Czech
Jana Dankovicova
Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK
Czech belongs to the western group of Slavic languages and is spoken as a mother tongue
mainly in the Czech Republic. In its two provinces of Bohemia and Moravia it is spoken by
about 10 million people. There are also some relatively large Czech-speaking communities
in North America and smaller, isolated ones in neighbouring European countries. The
closest related languages are Slovak and Polish.
A continuous tradition of Czech writing begins in the late thirteenth century. A
recognisably near-modern spoken language and written standard had evolved by the
sixteenth century. The spoken language continued to develop after the establishment of a
relatively stable written standard. Thus when the written form underwent a modernizing
revival from the late eighteenth century, the result was a noticeable divergence between
written and spoken usage. This state has persisted to the present day.
The transcription of the sample text is based on the speech of a native speaker from
Prague speaking standard Czech.
Consonants
Illustrations of the IPA 71
about the interaction between the glottal
and velar fricatives
allophonically. For more detail
Assimilation below. Two affricate phonemes
with respect to assimilation, see the section on
voiceless post-alveolar /tf/. They both have an
occur, a voiceless alveolar /ts7 and a
assimilation (see below).
allophonic voiced counterpart arising from voicing
as in ruka /ruka/ 'hand', and /*/, as in
feka /reka/ 'river'. The
There are two trills, hi,
with 1-3 periods of vibration. It is immune from voicing
first one is an alveolar apical trill
positions in the word. In the case of
/r/, the place of
assimilation and occurs voiced in all
Id. Although it may be produced with the blade of
articulation is normally similar to that for
characteristic from hi is the number of vibrations which
the tongue, the main differentiating
than and their lesser amplitude than for the vibrations in hi. Also,
may be 1-2 greater in hi,
greater. This sound often starts as a trill
is narrower and the velocity of
air
the constriction
fricative
the best term for it is 'alveolar trill
but continues as a fricative and thus probably
/r/ used in Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) does
with the symbol Irl. (The laminal diacritic
voiceless allophone of lXl occurs in places
A
not capture the sound's defining property.)
where voicing assimilation applies.
and A labiodental nasal may occur
There are three nasal phonemes, /ml, In/ /ji/.
allophonically, as the result of assimilation
of the place of articulation with a following
occurs allophonically before a velar stop, and in this
labiodental fricative. The velar nasal
/l/ is always voiced and, in
The lateral standard Czech, it has a clear
position it is obligatory.
all positions in the word. However, some Czech dialects have a
or neutral quality in
(which is often palatalized) and dark IV. The bilabial nasal
phonemic contrast between /l/
sedm /sedm/ 'seven'; vlk lv\V
/m/, lateral IV, and sonorant trill hi can be syllabic, e.g.
'wolf; vrba /vrba/ 'willow'.
p
Czech
Jana DankoviCova
Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK
Czech belongs to the western group of Slavic languages and is spoken as a mother tongue
mainly in the Czech Republic. In its two provinces of Bohemia and Moravia it is spoken by
about 10 million people. There are also some relatively large Czech-speaking communities
in North America and smaller, isolated ones in neighbouring European countries. The
closest related languages are Slovak and Polish.
A continuous tradition of Czech writing begins in the late thirteenth century. A
recognisably near-modern spoken language and written standard had evolved by the
sixteenth century. The spoken language continued to develop after the establishment of a
relatively stable written standard.Thus when the written form underwent a modernizing
revival from the late eighteenth century, the result was a noticeable divergence between
written and spoken usage. This state has persisted to the present day.
The transcription of the sample text is based on the speech of a native speaker from
Prague speaking standard Czech.
Consonants
Illustrations of the IPA 73
[jeEki:]).
Voicing assimilation affects most consonants. Apart from matching voicing to the
following consonant, it also causes devoicing at the end of a word before a pause. When
subject to voicing assimilation, the voiced glottal fricative /nV and voiceless velar fricative Ixl
behave like a voiced/voiceless pair. For instance, in beh Prahdu /fi/ in Mh is realized as [x].
Suprasegmentals
Primary lexical stress falls on the first syllable of a word; thus it does not have a coritrastive
phonological role and functions rather as an indication of the word boundary. The stress
marks in the transcription below indicate which syllables were accented by the speaker in
the recorded passage. II represents the major and I the minor intonation phrase boundary.
Transcription of recorded passage
'severa:k a 'sluritse se 'fiaidali I gdo 'z jiix je 'siljiejji: II f torn 'spatnli
'potsestne:fio I 'kteri: 'kraitjel 'zafialen 'plaijcem II 'ujednali tedi I 38 'ten se ma:
'pova3ovat 'za siljiejjiifio II gdo 'prvjii: 'doka^e I 'abisi 'potsestni: 'svle:kl
'plaijc II 'tu zatjal 'severaik 'foukat 'ze fji: 'si:li II ale 'tfiim viits 'foukal II ei:m
'viits se 'potsestni: 'zafialoval 'do sve:fio 'pla:sce II 'konetjjie se 'severaik 'vzdal
'marne:fio 'u:sili: II 'pak zatjalo 'sluritse 'svixit a 'flrait II a 'za jiejaki: 'okamsik
'polsestni: I 'ktere:mu bilo 'fiorko II 'sxojil 'pla:Jc II 'tak musel 'severa:k 'uznat I
3e 'sluritse je 'siljiejji: II
Orthographic version
Severak a Slunce se hadali, kdo z nich je silnejsi. V torn spatrili pocestneho, ktery kracel
zahalen plastem. Ujednali tedy, ze ten se ma povazovat za silnejsfho, kdo prvni dokaze, aby
si pocestny svlekl plast'. Tu zacal Severak foukat ze vsf sily, ale cim vie foukal, tim vie se
pocestny zahaloval do sveho plaste. Konecne se Severak vzdal marneho lisili. Pak zacalo
Slunce svitit a hfat a za nejaky okamzik pocestny, kteremu bylo horko, shodil pli§t\ Tak
musel Sevemk uznat, ze Slunce je silnejsi.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Martin Barry, Francis Nolan, Zdena Palkova, Miroslav Ptacek, Premysl Janota, Marie
Svobodova and James Naughton for their comments and suggestions.
References
KUCERA, H. (1961). The Phonology of Czech. The Hague: Mouton & Co.
LADEFOGED, P. AND MADDIESON, I. (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages.
Oxford: Blackwell.
PALKOVA, Z. (1994). Fonetika afonologie destiny. Prague: Karolinum.
ROMPORTL, M. (1973). Zdklady fonetiky Prague: Statni Pedagogicke Nakladatelstvf,
.
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association :
A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Association, July 1999.
