the country. The first, and most widely used, is "Common Czech", spoken especially in Bohemia. It has some grammatical differences from "standard" Czech, along with some differences in pronunciation. The most common pronunciation changes include -ý becoming -ej in some circumstances, -é becoming -ý- in some circumstances (-ej- in others). Also, noun declension is changed, most notably the instrumental case. Instead of having various endings (depending on gender) in the instrumental, Bohemians will just put -ama or -ma at the end of all plural instrumental declensions. Currently, these forms are very common throughout the entire Czech republic, including Moravia and Silesia. Also pronunciation changes slightly, as the Bohemians tend to have more open vowels than Moravians. This is said to be especially prevalent among people from Prague.

The second major variant is spoken in Moravia and Silesia. Nowadays it is very close to the Bohemian form of Common Czech. This variant has some words different from its standard Czech equivalents. For example in the dialect spoken in Brno, tramvaj (streetcar or tram) is šalina (originating from German "ElektriSCHELINIE"). Unlike in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia tend to have more local dialects varying from place to place, however just as in Bohemia, most have been already heavily influenced and mostly replaced by Common Czech. Everyday spoken form in Moravia and Silesia would be a mixture of remnants of old local dialect, some Standard Czech forms and especially Common Czech. The most notable difference is a shift in used prepositions and case of noun, for example k jídlu (to eat – dative) (as in German zum Essen) becomes na jídlo (accusative), as it is in Slovak na jedlo. It is a common misconception that the use of Standard Czech in everyday situations is more frequent than in Bohemia. The Standard Czech became standardized by the Czech national revivalists in the 19th century, based on an already three hundred year old translation of the Bible (Bible of Kralice) using an older variant of the then-current language (for example, preferring -ý- to -ej-). These Standard forms are still common in spoken language both in Moravia and Silesia. Some Moravians and Silesians therefore tend to say that they use "proper" language, unlike their Bohemian compatriots.

A special case is the Cieszyn Silesian dialect, spoken in Cieszyn Silesia (Těšínsko), which is a transitional dialect between the Czech and Polish languages.

Some south Moravian dialects are also sometimes, although rarely, considered (also by Czech linguists in the 90's or later, e.g. Václav Machek in his "Etymologický slovník jazyka českého", 1997, ISBN 80-7106-242-1, p. 8, who speaks about a "Moravian-Slovak" dialect from the region of Moravian "Slovácko") to be actually dialects of the Slovak language, which has its roots in the Moravian empire when Slovaks and Moravians were one nation (without Bohemians) with one language. Those dialects still have the same suffixes (for inflected nouns and pronouns and for conjugated verbs) as Slovak.

The minor dialect spoken in the Plzeň Region and parts of Western Bohemia and in western parts of former Prachens region differs, among other things, by intonation of questions: all the words except for the last word of a sentence have a high pitch. This is the reason why the people from Plzeň are said to be "singing". Words that start questions are often given an additional "-pa": "Kolipa je hodin?" (regular Czech: "Kolik je hodin?"; English: "What time is it?"). The words like "this" (regular Czech: "tento/tato/toto") are often replaced by "tuten/tuta/tuto"); some examples: "What is this?" is "Copa to je?" and "What's happening?" is "Copa?" instead of "Co je to? / Co se stalo?" or "Why?" is "Pročpa?" instead of "Proč?".

The region of Chodsko is the home of a very special dialect of the Chods people who were displaced in about the 10th century from Silesia owing to the protection of the western border of Bohemia.

Declension[link]

Czechs typically refer to the noun cases by number and learn them by means of the question to which they are the answer. These numbers do not necessarily correspond to numbered cases in other languages (e.g., the Slovene locative and instrumental are known as the 5th and 6th cases). When learning a new word, Czech children recite the cases using a set of example phrases, shown as follows:

The case used depends on a number of variables.

Prepositions with certain cases[link]

The simplest of the rules governing noun declension is the use of prepositions (předložky). Excepting expressions and common phrases, each preposition is matched with a certain noun declension case depending on use. The following are basic examples of common prepositions and their corresponding noun cases (note: these examples represent only one circumstance. Often each preposition can be used with two or more noun cases depending on the sentence).

