Czech Language Pronunciation Guide The following pronunciation guide was compiled
and submitted for your use by Dr. Geoffrey Chew, Royal Holloway College,
University of London The Czech Alphabet and Pronunciation
A
a (short)
u in English but
á (long)
a in father
B
b
b (unaspirated as in French)
C
c
ts in bits
È
è
ch in church
D
d
d (dental)
Ï
ï
d in English dew
E
e (short)
e in met
É
é (long)
e in there; colloquially sometimes
shortened as if é in French été, or further still
ì
ye in yes
F
f
f (usually in words of foreign origin)
G
g
g in go (only in words of foreign
origin)
H
h
voiced h more or less as in inhale
Ch
ch
ch in loch
I
i (short)
i in it or in French vif,
the same as Cz. y
í (long)
i in machine; colloquially sometimes
shortened
J
j
y in yes, or (after a vowel) y
in
boy
K
k
k (unaspirated as in French)
L
l
l (medium as in last; can be used
as a vowel, as in vlk)
M
m
m (occasionally used as a vowel, as in
osm)
N
n
n (alveolar)
Ò
ò
n in English new
O
o (short)
o in for
ó (long)
oo in door
P
p
p (unaspirated as in French)
R
r
r (rolled as in Scots; can be used as
a vowel, as in prst)
Ø
ø
r and ¹ (English sh) or
¾
(s
in pleasure) pronounced simultaneously
- qu (pronounced kv), w (pronounced
v)
and x (pronounced ks) appear only in foreign words.
D¾
represents
the single sound of English j in jelly and occurs mainly
in words of foreign origin, e.g., d¾ungle (jungle).
Diphthongs:
aj, áj
like English eye
ej
ai in bait
ìj
like English yea
ij, íj, yj
ee with audible final y
oj
oy in boy
uj, ùj
oi in doing
au
ow in now, in foreign words only (e.g.,
auto)
eu
eu as in Latin deus, in foreign
words only (e.g., neutrální)
ou
ow in show, frequent in Czech words
- Additional letters found in Slovak and sometimes
in dialect but not standard in Czech:
ä, L', l', å, Ô, ô, à
Source: R.G.A. de Bray, Guide
to the Slavonic Languages, revised edition (London: Dent, 1969), p.
445+.
The Czech Dialects
Czech dialects fall into six groups:
The Central dialect, with Prague as its center;
The North-Eastern dialects, northeast of this
area:
The South-Western dialects, southwest of the
Central dialects and cut off by those from any common boundary with the
North-Eastern
dialects. (These three groups make up the dialect of Bohemia proper);
The transition group of Czecho-Moravian dialects;
The Hanák dialects of Moravia, centered around
Brno and Prostìjov;
The Lach dialects of Silesia, which form a
transition to Polish and also remind one of the
Eastern Slovak dialects.
From the point of view of Slavonic literary languages,
the most important group for Czech is the Central group, which forms
the basis of modern literary Czech and whose phonetic characteristics are
those of colloquial Czech in general and also features of Prague speech
in particular.
The Czecho-Moravian dialects form a transition
from the Czech dialects to the Hanák dialect of Moravia (and to
Slovak). Here the Czech pøehláska or vowel mutation is unknown,
and ¹è is used for ¹t', e.g.:
e¹èe for je¹tì = still, yet
Soft dentals are preserved before e in the
Past Participle Passive and Infinitive, e.g.:
mlát'enej for mlácen = threshed
had'et for házeti = to throw
The Hanák dialects are notable especially
for their peculiar vowels. They have o, ó for original Czech
u,
ú,
e.g.:
bodo for budu = I shall be
pijó for pijú (now pijí in
literary Czech) = they drink
é is used for ý, í, and ej,
e.g.:
dobré stréc for dobrý strýc
= kind uncle
prosém for prosím = please
véce for vejce = egg
and e is sometimes used for i and y,
e.g.:
oèetel for uèitel = teacher
rebe for ryby = fish (nominative
plural)
Both h and v are used prothetically,
e.g.:
Holomóc for Olomouc = [name
of a town]
vokno for okno = window
The Czech vowel mutation is unknown. And ¹è
is used for ¹t' as above. Short vowels in roots agree with Slovak,
e.g.:
skala for skála = rock
and likewise the -ite ending for the Imperative,
e.g.:
nepadnite! = be careful that you don't fall!
The Lach dialects are clearly a transition
to Polish and have features in common with Eastern Slovak, although the
latter and the Lach dialects are not geographically contiguous.
Such common features are the absence of long vowels, the fixed stress accent
on the penultimate syllable, dz for Czech z from dj,
e.g.:
medzy for mezi = between
soft ¶and ¼for soft s and
z,
e.g.:
hu¶
for hus = goose
su¶ed
for soused = neighbor
¼ima
for zima = winter
soft æand d¼ for t' and d'
occurring also before all e's of whatever origin, e.g.:
ved¼eæe
for vedete = you lead
bud¼e
for bude = he will be
vydaæ
for vydati = to give out
n also is palatalized before all e's,
e.g.:
òe for ne = not, as in Slovak
y is pronounced as in Polish, e.g.:
dobry for dobrý = good
l is either soft (å) or hard (l) as
in Polish.
Instrumental singular of adjectives ends in -ym,
e.g. dobrym
¹è is used for ¹t', as in other
Czech dialects, Slovak and Polish, e.g.:
e¹èe = still, yet
A vowel is inserted with vocalic l and usually
with vocalic r.
o replaces a, as in the neighboring
Polish dialects, e.g.:
volom for volam = I call
The Czech pøehláska is not known.
As in Slovak, Church Slavonic ê becomes
a
and
ia, e.g.:
kuøa
= chicken, for kuøe, cf. Slovak kurèa, Polish kurczê trpia
= they suffer, for trpí, cf. Slovak trpia
Animates have Accusative plural = Genitive plural,
e.g.:
synuv = sons, cf. Czech syny, Slovak,
synov
These features all point to the fact that the Lach
dialects
of Czech are very archaic. Being far from the center where the later changes
originated, they escaped their influence and preserved many old features
such as are also preserved in Polish and Slovak today.
Finally, there is a dialect known as moravská
sloven¹tina, spoken in southern Moravia in the region known as Slovácko,
a transition dialect to Slovak.
Editor's note: A good introduction to the
dialect used in Prague is available in Charles E. Townsend's A Description
of Spoken Prague Czech (Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1990).
The
Czech and Slovak Music Society