Czech-Czech Dictionary

[Bohaemus]

The most common prothetic (prothesis = the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word) consonant in the Slavic languages is "j". Thus, we have: jablko, jako, jeden, jehla, jiskra, jitro, etc. etc., but almost no words with initial "a", "e" and "i".
(An exercise for you: try to find out a Czech word with initial "e"!)
The most probable reason: our Slavic ancestors didn't like hiatus(es). The hiatus (from Latin hiare = to yawn, Czech term is "průzev" or "hiát") is an unpleasant sound between two adjacent vowels, as in "Via_Appia".

Another usual prothetic consonants are "v" and "h", but in Czech language they are considered to be colloquial or dialectical (do okna - do vokna, do Olomouce - do Holomouce) and almost never written. Otherwise you could wonder that no Czech word has a vowel in its beginning.

[Halef]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bohaemus:
(An exercise for you: try to find out a Czech word with initial "e"!)
</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Erteple

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">

(do okna - do vokna, do Olomouce - do Holomouce)
</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Rather "do Holomóca"

[Bohaemus]

Myslím, že to slovo nelze uznat jako české:

erteple = der Erdapfel