• Genitive: během (during), podle/dle (according to/along), vedle (beside), kolem (around), okolo (around), do (into), od(e) (away from), z(e) (out of/from), bez(e) (without), místo (instead of), u (at/by the).
• Dative: k(e) (towards), proti (against), díky (thanks to), naproti (opposite).
• Accusative: skrz(e) (through), pro (for), na (to/for).
• Locative: o (around, about), na (on), při (into, in, around), v (in), po (after, around).
• Instrumental: za (behind), před (in front of), mezi (between), pod(e) (below), s(e) (with), nad(e) (above).

Many of the above prepositions are used in different circumstances. For instance, when motion or a change of position is expressed, prepositions of place such as nad, mezi, na and pod are used with the accusative case.

The second factor affecting noun declension is the verb used. In Czech grammar, the accusative case serves as the direct object, and the dative case serves as the indirect object. Some verbs require the genitive case to be used. For example, the verb "zeptat se" (to ask) requires that the person being asked the question be in the genitive case (Zeptat se koho/čeho), and that the thing being asked about follow the preposition "na" and be in the accusative case (Zeptat se koho/čeho na koho/co).

Counting and declension[link]

The third factor affecting noun declension is number. Czech has a typical Slavic counting system, explained as follows with the example masculine animate noun muž (man):

• For the number one, the singular number is used: jeden muž.
• For the numbers 2, 3, and 4, any case may be used, depending on the function of the noun in the sentence: dva muži (nominative). "Vidím dva muže" (accusative).
• For all numbers from 5 on, the genitive plural is used when the noun would normally be in the nominative–accusative or vocative case: pět mužů. "Pět mužů je tam." Five men are over there. "Vidím pět mužů." I see five men. For other cases, however, the noun is not placed in the genitive. "Nad pěti muži." Above the five men (instrumental).

The example above shows colloquial use. In literary use, there is an additional rule: The above system is based only on the last word of the number. Thus a number like 101 uses the singular (sto jeden muž) and 102 uses the ordinary plural (sto dva muži). For numbers that can be read in two ways, such as 21, the grammar may depend on which one is chosen (dvacet jeden muž or jednadvacet mužů). This system is becoming less common and is not used in everyday speech, as well as becoming harder to find in modern literature.

Numbers have declension patterns in Czech. The number two, for instance, declines as follows:

The numbers are singular (jednotné číslo), plural (množné číslo), and remains of dual. The number two, as declined above, is an example of the now-diminished dual number. The dual number is only used for certain parts of the human body: hands, shoulders, eyes, ears, knees, legs, and breasts. In all but two of the above body parts (eyes and ears) the dual number is only vestigial and affects very few aspects of declension (mostly the genitive and prepositional cases). However, in Common Czech this dual ending of the instrumental case is used as the regular instrumental plural form, for example, s kluky (with the boys) becomes s klukama, and so on for all nouns.

Gender[link]

The three genders are masculine, feminine, and neuter, with masculine further subdivided into animate and inanimate. Words for individuals with biological gender usually have the corresponding grammatical gender, with only a few exceptions; similarly, among the masculine nouns, the distinction between animate and inanimate also follows meaning. Other words have arbitrary grammatical genders. Thus, for instance, pes (dog) is masculine animate, stůl (table) is masculine inanimate, kočka (cat) and židle (chair) are feminine, and morče (guinea-pig) and světlo (light) are neuter.

Verb tenses[link]

Compared to English or Romance languages, Czech has a rather simple set of tenses. They are present, past, and future.

Past is used in almost all instances of past action, and replaces every past tense in English (past simple, past perfect and in some cases the present perfect). The past tense is usually formed by affixing an -l- on the end of the verb, sometimes with a minor (rarely significant) stem change. After adding the -l-, letters are added in order to agree with the subject (-a for feminine, -o for neuter, -i, -y or -a for plural).

The present tense is also used to describe ongoing actions which continue to the present, where in English a present perfect would be used, for instance, "I've been doing this for three hours". In Czech, as there is no present perfect, the present indicative is used and is directly translated as "I do this for three hours". However, when the present perfect is used to denote past actions without a time reference (e.g. "I've been to Italy three times"), the past tense would be used.

There are also sometimes second forms of certain verbs (such as "to go", "to do") that indicate a habitual or repeated action. These are known as iterative forms. For instance, the verb jít ("to go by foot") has the iterative form chodit ("to go regularly").

