Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.alpha.net!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!ames!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix.gen.nz!kriha
From: kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz (Paul J. Kriha)
Subject: Re: Question: Vowelless word
Message-ID: <3ljv41$kok_001@actrix.gen.nz>
Sender: news@actrix.gen.nz (News Administrator)
Organization: Kriha Consultants Pty Ltd
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 16:30:57 GMT
References: <3k0rl6$mq7@netnews.upenn.edu> <AARS9PlG74@mlan.msk.ru> <D5upHE.G23@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <1995Mar31.165552.19331@relay.acadiau.ca> <D6Br3p.2ML@ecf.toronto.edu>
X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #3
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: kriha.actrix.gen.nz
Lines: 40

In article <D6Br3p.2ML@ecf.toronto.edu>,
   wongth@ecf.toronto.edu (WONG  THOMAS CHEE-WEI) wrote:
>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

"Strc^ prst skrz krk" 

and another example where l's are used as vowels is

"Mlz^ pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh"
(slug full of spots got wet from the fog  :-)

Sure you need to say something like that once in a while?


Paul JK
