Drill exercise.—Pronounce distinctly:
hněv, anger; čti, read; zdi, walls; štěstí, happiness; kořist, prey; zvon, bell; sklep, cellar.
Šla Prokopka pro Prokopa, Prokope, dej trochu oukropa. Třiatřicet křepelek letělo přes třiatřicet stříbrných střech.
The Bohemian Alphabet.
a, á, b, c, č, d, ď, e, é, é, ě, f, g, h, ch, i, í, j, k, l, m, n, ň, o, ó, p, r, ř, s, š, t, ť, u, ú, ů, v, y, ý, z, ž.
The letters q, x, w occur only in words of foreign origin.
The vowels a, e, i, o, u, y have full vocal tone. Consonants are divided into surds ch, k, t, ť, p, s, c, š, č, f. They have a dull sound and no vocal tone while the sonants h, g, d, ď, b, z, ž, v, have a clear sound and light vocal tone.—When a surd follows the sonant or vice versa, either in the same word or in two neighboring words, then either the surd changes into a sonant or the sonant into a surd so that they are both of the same quality.
Examples:
- lehký, light, is pronounced as lechký,
- nehty, nails, is pronounced as nechty,
- kde, where, is pronounced as gde,
- kdo, who, is pronounced as gdo,
- v Praze is pronounced as f Praze,
- bez práce is pronounced as bes práce.