There is also no tense shifting, as in reported speech, for example in the sentence "he said he loved her", reporting "he loves her", the tense of the verb is shifted from present to past. In Czech it is "Má ji rád" -> "Řekl, že ji má rád". The "má rád" remains in the present tense in both cases.

The future tense is another fickle part of Czech grammar. Verbs in Czech can be divided into two aspects, one expressing an ongoing action (imperfective aspect) and one expressing the outcome of an action (perfective aspect). Most verbs have different counterparts in each aspect which form pairs. Perfective verbs can only express an action that is already completed (past) or one that is yet to be completed (future), but the latter is expressed in Czech using the present tense. Thus, the future tense (e.g. budu psát for psát, to write) can only be used for imperfective verbs; however, the present tense of napsat (perfective counterpart of psát) also indicates a future action.

Aspectual pairs are in general of two kinds:

• the perfective is obtained by prefixing the imperfective with a preposition, for example psát becomes napsat;
• the forms differ in the endings, for example dát (perfective) becomes dávat (imperfective) or koupit (perfective) becomes kupovat (imperfective);

Czech also makes heavy use of prepositional prefixes to modify the precise meaning to the verb. For example, podepsat is a prefixed form of the verb psát meaning to sign (literally to write under). Analogously to the first case above, the addition of such prefixes almost always changes the aspect of the verb to the perfective aspect. In this case, a modified imperfective form podepisovat forms a pair with podepsat.

Maps and samples[link]

Sample text[link]

Czech: Všichni lidé se rodí svobodní a sobě rovní co do důstojnosti a práv. Jsou nadáni rozumem a svědomím a mají spolu jednat v duchu bratrství.

English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also[link]

• Czech alphabet
• Czech Centers
• Czech declension
• Czech name
• Czech orthography
• Orthographia bohemica
• Czech phonology
• Czech verb
• Czech word order
• Háček
• Moravian language
• Swadesh list of Slavic words

References[link]

External links[link]

Czech language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Czech

• Czech language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Ústav pro jazyk český – Czech Language Institute, the regulatory body for the Czech language (Czech)
• Reference Grammar of Czech, written by Laura Janda and Charles Townsend
• Czech National Corpus
• Czech Monolingual Online Dictionary
• Czech Translation Dictionaries (Lexilogos)
• Czech Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Czech basic course
• English Czech dictionary online, Czech English dictionary online

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vep:Čehan kel'

Selena Gomez
Gomez attending "The 6th Annual Hollywood Style Awards", Beverly Hills, CA on Oct. 10, 2009
Background information
Birth name	Selena Marie Gomez
Born	(1992-07-22) July 22, 1992 (age 19) Grand Prairie, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Pop, dance, pop rock[1]
Occupations	Actress, singer, Fashion Designer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar, drums
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Hollywood
Associated acts	Selena Gomez & the Scene, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift
Website	SelenaGomez.com

Selena Marie Gomez (born July 22, 1992)^[2] is an American actress and singer best known for portraying Alex Russo in the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place. She subsequently ventured into feature films and has starred in the television movies Another Cinderella Story, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, and Princess Protection Program. She made her starring theatrical film debut in Ramona and Beezus.

Her career has expanded into the music industry; Gomez is the lead singer and founder of the pop band Selena Gomez & the Scene, which has released three RIAA Gold certified studio albums, Kiss & Tell, A Year Without Rain, and When the Sun Goes Down, spawned three RIAA Platinum certified singles, "Naturally", "Who Says" and "Love You Like a Love Song" and charted four No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.^[3] Gomez has also contributed to the soundtracks of Tinker Bell, Another Cinderella Story, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Shake It Up after signing a record deal with Hollywood Records.

In 2008, Gomez was designated a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.^[4]

Early life[link]

Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas.^[2] She is the daughter of former stage actress Amanda Dawn "Mandy" Teefey (née Cornett) and Ricardo Joel Gomez.^[5][6][7] Her father is of Mexican ancestry, and her mother is of part Italian descent.^[8][9] Regarding her Hispanic heritage, Gomez said: "My family does have Quinceañeras, and we go to the communion church. We do everything that's Catholic, but we don't really have anything traditional except [that we] go to the park and have barbecues on Sundays after church."^[10] Her birth parents divorced when she was five years old, and she was raised as an only child by her working mother.^[5][11] In 2006, Mandy remarried Brian Teefey.^[12] She was named after Tejano singer Selena, who died almost three years after Gomez was born.^[13] In a 2009 interview with People, Gomez mentioned that she developed an early interest in acting from watching her mother prepare for and act in theater productions.^[11] She earned a high school diploma through homeschooling in May 2010.^[14]

Career[link]

[edit] 2002–06: Barney & Friends and early work

Gomez began her acting career at age seven, playing Gianna on Barney & Friends.^[15] She later had minor roles in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and the TV film Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial By Fire. Gomez also starred in the television movie Brain Zapped. (Selena Gomez also found out that she wanted to be an actress because in E Special she states that "I would also watch my mom on stage do her lines".)

