[lbo-talk] Greece, was Re: Bar-bar-bar Barian (Was Re: CockeyedOptimism)

Andy andy274 at gmail.com
Thu Jan 22 10:19:22 PST 2009


On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:


> That would be pronounced something liike ZHREKO in Czech. As close as
> transliteratons usually come between different languages.

Hm. G is a foreign letter in Czech, usually morphed into H (Praha/Praga). So one might expect Hrecko, and hr- is a perfectly legit combo. Consonants tend to get softened (like R to Ř) by rules that are very regular, at least by Czech standards.

Ř is a funny sound, supposedly unique to Czech, and notoriously difficult to pronouce. A lot of Czechs can't do it. Radio Prague interviewed some Czech-speaking foreigners living in Prague, and one wondered how a language could evolve to be unpronouncable to its own native speakers.

-- Andy



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