Czech orthography is a system of rules for correct writing (orthography) in the Czech language. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... Czech (čeština []) is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian (Kashubian), and Lusatian Sorbian. ...

The Czech orthographic system is diacritic. The caron is added to standard Latin letters for expressing sounds which are strange to the Latin language (but some digraphs have been kept - ch, dž). The acute accent is used for long vowels. A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent mark, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Digraph has several meanings: directed graph, or digraph Digraph (orthography) Digraph (computing) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... The acute accent (   ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Principles

Underlying principles of Czech orthography are matter of dispute.^[1] Czech orthography is thus a compromise of:^[2]

1. phonetics
2. etymology
3. history
4. logic (analogic principle)^[3]

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 reminders 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. Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Not to be confused with Entomology, the study of insects. ... The title page to The Historians History Of The World. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ... A phonemic orthography is a writing system where the written graphemes correspond to phonemes, the spoken sounds of the language. ... In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... Look up phone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ...

K versus G

The voicing of a Czech consonant assimilates to that of the following consonant if any (spodoba znělosti, 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). The reason was that letter g was historically used for consonant [j]. Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. ... In phonetics, phonation is the use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ...

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 in foreign words only (e.g. graf, gram, etc.).

"Soft" I and "Hard" Y

The letters i/í and y/ý are both pronounced [ɪ/i:]. Y was originally pronounced [ɨ] 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. This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... Czech Republic Moravian-Silesian Ostrava 23  - Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz  - Hošťálkovice  - Hrabová  - Ostrava-Jih  - Krásné Pole  - Lhotka  - Mariánské Hory a Hulváky  - Martinov  - Michálkovice  - Nová BÄ›lá  - Nová Ves  - PetÅ™kovice  - Plesná  - Polanka nad Odrou  - Poruba  - Proskovice  - Pustkovec  - Radvanice a Bartovice  - Stará BÄ›lá  - Slezsk...

Letter groups di/dí, ti/tí and ni/ní [ɟɪ/ɟi:, cɪ/ci:, ɲɪ/ɲi:] are written instead of ďi/ďí, ťi/ťí and ňi/ňí. The sounds [dɪ/di:, tɪ/ti:, nɪ/ni:] are denoted, respectively, by dy/dý, ty/tý, ny/ný.

In words of foreign origin, di, ti, ni are pronounced [dɪ, tɪ, nɪ] as in dy, ty, ny, e.g. in diktát, dictation.

Ambiguous consonants can be followed by both i and y. In some cases, they distinguish various meanings of words, e.g. být (to be) vs. bít (to beat), mýt (to wash) vs. mít (to have). In the word roots and prefixes, y is written in enumerated words and their derivatives. Pupils must memorise these words at school. I is written in other cases
Writing i or y in endings is dependent on the declension patterns. The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Suffix. ... In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned...

Historically the letter c was hard, but this was changed in the 19th century. However, in some words it is followed by the ypsilon still, for example tác (plate) – tácy (plates). Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Upsilon (upper case , lower case ) is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. ...

Letter Ě

This letter can never be the first in a word and is pronounced according to the preceding consonant:

• Dě, tě, ně [ɟɛ, cɛ, ɲɛ] is written instead of ďe, ťe, ňe (analogically to di, ti, ni).
• Bě, pě, vě, fě is written instead of bje, pje, vje, fje. But in some words (vjezd, entry, drive-in, objem, volume), bje, vje is written because –je- is preceded by prefixes v- or ob- in such cases.
• Mě [mɲɛ] is written instead of mňe. For etymological reasons, mně is written in some words (jemný, soft -> jemně, softly).

The letter ě is a vestige of Old-Czech palatalization. The originally palatalizing phoneme /ě/ [ʲɛ] became extinct, changing to [ɛ] or [jɛ], but it is preserved as a grapheme. Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ...

Letter Ů

There are two ways in Czech to write long [uː]: ú or ů.

Historically, long /ú/ changed into the diphthong /ou/ [oʊ]. In 1848 ou at the beginning of word-roots was changed into ú in words like ouřad. Thus, the letter ú is written at the beginning of words and word-roots only: úhel (angle), trojúhelník (triangle). In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ...

Long /ó/ [oː] changed into the diphthong /uo/ [ʊo]. The letter o in the diphthong was sometimes written as a ring above the letter u: ů, e.g. kóň > kuoň > kůň (horse). Later, the pronunciation changed into [uː] but the grapheme /ů/ has remained. It is similar to German orthography change from ue into ü. It never occurs at the beginning of words: dům (house), domů (home). In punctuation, the term ring is usually reserved for the ring above diacritic mark ˚ (looks similar to °). The ring may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets. ...

Voicing assimilation

See also: Czech phonology Czech phonology describes functions and pronunciation of individual phonemes used in the Czech language. ...

Voiced consonants can be pronounced voiceless, and voiceless consonants as 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 [ˈotpadnoʊ̯t] (to fall away) - od- is a prefix, written /d/ is devoiced here because of the following voiceless /p/. In phonetics, phonation is the use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ...

Final devoicing

Unlike English, voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless in the final position in words. In declension, they are voiced in cases where the words take on endings. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Suffix. ...

