Translation.... grandpa

[Jana]

I am sorry, but the only pronunciation I know and have used all my life is babička with short -i- and stress on the first syllable.

[Zeisig]

bitch is pronounced /bItS/ and
beach is pronounced /bi:tS/

There are two distinct vowels /i/ and /I/ in English. I personally make no difference when speaking English. My bitch sounds like my beach (in sense of the vowel quality).

[Sova]

Jana,

The English "short i" is NOT the same as the Czech "short i." The word "long" in the sense of English vowels has no bearing on the duration of pronunciation, but actually serves to distinguish different vowel sounds produced by the same letter. In Czech the short "i" and long "i" are both best described as an English "long e," the difference being in the duration of the vowel sound. The short "i" sound in English is a vowel sound something between a Czech "e" and a Czech "i" but doesn't really exist in Czech. Most non-native English speakers seem unable to correctly form the English short "i" vowel sound (among others).

See also the thread The famous "R" consonant !!, particularly on page 10 the post by Ceit near the top, and my post at the bottom of the page, and also my post on the thread Vitame Vas?

[Jana]

To Sova: I am aware of the difference between Czech and English concept of short and long vowels; however, the Czech pronunciation of babička does not sound at all like ba-beach-ka (I let several native English speakers pronounce both transcriptions, i.e. bah-bitch-kah and bah-beach-ka, and I must say the "beach" version sounds funny to my ears).

[stepan]

I have always heard the "Ba-bitch-ka" with emphasis on the first syllable. However, I have a sister-in-law who insists on pronouncing it "ba-beach-ka" with emphasis on the "beach" syllable. It sounds VERY funny - she said that she did not want to say the word "bitch".

[dzurisova]

My native Czech husband states that it is definately Ba-bitch-ka. He states that there is an í with a čárka on the end and an i with a tečka on the end of it. The i with the tečka creates the bitch sound whereas the í with the čárka creates the beech sound. Babička has the i with the tečka on the end which makes the prounciation Ba-bitch-ka.
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[rkasparek]