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Czech orthography
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Czech orthography is a system of rules for correct writing (orthography) in the Czech language.
The Czech orthographic system is diacritic. The hácek is added to standard Latin letters for expressing sounds which are foreign to the Latin language (but some digraphs have been kept - ch, dž). The acute accent is used for long vowels.
an summarize that the Czech orthography is primarily phonemic (rather than phonetic) because an individual grapheme usually corresponds to an individual phoneme (rather than a sound).
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Encyclopedia
Czech orthography is a system of rules for correct writing (orthography) in the Czech language.
The Czech orthographic system is diacritic. The hácek is added to standard Latin letters for expressing sounds which are foreign to the Latin language (but some digraphs have been kept - ch, dž). The acute accent is used for long vowels.
Principles
We can summarize that the Czech orthography is primarily phonemic (rather than phonetic) because an individual grapheme usually corresponds to an individual phoneme (rather than a sound). However, some graphemes and letter groups are remnants of historical phonemes which were used in the past but have since merged with other phonemes. Some changes in the phonology have not been reflected in the orthography.
K versus G
The voicing of a Czech consonant assimilates to that of the following consonant, if any (spodoba znelosti, cf. phonation). However, consonants are written etymologically (contrary to Croatian orthography). For historical reasons, the consonant [g] is written k in Czech words like kde (where) or kdo (who). This is because the letter g was historically used for the consonant [j].
The original Slavic phoneme /g/ changed into /h/ in the Old-Czech period. Thus, /g/ is not a separate phoneme (with a corresponding grapheme) in words of domestic origin; it occurs only in foreign words (e.g. graf, gram, etc.).
"Soft" I and "Hard" Y
The letters i/í and y/ý are both pronounced . Y was originally pronounced as in contemporary Polish or Russian. However, in the 14th century, this difference in standard pronunciation disappeared (it has been preserved in some dialects in Ostrava and its surroundings). In words of domestic origin, "soft" i is written only after "soft" or "ambiguous" consonants while "hard" y follows "hard" or "ambiguous" consonants.
The sounds are written di/dí, ti/tí and ni/ní instead of di/dí, ti/tí and ni/ní. The sounds are denoted, respectively, by dy/dý, ty/tý, ny/ný.
In words of foreign origin, di, ti, ni are pronounced , that is, similarly to inherited dy, ty, ny, e.g. in diktát, dictation.
Ambiguous consonants can be followed by both i and y. In some cases, they distinguish different meanings of words, e.g. být (to be) vs. bít (to beat), mýt (to wash) vs. mít (to have). At school pupils must memorise word roots and prefixes where y is written. I is written in other cases.
Writing i or y in endings is dependent on the declension patterns.
Historically the letter c was hard, but this changed in the 19th century. However, in some words it is still followed by the letter y: tác (plate) – tácy (plates).
Letter E
This letter can never appear in the initial position, and is pronounced according to the preceding consonant:
are written de, te, ne instead of de, te, ne (analogous to di, ti, ni).
Be, pe, ve, fe are written instead of bje, pje, vje, fje. But in some words (vjezd, entry, drive-in, objem, volume), bje, vje are written because –je- is preceded by the prefixes v- or ob- in such cases.
is written me instead of mne, except for etymological reasons in some words (jemný, soft -> jemne, softly).
The letter e is a vestige of Old-Czech palatalization. The originally palatalizing phoneme /e/ became extinct, changing to or , but it is preserved as a grapheme.
Letter U
There are two ways in Czech to write long : ú or u.
Historically, long /ú/ changed into the diphthong /ou/ . In 1848 ou at the beginning of word-roots was changed into ú in words like ourad. Thus, the letter ú is written at the beginning of words and word-roots only: úhel (angle), trojúhelník (triangle).
Long /ó/ changed into the diphthong /uo/ . The letter o in the diphthong was sometimes written as a ring above the letter u: u, e.g. kón > kuon > kun (horse). Later, the pronunciation changed into but the grapheme /u/ has remained. It is similar to German orthography change from ue into ü. It never occurs at the beginning of words: dum (house), domu (home).
Voicing assimilation
Voiced consonants can be pronounced voicelessly, and voiceless consonants voiced respectively, so the whole consonant group is often pronounced voiced resp. voiceless. Written voiced resp. voiceless counterparts are kept according to the etymology of the word, e.g. odpadnout (to fall away) - od- is a prefix, written /d/ is devoiced here because of the following voiceless /p/.
