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From: wongth@ecf.toronto.edu (WONG  THOMAS CHEE-WEI)
Subject: Re: Question: Vowelless word
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References: <3k0rl6$mq7@netnews.upenn.edu> <AARS9PlG74@mlan.msk.ru> <D5upHE.G23@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <1995Mar31.165552.19331@relay.acadiau.ca>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 21:45:25 GMT
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In article <1995Mar31.165552.19331@relay.acadiau.ca>,
Alan McKay <alan@dragon.acadiau.ca> wrote:
>My Russian prof in Germany (from Czech Republic) once gave us a whole
>Czech sentence that has no vowels, as such.  I can't remember what
>it was in Czech, but I know that it means something like:
>"Stick your finger down your throat"
>
>Apparantly when certain consonants appear together in Czech, they
>imply half-vowels, and thus eliminate the need to write a vowel.
>
>Can anyone give us this Czech sentence?
>
>-- 
"Strc^ prst v krk", where c^ is a 'c' with a hatchek (inverted macron), 
pronounced like English 'ch'; and 'v' is in this case pronounced like the 
English 'f'.  I don't think thcertain consonants 'imply vowels';
the consonants /r/, /l/ can in Cz be _used_ as vowels, that is syllabic
liquids.  They did, however, imply vowels in Old Church Slavic and even
early Cz, where they were pronounced with a vocalic accompaniment (non-
phonemic):  Cz vlk = O.C.S. vl@k@, where @ is probably similar to the vowel
in Eng 'book' (vlk = Greek lukos = Lat lupus < IE *wlkwos, which again had
a syllabic liquid).  An interesting situation exists in certain Moravian
dialects, which distinguish both length and palatalization among the syllabic
liquids.

Milan Rezac
