There could be an arbitrary glottal stop in the place of the hyphen. The glottal stop is obligatory for double "l". Thus the pronunciation of "byli" and "byl-li" is clearly different. The l's in the latter are clearly separated in different syllables. No, there is no schwa. Nucleus of Czech syllables consists of one single phone, either of vowel (a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, u, ú), or of a diphthong (ou, au, eu), or of a syllabic consonant (r, l, m, s) which is always preceded by onset.
Question! Mít - to have mýt - to wash What is the difference in how they are pronounced? Or are they complete "homophones" where you have to guess from the content.
In standard Czech yes, but close to the Polish border (e.g. Ostrava, Těšín) you would here the difference between i and y
The book I am learning from is very much centered around Prague, so I assume that is the accent I'll be learning, is it considered a nice one? Then again, if it is anything like English you need to be learning a long time and be very good before people can hear the accents of your teachers, outside of a few words with obvious differences like "progress", or if you learned English from Billy Connolly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyW0riD54nY (careful - some curse words!)
Laylah: I'm listening to The Today Programme at the moment so I'll listen to Billy Connolly later but that really did make me laugh a lot - the idea of learning 'English' from Billy Connolly! That's a bit like the way I get my head round how Czechs and Slovaks understand each other. I think of it as how someone from England would understand a broad Glaswegian and vice versa ie they each speak their own 'language' but can understand the other one while not being able to speak it!
Maybe it's kind of like Punjabi? In that, loads of people can understand it, because it has bits of their own language, whatever language they speak. I really want to learn that - the almost universal language! There was a man on the television before, he was a Seek visiting France, he had learned some French in school and was trying in vein to ask directions from a puzzled French man. In the end he just asked in Punjabi, and the man happily showed him the way in French! It's not a particularly good Billy Connoly clip but it's a fine example. I saw an ad for someone in France looking for a qualified EFL teacher to be an opair.. but they had to have a Scottish accent!
That Billy Conolly clip is hillarious. Where do I know his face from. Was he in the series Fawlty Towers?
I don't think so, a lot of people from across the water get him mixed up with John Clease, who played Basil. He was in "The Last Samurai" (worst film ever!) and a couple of other things playing serious roles. That film with Judy Dench as Queen Victoria as well. But really he's a comedian, he just acts every now and then for the craic.
How can anyone mix up Billy Connolly and John Cleese?! :lol: There's the small matter of the hair for starters! By the way, he's married to Pamela Stephenson, a very clever, attractive blonde who made her name in a satirical series in the UK in the 80's called Not the 9 o'clock News, so-called because it was on BBC2 against the 9 o'clock News on BBC1. Bizarrely, she's now earning a crust as a psycho-therapist or something equally odd.
John Cleese, of course, he was also in Monty Python's hysterical search for the Holy Grail movie too, right? And 'A Fish called Wanda'. So, I wonder where I recognize this Billy Connolly fellow from. I saw 'The last Samurai'...what role did Connoly play in that?...I'm sure I'll remember as soon as you say it. You Brits have a funny language....earning a crust, I guess our closest would be....earning a pittance from....
I've just listened to the Billy Connolly clip - excellent! I suppose you could call him an "risqué raconteur"! Incidentally, does any techie out there know why that is the first You Tube clip I've ever watched without the irritating downloading delays?! Another of life's little mysteries...
Perhaps it is a lower bitrate - lower quality image a (more blurry and pixilated) and sound (fuzzy) means the you tube computer and your computer can talk to each other and swap information much faster. Or maybe your Internet connection is having a good day
You know all those British isles people look the same! Aye, that was the show they met on! I've seen the very clip, guy walks into a bar... She wrote a book about him, how horrible! To be put under a microscope by your own wife!
It's not quite the same, to us. A pittance is obviously meant to be a very small amount whereas if you say earn a crust, there's often a sub-text that it's a actually quite a lot of money! And that's rich, an American saying that the British have a funny language! At least we don't say 'like' three times in every sentence! Or is it only the Americans who travel to Prague? I was standing next to two girls at a tram stop today and after five minutes, I could have slapped them! :twisted:
Easy there, Polednikovo, hold your horses. It's not nice to slap the tourists, even if they are like, well, like giddy tourists. Take a deep breath, this too will pass. Now that crust, and pittance, understanding on my part. There's an example. They say the only thing that separates the English and the Americans is the language.
Could some moderator please correct the title of this folder on pronunciation (with an N before the C). Thank you.
Thank you, Qcumber. It's been irritating me for weeks - nearly as much as Americans saying 'like' all the time - but I didn't want you all to think I was a typical English pedant!
While you guys are correcting our new topic titles, could you correct my Kupec Benatský, I wrote Kopec Benatský, and by the way I've been looking for that topic and don't know where it went to. I was wanting to review it. Hope this reaches the ears of one of you magical moderator people. I put that into the forum searcher and it found nothing.