Compare:

led [ˈlɛt] – ledy [ˈlɛdɪ] (ice – ices)

let [ˈlɛt] – lety [ˈlɛtɪ] (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. In linguistics and logic, a predicate is an expression that can be true of something. ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... For the surname, see Grammer. ... In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ...

Examples:

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. Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

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

kočky a koťata 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. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The colon (:) is a punctuation mark, visually consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line. ... A semicolon (  ;  ) is a punctuation mark. ... The question mark (also known as an interrogation point, query,[1] or eroteme) is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence. ... an exclamation mark An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, !, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. ...

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.). A comma ( , ) is a punctuation mark. ... In syntax, a sentence with at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses is referred to as a complex-compound sentence. ... In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ...

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 nepřišel. – 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, Ann? (addressing a person)
• Karel IV., český král, založil hrad Karlštejn. – Charles IV, a Czech king, founded the Karlstejn castle.

Quotation marks. The first one preceding the quoted text is placed to the bottom line: Karlštejn Karlštejn (German: Karlstein) is a large Gothic castle founded in the 14th century by Charles IV. The castle served as a place for safekeeping the Empire coronation jewels, holy relics and other royal treasures. ... Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. ... For the Wikipedia quotation template, see here. ...

• Petr řekl: „Přijdu 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. řek' or řek (= řekl, he said). For other uses, see Apostrophe (disambiguation). ...

Capital letters

The first word of every sentence and all proper names are capitalized. Special cases are: Capital letters or majuscules (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ...

• respect expression – optional: Ty (you sg.), Tvůj (your sg.), Vy (you pl.), Váš (your pl.); Bůh (Lord), Mistr (Master), etc.;
• headings – the first word is capitalized;
• cities, towns and villages – all words are capitalized, except for prepositions: Nové Město nad Metují (New-Town-upon-Metuje);
• geographical or local names – the first word is capitalized, common names as ulice (street), náměstí (square) or moře (sea) are not capitalized: ulice Svornosti (Concordance Street), Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square), Severní moře (North Sea). Since 1993, the initial preposition and the first following word are capitalized: lékárna U Černého orla (Black Eagle Pharmacy);
• names of institutions – the first word is capitalized: Městský úřad v Kolíně (The Municipal Office in Kolín);
• names of nations and nationality nouns are capitalized: Anglie (England), Angličan (Englishman), Německo (Germany), Němec (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: angličtina (English language).
• possessive adjectives derived from proper names are capitalized: Pavlův dům (Paul's house).

Nové Město nad Metují is a town in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. ... Map of the Earth Geography (from the Greek words Geo (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning Earth, and graphein (γραφειν) meaning to describe or to writeor to map) is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Town hall Kolín is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic on the Elbe river. ...

History

There are five periods in the development of the Czech orthographic system:

Primitive orthography. For writing sounds which are strange to the Latin alphabet, letters presenting similar sounds were used. The oldest known written notes in Czech originate from the 11th century. The literature was written predominantly in Latin by that time. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... For other uses, see Alphabet (disambiguation). ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ...

Digraphic orthography. Various digraphs were used for non-Latin sounds. The system was not consistent and it also did not distinguish long and short vowels. Digraph has several meanings: directed graph, or digraph Digraph (orthography) Digraph (computing) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

Diacritic orthography by Jan Hus. Using diacritics for long vowels ("virgula", an acute, "čárka" in Czech) and "soft" consonants ("punctus rotundus", a dot above a letter) was suggested for the first time in "De orthographia Bohemica" around 1406. The diacritics replaced digraphs almost completely. It was also suggested that the Prague dialect should become the standard for the Czech language. Jan Hus is considered to be the author of that work but there is some uncertainty about this fact. Jan Hus ( ) (IPA: , alternative spellings John Hus, Jan Huss, John Huss) (c. ... A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent mark, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... The acute accent (   ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ... Events Construction of Forbidden City begins in Beijing. ...

Brethren orthography. The Bible of Kralice (1579–1593), the first complete Czech translation of the Bible from the original languages by the Czech Brethren, became the model for the literary form of the language. The punctus rotundus was replaced by the caron ("háček"). There were some differences from the current orthography by that time. The digraph ſſ was used instead of š; ay, ey, au instead of aj, ej, ou; v instead of u (at the beginning of words); w instead of v; g instead of j; and j instead of í (gegj = její, her). Y was written always after c, s and z (e.g. cizí, strange, was written cyzý) and the conjunction i (as well as, and) was written y. Bible of Kralice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ... Events May 18 - Playwright Thomas Kyds accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... The Unity of the Brethren (Czech Jednota bratrská also known under the Latin name as Unitas Fratrum. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... An italicized long s used in the word Congress in the United States Bill of Rights. ...

Modern orthography. During the period of the Czech National Renascence (end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century), Czech linguists (Josef Dobrovský et al.) codified some reforms in the orthography. These principles have been effective up to the present day. The later reforms in the 20th century mostly referred to introducing loanwords into the Czech language and their adaptation to the Czech orthography. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Josef Dobrovský (August 17, 1753 - January 6, 1829) was Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Bohemian national revival. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

Notes

See also

• Czech language
• Czech alphabet
• Czech declension
• Czech phonetic transcription
• Czech verb
• Czech word order
• International phonetic alphabet
• Phonemic orthography