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Chapter
Czech
GENERAL INFORMATION
Number of speakers: 9.2 million speakers in Czech Republic and 9.5 million worldwide
Writing system: Latin alphabet with diacritic marks above some letters that indicate
longer or softer sounds. There are three different diacritical marks. There is a one‐to‐
one correspondence between letters and sounds.
Language Family: Indo‐European–Slavic—West—Czech‐Slovak
Official language in: Czech Republic
PHONOLOGY AND PHONOTACTICS
Patterns of Native Language Influence: Example:
Replacement of voiceless “th” (θ) with /t/ thumb – tum
Replacement of voiced “th” (ð) with /d/ or they – dey OR zey
/z/
Replacement of /w/ with /v/ what – vat
why – vy
19
/ɹ/ distorted in all positions, often rabbit ‐ rrrabbit 19
resembling a trilled /r/ in initial position
Voiced consonants (i.e. /d/, /v/) are devoiced dog – dok
in the final position of words five – fife
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