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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!hunter.premier.net!feed1.news.erols.com!phase2.worldnet.att.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!uunet!in3.uu.net!newsfeed.one.net!news.one.net!shell.one.net!not-for-mail From: iyoung@shell.one.net (Ian B. Young) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Czech Followup-To: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Date: 20 Nov 1996 06:27:53 GMT Organization: OneNet Communications HUB News Server Lines: 51 Message-ID: <56u8d9$g7a@news.one.net> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <560146$t9c@mail1.wg.waii.com> <E0L92J.4tM@world.std.com> <56q2m4$8db@innocence.interface-business.de> <56qmes$d4o@nntp1.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell.prv1.one.net X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26554 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1569 alt.folklore.computers:124938 Derek Peschel (dpeschel@u.washington.edu) wrote: : In article <56q2m4$8db@innocence.interface-business.de>, : J Wunsch <joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de> wrote: : : >All this does only work since the Czechs are really able to pronounce : >the `l' in this name. They can also pronounce an `r', as in `prst' : >(which means `finger' IIRC). : : Not only that, 'prst' is one of the words in an interesting sentence: : : Strc prst skrz krk : : which means "Stick finger down throat." As you can see, the sentence contains : no vowels. The 'c' is pronounced /ch/ as in teach, chain, etc. Aside from : that, you're on your own. :) Yeah, but if you've ever taken a linguistics class, you know that 'r' is a glide, along with 'l'. Here, pronounce the following: slt, mlk, chrt, flk, blt Notice that, while it doesn't sound right (in English, glides don't occur between consonants [they can occur without a pronounced vowel neighbor at the ends of words, like 'raffle' and 'waffle' and 'pickle' and 'piddle', but notice they're followed by an 'e', which, while silent, still tells us that we've got a problem with leaving glides alone without vowels]) Anyway, even though it doesn't sound right, you can still say it without any considerable difficulty. This is how Czech (and the rest of those baltic languages) can get away with it. Hell, 'Croatia' is really "Hrvatska" (where the "H" is a uvular trill, kind of like gargling). Words with glides instead of vowels may _look_ ugly to us, but the lack of vowels is the least hard part for an English speaker to actually master. It's those damned gutteral consonants that make my throat sore! ...but then, perhaps we're AGREEING on this... Ian "I can pronounce my friend "Ana Vrdoljak"'s name" Young. : : -- Derek