A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language/Phonology
I. PHONOLOGY
THE Bohemian alphabet has the following letters :—
a, as in Italian.
á, the same sound, but somewhat longer.
b, as in English.
c, as ts ; noc, pronounced nots.
č, as ch in church.
d, as in English.
ď, as di in Fr. dieu.
e, like a (English), short.
ě, like ye in yet.
f, as in English. This is a letter which does not occur in
any original Slavonic word.
g, hard, but rarely used in Bohemian, its place as early as
the beginning of the thirteenth century having been
taken by h.
h, pronounced strongly, like ch in German, in Auslaut
especially.
ch, as in German machen.
i, as in Italian.
í, the same sound lengthened.
j, as English y, consonantal.
k, as in English.
l, as in English. Sometimes vocalic ; vide infra.
m, as in English. n, as in English.
ň, as ny.
o, always short.
ó, only occurs in the interjection.
p, as in English.
r, stronger than in English. Sometimes vocalic; vide infra.
ř, pronounced rzh, as řeč, rzhetch.
s, sharp, as in English.
š, pronounced as English sh.
t, as in English.
ť, as in French métier.
u, as oo in English.
ú, the same sound, somewhat longer.
ů, also like oo.
v, as in English.
y, as Italian i.
ý, same sound, but longer.
z, as in English.
ž, as zh, like s in pleasure, or French j in jour.
When the vowels are to be pronounced long they are accented, as á, é, í, ú. Long ó practically does not exist in Bohemian. It is ordinarily changed into ů, which is pronounced like oo (or the o in do).
ou is the only diphthong, and is pronounced something like English oo, only longer, and more of each vowel is heard.
In pronunciation the difficult groups of sounds which occur are frequently softened; thus, the j is not heard before a consonant at the beginning of a word; jsem, I am, is pronounced sem; jméno, a name, méno; dcera, a daughter, cera (cf. the Polish córka); hřbet, the back, řbet; hvězda, a star, vězda; and ctnost, virtue, cnost, the latter now having become the ordinary orthography. In the vocative of the first declension, before e, h becomes ž; ch, š; k, č; r, ř ; and in the nominative plural, before i (the nom. suffix), h becomes z; ch, š; and k, c.
In the third declension of feminine nouns in the dative and locative cases of the singular, the mutations of h, ch, k, and r into z, š, c, ř, also take place; thus učiti se uloze, to learn a lesson from uloha; Praha, Prague; v Praze, in Prague.
The Consonants.
The consonants may be thus divided:—
- (a) Gutturals: g, h, ch, k.
- (b) Palatals: j.
- (c) Liquids: l, n, ň, r, ř.
- (d) Dentals: c, č, d, ď, s, s', t, ť, z, ž.
- (e) Labials: b,f, m, p, v.
Or into:—
- (a) Hard: h, ch, k, r, n, d, t.
- (b) Soft: c, č, ď,j, ň, ř, š, ť, ž.
- (c) Indefinite: b,f, l, m, p, s, v, z.
After the hard consonants we get y, ý; after the soft, i, í; and after the indefinite, sometimes y and sometimes i. In this way must be explained the change of h into z or ž, ch into š, k into c (or č). Thus matka, the mother; matce, of the mother: krotký pták, the tame bird; krotcí ptáci, the tame birds. So also vlk, a wolf; vlčí zub, a wolf's tooth: tele, a calf; telecí maso, veal. d becomes z in one instance; as hovězí maso, beef, from hovado, an ox. The remaining hard letters, r, n, d, t, are pronounced soft when written ř, ň, ď, ť.
The following table will be found useful for remembering the change of the consonants in Bohemian :—
| d into z. | r into ř. | |
| h into z, ž. | s into š. | |
| ch into š. | t into c. | |
| k into c, č. |
To avoid hiatus we have the use of:—
(1) The consonant v (thus rukovět, a guide, for rukojet, i.e. taking by the hand) ; navyknoúti, to get used to, where the root is uk, the same as in nauka, art. This v is frequently introduced at the beginning of words. Cf. vajce, an egg, with Russian яйцо.
(2) The consonant h, as Holomuc, used by the common people for Olomuc.
(3) The consonant j, as jíti, to go, originally iti (see Gebauer, i. 570).
The liquids l and r, between two consonants, have a vocalic sound, as vlk, a wolf, pronounce vŭlk (the u as in but); prst, a finger, pronounce pŭrst; krk, the neck, pronounce kŭrk.
Both in English and German this brief e occurs in syllables, and is not pronounced ; cf. silber, silver, with Bohemian brzo, soon ; fackel, a torch, with řekl, he spake ; fächert, with chrt, a greyhound. Cf. also such words in English as gentleman, where there is only a distinct vowel in the first syllable.
The accent in Bohemian is always on the first syllable of a word. Prepositions of one syllable take the accent with a substantive, being considered compounded with the word, but the accent has nothing to do with the length of a vowel. Even in words of four and five syllables the accent is on the first, so that in the accentuation of a word of four syllables there is another accent on the penult, as velebený, praised ; fivesyllable words have sometimes another accent on the penult, sometimes on the antepenult, e.g. velevěhlasný very celebrated.