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.

Pathetic Parkers in Prague

We're laughing at ourselves, because we sat down to put in a blog entry...and nothing came to mind. How pathetic. We asked each other "So, what did we really do this weekend?"

Saturday, we got up at 6:30am (thanks, Ella), made a quick fried eggs & toast breakfast, relaxed by playing with Ella, reading the paper, browsing the web. During Ella's morning nap, we showered and got ready to go . By 2pm we were at TESCO (major European department store) for curtain shopping. We made no purchases, but since TESCO is only 100 feet from Wenceslas Square, we did enjoy watching tourists for an hour and strolling around. After supper, we decided to head to our favorite store: IKEA. Heaven forbid a weekend go by in Prague and we not go to IKEA! The sad truth is that we know that we need to go back....The highlight of the day was definitely talking to Michelle and Jeff...it almost felt like we were back in our Allen Street house kitchen; very strange feeling. The grand finale was sharing a bottle of Bohemian Sekt, a champagne that Czechs are very proud of and we can see why!

Sunday (today), we got out much earlier - 9am. We walked to a park we hadn't been to before, Havlíčkovy Sady (a.k.a. Grobovka) in Vinohrady. (Vinohrady is our neighborhood.) This park turns out to be gorgeous, nicer than any park yet. It includes a vineyard and lots of walking trails and they are currently building a new children's play area.



Ella got a kick out of playing in the sandbox and trying out the see-saw.



After some time at home we decided to head out again...this time in search of the John Lennon Wall. We found it!



(Jeff K - Maylia is ready for the next quest.) We also got to enjoy another stroll along the Charles Bridge.

Ya know, after writing about our weekend, we don't feel so pathetic after all. Thanks! We feel much better now.

Čau.

Hello World! Well...OUR world, anyway...

Ella is taking a nap and so I thought I would send out a quick "AHOJ"! I am missing Jenn & Courtney. We were so lucky to have visitors, and such AWESOME visitors, so early in our time here. For those who don't know, Jenn & Courtney had already planned a vacation in Germany when I let them know about our move. Since Germany is right next door they decided to come and visit us. It was a short visit...arriving Monday afternoon and leaving Wednesday afternoon...but we loved and appreciated every second.

For some more background, Jenn and I have been friends for TWO DECADES now...WOWSAHS! They currently live in Alberta so getting in visits is tough. This was their first time meeting Ella. How cool that it was in Prague?!? Unfortunately, their very first impression of Ella was probably not stellar. It was a bit of a trek to the airport and back and on top of that she is getting molars AND I dragged her out to get a metro pass and groceries in the morning. Needless to say she was a bit of a wreck. But she showed her true, easy-going self the following day when we did a 6 hour walk around Prague. (Same day as "Big Leap of Parenthood" blog.)

I may not be up for the "Most Knowledgeable Tour Guide" award, but these two saw ALOT of Prague in one day. I just couldn't tell them what any of it was. Jenn has actually been emailing ME info about what we looked at! I'll attach some photos of their visit. (Jenn/Court - hope ya don't mind being broadcast on the web...)

OK...starting off with not a great photo of anyone here, but it does show that we "started" at the National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square. Actually, we had left our Mánesova Street place and walked past Náměstí Míru before getting to this point.

Jenn and I eating apples in Old Town Square (Staré Město) after missing the Astronomical Clock striking the hour, AGAIN! (Ella is sleeping.)

The "Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra" playing on the Charles Bridge, a.k.a. Karlův Most. Jeff and I had appreciated their music on an earlier stroll...jazz from the 1920s. Courtney bought both our households a CD and had them autographed! YAY!

Jenn and Courtney with St. Vitus's Cathedral (Katedrála sv. Vita), located within the castle walls, in the background.

Jenn and Ella doing the sign for "dog" (panting). There are lots of dogs in Prague and Letná Park is no exception. No matter how many she sees, Ella is always excited! And apparently Jenn is, too!

We saw the Astronomical Clock strike 10pm! Our attempt to document the moment for prosperity....

I think I hear Ella...

Love,
May

Just a quick update for tonight...getting late here.
Today is a landmark day for a few reasons:

• May, Ella & I went to the Post Office together this morning. Much easier and less stressful than my first visit. We got notice a few days ago that we had a package. Peigi D (teacher friend of May's mom) sent Ella a lovely handmade sweater and book. Thank you Peigi!! The sweater is adorable ...pictures to come.
• I started Czech lessons yesterday morning and May started studying them tonight. -Not an easy language. Yup, not an easy language at all.
• On a much more geeky note, I finally got around to unlocking the locked-out admin account on a laptop I carried over here. Rich Z -remember that utility we used in the lab in April?...made myself another bootable CD copy here & it works like a charm on XP, too. So, in effect, we gained a laptop today.

So, about the Czech language. The good news is it's fairly phonetic, meaning what you read is what you get. English, of course, is far from phonetic. If English were phonetic, then comb, tomb, and bomb would rhyme. Likewise, words like cuff and tough wouldn't.
Anyway, in Czech, the words sound like they look. Now for the bad news: Czech words are tough to read...they just look like something's missing...like vowels.
Here's one fun tongue twister they got:
Strč prst skrz krk
(clicking on the words should give you the sound)
So, if you hear it, you're feeling our pain.

For more tongue twisters, in any language...check out this site:
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/tonguetwisters.htm
Enjoy - take care and good night.

Big Leap of Parenthood

Before tonight, May and I entrusted Ella to friends and friends only. Tonight we are going out...and leaving Ella with a stranger.

Well, not a total stranger. We've known Vendula for 20 minutes now. Ella's known her for 15 minutes and she seems totally content.

For other big news, May's childhood friend, Jenn and her husband Courtney are here. Jenn & Courtney vacationed in Germany for a couple weeks and, seeing how we just moved here, they popped over to Prague, too! Our first visitors- Wow!!

So, the four of us are going out. Yes, we completely trust our one and only child with Vendula (we just keep repeating it to ourselves silently)