In 2004, Gomez was discovered by the Disney Channel in a USA-wide scouting.^[16] Gomez appeared as a guest star on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and had a guest appearance – that later turned into a recurring role – on Hannah Montana from seasons two to three. Gomez previously taped two different pilots that were spin-offs to two previous Disney series.^[17] The first one, What's Stevie Thinking?, was the spin-off to Lizzie McGuire. Gomez played Stevie Sanchez, Miranda Sanchez's little sister. The other show was titled Arwin!, the spin-off to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, in which she played Alexa. Neither series was picked up.

[edit] 2007–09: Wizards of Waverly Place and Selena Gomez & The Scene

Gomez on the studio set of Wizards of Waverly Place before filming an episode for the show's first season in April 2007

In early 2007 Gomez was cast in the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place as one of the three main characters, Alex Russo. The show premiered to an audience of 5.9 million, becoming a hit. Many news outlets began dubbing Gomez the next 'Miley Cyrus' causing some controversy and a reported 'feud'. Gomez clarified that there was no feud and that she was flattered by the comparison, saying: "It's a little overwhelming, but I think really, it's a compliment. She's obviously extremely successful, and I think she's a wonderful performer ... So being compared to her, I was very, very flattered."^[18] Gomez recorded four songs, one of which was a cover, for theWizards of Waverly Place soundtrack, only one single (Magic) from the album was released.

In 2008, Gomez recorded a cover of "Cruella de Vil"—which included a music video—for the compilation albumDisneyMania 6. Gomez also recorded "Fly to Your Heart" for the 2008 animated film Tinker Bell. In July 2008, before Gomez' sixteenth birthday, she signed a recording deal with Hollywood Records, a music label owned by Disney.^[19] In May, of the same year, Gomez was featured, with Forever the Sickest Kids, on a duet version of the non-album song "Whoa Oh!".^[20] The same year Gomez appeared in Another Cinderella Story, the direct-to-DVD sequel to the 2004 Hilary Duff film, opposite Drew Seeley. She also had a minor voiceover role as one the Mayor's ninety-six daughters in Horton Hears a Who! which released in March of that year. In April, Lacey Rose, of Forbes ranked Gomez as being fifth on their "Eight Hot Kid Stars To Watch" list; and Rose described Gomez as having been "a multitalented teen".^[21] Gomez recorded three songs for the movie's soundtrack.

In 2009, Gomez formed the teen pop band Selena Gomez & the Scene. Kiss & Tell, the band's debut studio album and was released on September 29, 2009 by Hollywood Records. On March 5, 2010, the album was certified Gold by RIAA.^[3] The album's single, "Naturally", was certified Platinum by the RIAA on July 15, 2010.^[3] In February 2009, Gomez signed on to star as one of the two female leads in Ramona and Beezus, a film adaption of the children's novel series by Beverly Cleary.^[22][23] Gomez stated that she felt no pressure in taking more adult roles: "I think I’m fully aware of my audience and I’m still just a kid myself. I wouldn’t do a role I don’t feel comfortable doing or that my audience wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing."^[24]

In June 2009, Gomez did a guest appearance as herself in one episode of best friend Demi Lovato's Disney Channel television show, Sonny with a Chance, entitled "Battle of The Network Stars". That same month Gomez appeared alongside Lovato in the made-for-television Disney Channel movie, Princess Protection Program.^[25] The telecast garnered 8.5 million viewers becoming, at the time, the third most watched Disney Channel Original Movie.^[26] One month later, Gomez, along with two cast members of Wizards of Waverly Place appeared in a television three-way cross-over episode with Hannah Montana and The Suite Life on Deck, entitled Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana.

