Raised Alveolar Non-Sonorant Vibrant
The title describes a mystery sound found in Czech. The ř (or capitalized Ř) is the Czech letter for this sound. The letter and sound for ř are uniquely Czech, not found in any other language. (This is where you cheer and we groan)
There are other letters much, much easier to learn that have the "hook" over them (haček in Czech).
Example: the Czech letter č sounds like ch in English, so haček just sounds like "ha-chek".
The ž sounds like zh. This sounds just like the 's' in vision or treasure.
Lastly, the š sounds like sh in English, so the Czech verb for "to sew" is šit and sounds like ...
So, back to the letter ř.
Some linguists call it a fricative trill.
Some linguists call it a raised alveolar non-sonorant vibrant.
We just call it difficult.
There is no English equivalent for ř , that's obvious. Having no similar sounds makes it more difficult. It's a near mystery to us. From what I can hear, it is a combination of a short, rolling r and the above ž -- but as one sound. Yeah, keep trying to yourself...nobody's listening.
To top it all off, the mystery letter is in our metro stop Jiřího z Poděbrad. Why didn't we pick an apartment near the metro stop Flora (just one stop away)?
If you think you'd love learning phonetics, you'd love to visit here.
08 August 2006
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4 comments:
Hey Jeff... how close is what you're learning to Croatian? I'm sure there are different dialects and such, but it should all be about the same, right? I know I recognized 'Dobrou' - I heard my grandfather say that before, and I know a few basic phrases that he and my grandmother used a lot.
If you want I could give you my Uncle's e-mail and you can bounce questions off him. IIRC he speaks Croatian pretty fluently.
Yo Bill. How far is Croatian? ...about 1000 miles :)Seriously though, I know a couple Croatians here at work and they're just as confused with Czech as I am. Between all the Slavic languages, Slovak is the closest sounding. In fact, Czech people my age and older can understand Slovak fairly well, but younger folks don't get as much TV/radio exposure to it anymore since the country broke apart some 15 years ago.
But the folks who speak Croatian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish (and the dozen more Slavs) -all see similarities ... and that's where it stops. I guess it's like we see similar words in Spanish or German, right?
Thank you for offering though, but it's best if I understand Czech from Czechs.
Speaking of different languages, I had to Google "IIRC" to figure out what you meant. :)
At least I can save a letter whenever I write šit
Hi Guys,
Well we finally had some time together to do your blog. Facinating.Prague certainly is beautiful and we can barely wait to come and visit you there. It even looks beautiful in the winter shots we have checked out in a visitors guide. As I said in an earlier e-mail we'll fit in around your other guests.
You two look great and Ella does too. Nothing like a continual holiday to keep a kid stimulated and happy.
Czech language presents a challenge for sure-but millions have learned it. Sounds like a lot of fun to me-not having to learn it.
We're going to call you now.
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