Tuesdays are Czech days!
Last week, we learnt how to ask for a beer, a big beer, and a bunch of beers.
This week, we’ll focus on the alphabet. It’s almost as important.
[One day (but not today) I’ll stop mining Czechs’ alcohol consumption for comedic content.]
Unlike some other Slavic languages, like Russian and half of Serbian, Czech uses the Latin alphabet. This means that English speakers have a headstart on figuring out what the heck that sign says – although there are still some tricky characters, just to stop things from ever being too easy.
a
like the ‘a’ in father
á
long ‘a’ (hold the sound for two beats)
b
like any of the ‘b’s in bumblebee (pick your favourite)
c
like the ‘zz’ in pizza; a ‘ts’ sound
č
like the ‘ch’s in chili chicken or cheesey chips
d
like the first ‘d’ in deciduous
ď
like the second ‘d’ in deciduous
[Incidentally, deciduous was the first word beginning with ‘d’ that popped into my head. I’m absolutely thrilled that it happened to contain an example of both d and ď!]
e
like the ‘e’ in exotic
é
long ‘e’ (hold for two beats)
ě
‘ye’ as in yellow or yesterday or Yeltsin
f
like the ‘f’s in forensic fossilisation
g
like the ‘g’ in goat
h
like the ‘h’ in horrendous, except more dramatic, as if you’re trying to sigh in a passive aggressive way
ch
like the ‘ch’ in loch
i
like the ‘i’ in igloo
[The Czech word for igloo is iglú]
í
long ‘i’
j
like the ‘y’ in you
k
like the ‘k’ in kismatic
l
like the ‘l’s in lobster lasagne
m
like the ‘m’ in mundial
n
like the ‘n’s in nocturnal
ň
like the ‘ni’s in onion and bunion
o
like the ‘o’ in optical
p
like any of the ‘p’s in Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
r
this is trilled, like in Spanish
ř
augh, I hate this sound. It’s like a mixture of ‘r’ and ‘ž’, and, basically, I can’t do it.
s
like the ‘s’ and ‘c’ in severance
š
like the ‘sh’s in shanty shamrock
t
like the ‘t’ in tonsil
ť
like the ‘t’ in tumor
u
like the ‘u’ in but
ú, ů
long ‘u’
v
like any of the ‘v’s in V’s monologue in V for Vendetta (click here)
y
like the ‘y’ in synopsis
ý
long ‘y’
z
like the ‘z’ in zombie
ž
like the ‘s’ noise in measure