On August 28, 2009 two months after appearing in Princess Protection Program, Gomez starred in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, a made-for-television film based on the show.^[27] The film premiered to an audience of 11.4 million viewers becoming cable's No. 1 scripted telecast of 2009 and Disney Channel's second most-viewed film premiere after High School Musical 2.^[28] In September 2009, Wizards of Waverly Place won "Outstanding Children's Program" at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.^[29] In 2010, the film adaptation won the series its second consecutive Emmy for "Outstanding Children's Program" at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.^[29]

[edit] 2010–2011:Theatrical film debut, A Year Without Rain and When The Sun Goes Down

Gomez on location in Paris, France filming Monte Carlo in June 2010

Gomez's first theatrical film Ramona & Beezus premiered on July 23, 2010 and met with generally positive reviews.^[30] In March 2010, Variety reported that Gomez was set to star as one of the three lead roles in Monte Carlo, alongside Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy.^[31] In the film Gomez plays Grace, a girl who’s “mistaken for a socialite while on a trip to Paris.”^[32] To prepare for the role Gomez learned how to play polo and also took two weeks of vocal training to learn two different British accents.^[33][34] The same year Gomez confirmed that the fourth season of her hit Disney Channel show, Wizards of Waverly Place, would be its last.

Gomez performing at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards.

On September 17, 2010 , Selena Gomez and The Scene released their second studio album, A Year Without Rain The record debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, selling 66,000 copies. On January 19, 2011, the album was certified Gold by RIAA.^[3] As of April 2011, the band has sold 1,354,000 albums in the United States.^[35] To support the album, the band embarked on the mini-tour A Year Without Rain Tour. In February 2011, Deadline.com reported that Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment had acquired the novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher with Gomez attached to the lead.^[36] That same month TV Guide reported that Gomez would make a cameo in the Muppets film.^[37] On March 23, 2011, Hollywood Records announced through a press release that Selena Gomez & The Scene would be embarking on their third concert tour in the United States, the We Own the Night Tour ran during the summer of 2011.^[38] Production for the final season of Wizards of Waverly Place came to a wrap on May 14, 2011.^[39] Gomez co-hosted the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards on June 19.^[40] She also hosted the 2011 MTV EMAs on November 6, 2011, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she performed her band's single "Hit the Lights". Near the end of 2011, it was reported Gomez was in talks to star in two upcoming films. Deadline.com announced in October that Gomez would take part in the comedy Hot Mess.^[41]

In early November, Variety reported that Gomez was in talks to star in the upcoming film Spring Breakers alongside James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens.^[42] Gomez confirmed to MTV that she had signed on for the project and that production will begin in early 2012.^[43] On June 28, 2011, Selena Gomez & the scene released their third studio album, When the Sun Goes Down, previously titledOtherside,^[44] The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200, selling 78,000 copies its first week and the following week, the album rose to number 3 on the Billboard chart, becoming the band's highest charting album to date.^[45][46] On November 17, 2011, the album was certified platinum.^[3] The album's lead single, "Who Says" was certified Platinum by RIAA on June 23, 2011 and has become the band's highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 to date, peaking at number 21.^[3][47] The second single, "Love You Like a Love Song", was certified Platinum by RIAA on December 2, 2011, and became the act's first to sell over two-million copies.^[3][48]

2012–present: Focus on film[link]

In January 2012, Gomez announced that she would put her music career on hold.^[49] This was later reaffirmed as Gomez wrote on her Facebook page that she was taking a break from music in order to focus on her acting career, "my band and I are going our separate ways for a while. This year is all about films and acting and I want my band to play music wherever with whoever. We will be back but, it will be a good while."^[50] In February 2012, Gomez announced that the band would be taking a hiatus, so that she could focus on film for the year. She encouraged her band mates to work with other artists during the hiatus.^[51] The same month, it was announced that Gomez will replace Miley Cyrus in the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania playing Mavis, the daughter of Dracula who will be voiced by Adam Sandler.^[52] As of March 2012, Gomez has been cast in four upcoming films; in which three of them she has been cast as a lead role. She will first appear in Hotel Transylvania, an animated film, voicing the character of Mavis, who was originally supposed to be voiced by Miley Cyrus, however Cyrus dropped out of the film in early 2012 in order to focus on her music career.^[53] The film is scheduled to be released on September 21, 2012.^[54] Next, Gomez will appear in Spring Breakers, which is currently being filmed on location in Sarasota, Florida. The film is being written and directed by Harmony Korine.^[55] Gomez has also been cast as the main role of Hannah Baker in the film adaptation of young-adult fiction novel, 13 Reasons Why. The novel was written by Jay Asher.^[56] She will also play the lead role in a film called Hot Mess, a comedy film directed by Dave Meyers.^[56] On April 7, 2012, Gomez posted a video for fans in which she revealed that she will be filming a new movie called "The Getaway" in Bulgaria. ^[57]