Final devoicing
Unlike in English, voiced consonants are pronounced voicelessly in the final position in words. In declension, they are voiced in cases where the words take on endings.
Compare:
- led – ledy (ice – ices)
- let – lety (flight – flights)
Agreement between the subject and the predicate
The predicate must be always in accordance with the subject in the sentence - in number and person (personal pronouns), and with past and passive participles also in gender. This grammatical principle affects the orthography (see also "Soft" I and "Hard" Y) – it is especially important for the correct choice and writing of plural endings of the participles.
Examples:
| Gender | Sg. | Pl. | English |
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| masculine animate | pes byl koupen | psi byli koupeni | a dog was bought/dogs were bought |
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| masculine inanimate | hrad byl koupen | hrady byly koupeny | a castle was bought/castles were bought |
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| feminine | kocka byla koupena | kocky byly koupeny | a cat was bought/cats were bought |
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| neuter | mesto bylo koupeno | mesta byla koupena | a town was bought/towns were bought |
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The mentioned example shows both past (byl, byla ...) and passive (koupen, koupena ...) participles. The accordance in gender takes effect in the past tense and the passive voice, not in the present and future tenses in active voice.
If the complex subject is a combination of nouns of different genders, masculine animate gender is prior to others and the masculine inanimate and feminine genders are prior to the neuter gender.
Examples:
- muži a ženy byli - men and women were
- kocky a kotata byly - cats and kittens were
- my jsme byli (my = we all/men) vs. my jsme byly (my = we women) - we were
Priority of genders:
- masculine animate > masculine inanimate & feminine > neuter
Punctuation
The use of the full stop (.), the colon (:), the semicolon (;), the question mark and the exclamation mark (!) is similar to their use in other European languages. The full stop is placed after a number if it stands for ordinal numerals, e.g. 1. den (= první den) – the 1st day.
The comma is used to separate individual parts in complex-compound sentences, lists, isolated parts of sentences, etc. Its use in Czech is different from English. Subordinate (dependent) clauses must be always separated from their principle (independent) clauses, for instance. A comma is never placed before a (and), i (as well as), ani (nor) and nebo (or) when they connect parts of sentences or clauses in copulative conjunctions. It must be placed in non-copulative conjunctions (consequence, emphasis, exclusion, etc.).
Examples:
- otec a matka – father and mother, otec nebo matka – father or mother (coordinate relation – no commas)
- Je to pravda, nebo ne? – Is it true, or not? (exclusion)
- Pršelo, a proto nikdo neprišel. – It was raining, and this is why nobody came. (consequence)
- Já vím, kdo to je. – I know who he is. Myslím, že se mýlíš. – I think (that) you are wrong. (subordinate relation)
- Jak se máš, Anno? – How are you, Anna? (addressing a person)
- Karel IV., ceský král, založil hrad Karlštejn. – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian king, founder of Karlštejn Castle.
Quotation marks. The first one preceding the quoted text is placed to the bottom line:
- Petr rekl: „Prijdu zítra.“ – Peter said: "I'll come tomorrow."
Other types of quotation marks: ‚‘ »«
Apostrophes are used rarely in Czech. They can denote a missing sound in non-standard speech, but it is optional, e.g. rek or rek (= rekl, he said).
Capital letters
The first word of every sentence and all proper names are capitalized. Special cases are:
- Respect expression – optional:
Ty (you sg.), Tvuj (your sg.), Vy (you pl.), Váš (your pl.); Buh (God), Mistr (Master), etc. Headings – The first word is capitalized. Cities, towns and villages – All words are capitalized, except for prepositions: Nové Mesto nad Metují (New-Town-upon-Metuje). Geographical or local names – The first word is capitalized, common names as ulice (street), námestí (square) or more (sea) are not capitalized: ulice Svornosti (Concordance Street), Václavské námestí (Wenceslas Square), Severní more (North Sea). Since 1993, the initial preposition and the first following word are capitalized: lékárna U Cerného orla (Black Eagle Pharmacy). Official names of institutions – The first word is capitalized: Mestský úrad v Kolíne (The Municipal Office in Kolín) vs. mestský úrad (a municipal office). Names of nations and nationality nouns are capitalized: Anglie (England), Anglican (Englishman), Nemecko (Germany), Nemec (German). Adjectives derived from geographical names and names of nations, such as anglický (English – adjective) and pražský (Prague – adjective, e.g. pražské metro, Prague subway), are not. Names of languages are not capitalized: anglictina (English language). Possessive adjectives derived from proper names are capitalized: Pavluv dum (Paul's house).
See also
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