Sunday, August 25, 2019

No Vowels

I'm still taking Czech lessons several days per week so that I can pass my B1 language exam.  Even after all these years I am still amazed by the lack of vowels.

There are four single letter prepositions that are consonants.

K = to, toward
S = with
V = in
Z = from

The shortest word, more than a single letter without a vowel, is hl which means "he moved".

The longest word without any vowels is čtvrthrst which means "one quarter of a handful".  A real difficult one for me is the seven letter word zcvrnkl which means "he flicked".  Fortunately I hardly ever need to say it.

Three crazy sentences without any vowels are:
Prd krt skrz drn, zprv zhlt hrst zrn.  A mole farted through grass, first swallowing a handful of grain.

Chrt pln skvrn vtrhl skrz trs chrp v čtvrť Krč.  A greyhound full of stains burst through a cluster of cornflowers in the neighbourhood of Krč.

Plch pln skvrn prch skrz drn prv zhlt čtvrthrst zrn.  A dormouse full of stains escaped through grass after first easting a quarter handful of grain.

At least I can now finally say these two tongue twisters.

Strč prst skrz krk.  Put your finger in your neck/throat.
Vlk zmrzl, prst zvlhl.  Frozen wolf, wet finger.

Oh my poor tongue.  Sometimes I feel that trying to speak Czech will cause my tongue to break.  Or at least get a serious sprain.

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