Other projects[link]

Philanthropy[link]

Selena Gomez performs at the KISS 108 Jingle Ball in December 2010

Gomez was involved in the UR Votes Count campaign which encouraged teenagers to learn more about 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.^[58] In October 2008, Gomez participated in St. Jude's Children's Hospital "Runway For Life" benefit.^[59] Gomez is a spokesperson for Borden Milk; she is featured in the campaign's print and television ads.^[60] She is the ambassador of DoSomething.org after being involved with the charity Island Dog, which help dogs in Puerto Rico.^[61] She got involved while filming Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie in Puerto Rico.^[62] Gomez is a spokesperson for State Farm Insurance, and is featured in their TV commercials; which air on the Disney Channel, to raise awareness of being a safe driver.^[63] Gomez is also involved with the charity RAISE Hope For Congo, an initiative of the Enough Project, which helps raise awareness about conflict minerals and violence against Congolese women.^[64]

In October 2008, Gomez was named UNICEF's spokesperson for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign, which encouraged children to raise money on Halloween to help children around the world.^[4] She said that she was "extremely excited" to "encourage other kids to make a difference in the world."^[4]

In August 2009, a 17-year-old Gomez became the youngest UNICEF ambassador ever, passing fellow songstress Hayley Westenra, who was 18 when she was chosen. In her first official field mission, Gomez traveled to Ghana on September 4, 2009 for a week to witness first-hand the stark conditions of vulnerable children that lack vital necessities including clean water, nourishment, education and healthcare.^[65][66] Gomez explained during an interview with Associated Press that she wanted to use her star power to bring awareness to Ghana: “That’s why I feel very honored to have a voice that kids listen to and take into consideration [...] I had people on my tour asking me where IS Ghana, and they Googled it [...] and because I went there, they now know where Ghana is. So it’s pretty incredible.”^[66][67] Gomez said of her role as ambassador that: "Every day 25,000 children die from preventable causes. I stand with UNICEF in the belief that we can change that number from 25,000 to zero. I know we can achieve this because every moment, UNICEF is on the ground providing children with the lifesaving assistance needed to ensure zero becomes a reality."^[65]

Gomez was named spokesperson for UNICEF's 2009 Trick-or-Treat campaign, for the second year in a row.^[68] Gomez, who raised over $700,000 for the charity in 2008, stated that she hopes to be able to raise 1 million dollars in 2009.^[66] Gomez participated in a celebrity auction^[69] and hosted a live web cast series on Facebook in support of the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign.^[70] Gomez returned as the UNICEF spokesperson for the 60th anniversary of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign in 2010.^[71] In celebration of the 60th anniversary, Gomez and her band, The Scene, held a benefit concert donating all proceeds to the campaign.^[72]. On January 22nd 2010, Gomez participated in the Hope for Haiti Now Telethon with a number of other celebrities^[73].

In February 2011, Gomez traveled to Chile to witness and meet with the families of UNICEF's supported program, "Programa Puente" which helps families better understand and develops skills to deal effectively with early childhood education, development and other issues related to raising children. From her field trip experience, Gomez said "UNICEF is helping Chilean families get out of poverty, prevent violence within the home and promote education. To witness first hand these families' struggles, and also their hope and perseverance, was truly inspiring."^[74] In March 2011, Gomez participated in the UNICEF Tap Project's "Celebrity Tap Pack," limited-edition, custom-made water bottles featuring tap water from the homes of each celebrity advocate, in order to raise funds and increase profile for the clean water and sanitation programs.^[75] She is also featured in videos promoting the campaign.^[76][77]

Gomez is involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an organization which promotes "environmently-friendly behavior", and appears in its public service announcements.^[78] Gomez, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, and the Jonas Brothers recorded "Send It On", a charity single with all of its proceeds to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.^[79][80] It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 20.^[79] Also in 2009, Gomez made a surprise visit to a Los Angeles elementary school as part of the "A Day Made Better" program that was sponsored by OfficeMax. During her visit, Gomez gave the school an award and $1,000 worth of school supplies, and talked to students about the importance of giving back to the community.^[81][82]

Gomez is also the owner of six rescue dogs and describes herself as a "huge animal-lover".^[83]

In April 2012, Gomez was named ambassador to the Ryan Seacrest Foudation^[84].

