Words like 'hadr', with the hard 'r' sound at the end. That would be considered two syllables...ha-dr, right? Then, for the plural....hadry, hadrům, hadrech...would it be three syllables ha-dr-ech? or would it then become ha-drech?
And, in the same spirit of pronunciation questions, what about the -n 'hacek' as the ending of words like pisen or the town of Trebon? I have listened hard to native speakers including my Czech ucitelka and do not hear the -je sound that I would think should be there given the ending -n 'hacek'. Instead, the sound to my uneducated ears is no different than -n (no hacek).
I don't know about your question, MichaelM, I hear spoken czech so rarely. But, yet another question Is there a difference in the way these two words are pronounced?, or is the meaning just figured out by context of the sentence? Jeli k obchodu. Je-li jít se mnou, má si pošpíchat.
Maybe not a good example. that would probably be Chce-li jít se mnou. How about Je-li tam sám, bude osamělý.
There is definitely a difference in pronunciation of n and ň Compare with similar (or same) spanish ñ in señor, enseñar The same sound is in czech words where you do see ..ni.. (pronounced ňi) in czech, there is a distinct difference in pronunciation: blázen (fool) x bázeň (awe, fear) ohon (tail) x Třeboň (local name)
This thread lacks one important thing - examples where schwa appears. so even after reading it in past and now again i know almost nothing abous schwa in cz(resp. i still think there is no such thing).
Well that makes it easier . If a native czech doesn't even notice such a fine nuance, if it exists at all, then certainly I won't.
If you're of my generation, scrimshaw, you'll recognize the schwa sound from Elementary English classes as the upside down "e" [ə] symbol in phonetics. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa.
I get it. It is the nondistinctive uhhhh sound, that does not fit the sound for any of the used vowels, yet fills a gap. I see why they suggest the 'a' in 'about'. The sound there neither fits the long 'a' sound as in 'fate', or the short 'a' sound as in 'cat'. But still, I'm sure my ears wouldn't notice such a thing.
I've got it, finally. It's just I didn't know that that sound had a name. I think a good example, for Englísh English speakers at least (ie not Americans) would be how we say 'Yorkshireman'. It's not Yorkshireman, in the same way as we would say man in 'a man from Yorkshire', but a Yorkshirem-schwa-n!
Yes, it's been a matter of ongoing debate between the linguists in this forum as to whether or not Czech uses the schwa.
Polednikova, I don't recall hearing the word "schwa" in elementary school. I remember we called it something else, but I can't remember exactly what.
At least it can be used explaining the so called syllabic ("slabikotvorné") "R" or "L" 8) Vrhl (se z mostu) [Vərhəl] ... Prst (finger) = [pərst] and not [prəst] 8)
Yes! This( pərst and Vərhəl )is what you can hear when someone from foreign(esp eng. speaking) country is speaking czech.