Entrepreneurship and sponsorships[link]

Gomez was part of Sears back-to-school fashion ad campaign.^[85] As part of the campaign Gomez was featured in the television commercials. In August 2009, Gomez also hosted the "Sears Arrive Air Band Casting Call" – to select five people for the first-ever "Sears Air Band", which performed at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.^[86]

In October 2008, Gomez launched her own production company, July Moon Productions, and partnered with XYZ Films to create star vehicles for Gomez. As part of the agreement Gomez will have the opportunity to be able option articles, hire writers and create talent packages to shop to studios.^[87][88] Also, as part of the deal, "XYZ Films will allow Gomez to star in and produce at least two films.^[81] Variety reported that: "In August, XYZ [Films] inked a similar deal with Time Inc. and management-production company the Collective to finance the development of the print media giant's content for the bigscreen [...] As part of the July Moon-XYZ deal, [Selena] Gomez will have the ability to cherry-pick projects from the vast Time Inc. library, which includes Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Life."^[88]

In October 2009, Gomez announced her plan to launch her own fashion line, called "Dream Out Loud by Selena Gomez". The clothing line launched in the fall of 2010.^[89][90] The collection consists of and features bohemian dresses, floral tops, jeans, skirts, jackets, scarves and hats, all made from recycled or eco-friendly materials.^[91][92] Gomez said that the line will reflect her own personal style and described the clothing as being "pretty, feminine, and bohemian," and: "With my line, I really want to give the customer options on how they can put their own looks together [...] I want the pieces that can be easy to dress up or down, and the fabrics being eco-friendly and organic is super important [...] Also, the tags will all have some of my inspirational quotes on them. I'm just looking to send a good message."^[89][92] Gomez, who has no background in fashion, teamed up with designers Tony Melillo and Sandra Campos, both who have worked with big-name fashion houses.^[90] Gomez said of the partnering: "When I met Tony and Sandra, I was instantly comfortable with them and now they are just like family to me ... They are so creative and I love how I can just call them up whenever and talk to them about everything, even if it's just about changing a button ... They've been so cool about everything."^{[89][90][91][92]} The brand will be manufactured by, Melillo and Campos teamed with New York-based Adjmi Apparel and formed by Adjmi CH Brands LLC; which is the holding company for the brand.^[93]

It was announced on July 14, 2011, that Gomez had signed a license agreement with Adrenalina, an extreme sports and adventure-themed lifestyle brand, to develop, manufacture, and distribute the actress' fragrance. It is expected to debut in May of 2012. Chairman and C.E.O. of Adrenalina, Ilia Lekach, said, "We are incredibly enthused to be working with Ms. Gomez and will reveal more details pertaining to the fragrance as we get closer to the launch date."^[94]

Personal life and Image[link]

With a solid fan and media following, Selena Gomez is considered a teen idol. She has appeared on several magazine covers, including People Magazine,^[95] Cosmopolitan,^[96] Billboard,^[97] TVGuide,^[98] Teen Vogue,^[99] Seventeen,^[100] Elle^[101].

Wax statues of Gomez are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York^[102], London^[103], Washington D.C^[104] and Hollywood.

Relationships[link]

Gomez has had several high-profile relationships. She had an on-off relationship with singer Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers from 2008 to 2010.^[105] In 2009, she met actor Taylor Lautner in Vancouver, while she was filming Ramona and Beezus and he was shooting New Moon^[106], and the two dated for almost a year. However the pressure of the media became too much for them and caused the two to break-up.^[107] On February 27 2011, Gomez attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with Canadian singer Justin Bieber,^[108] confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair.^{[109][110][111][112][113][114]} The relationship has since continued to garner significant media attention.^{[115][116][117][118][119]}

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

Albums

• 2009: Kiss & Tell
• 2010: A Year Without Rain
• 2011: When the Sun Goes Down