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 caron is added to standard Latin
letters for expressing sounds which are foreign to the Latin language (but some
digraphs have been kept - ch, d). The acute accent is used for long vowels.

The Czech orthography is considered the model for many other Balto-Slavic languages
using the Latin alphabet;[citation needed] the Slovenian and Slovak orthographies
as well as Gaj's Latin Alphabet are all based on the Czech.

Contents [hide]
1 Alphabet
2 Orthographic principles
2.1 Voicing assimilation
2.1.1 Final devoicing
2.2 "Soft" I and "Hard" Y
2.3 Letter E
2.4 Letter U
2.5 Agreement between the subject and the predicate
3 Punctuation
4 Capital letters
5 History
6 Computer encoding
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Alphabet[edit]
The Czech alphabet consists of 42 letters.

Letter Name
A a
dlouh
B b b
C c c
C c c
D d d
D d d
E e
dlouh
E e[a] ije,
s hckem
F f[b] ef
G g[b] g
H h h
CH ch ch
I i ,
mekk i
dlouh ,
dlouh mekk
J j j
K k k
L l el
M m em
N n en
N n en
O o
[b] dlouh
P p p
Q q kv
R r er
R r er
S s es
e
T t t
T t t
U u
dlouh ,
s crkou
U u[a] u s kroukem
V v v
W w dvojit v
X x iks
Y y ypsilon,
krtk tvrd
dlouh ypsilon,
dlouh tvrd
Z z zet
et
^ Jump up to: a b The letters E and U never occur in the beginning of any word.
Their capitalized forms are only used in all caps or small caps inscriptions, such
as newspaper headlines.
^ Jump up to: a b c The letters F, G, and , represent sounds, /f/, /g/, and /o?/
which, when not allophones of /v/ and /k/ in the case of the first two, are used
almost exclusively in words and names of foreign origin. They are now common enough
in the Czech language, however, that few Czechs have problems pronouncing them.
The letters Q and W are used exclusively in foreign words, and are replaced with Kv
and V once the word becomes "naturalized"; the digraphs dz and d are also used
mostly for foreign words and do not have a separate place in the alphabet.

Orthographic principles[edit]
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.

Vowels
Grapheme IPA value Notes
a /a/
/a?/
e /?/
/??/
e /?/, /j?/ Marks palatalization of preceding consonant; see usage rules
below
i /?/ Palatalizes preceding ?d?, ?t?, or ?n?; see usage rules below
/i?/ Palatalizes preceding ?d?, ?t?, or ?n?; see usage rules below
o /o/
/o?/ Occurs mostly in words of foreign origin.
u /u/
/u?/ See usage rules below
u /u?/ See usage rules below
y /?/ See usage rules below
/i?/ See usage rules below
Consonants
Grapheme IPA value Notes
b /b/
c /ts/[n 1]
c /t?/[n 1]
d /d/ Represents /?/ before ?i e?; see below
d /?/
f /f/ Occurs mostly in words of foreign origin.
g /g/ Occurs mostly in words of foreign origin.[citation needed]
h /?/
ch /x/
j /j/
k /k/
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/ Represents /?/ before ?i e?; see below
n /?/
p /p/
r /r/
r /r?/[n 2]
s /s/
/?/
t /t/ Represents /c/ before ?i e?; see below
t /c/
v /v/
x /ks/ Occurs mostly in words of foreign origin; pronounced /gz/ in words with
the prefix 'ex-' before vowels.
z /z/
/?/
^ Jump up to: a b Unofficial ligatures are sometimes used for the transcription of
affricates: /ts/, /dz/, /t?/, /d?/. The actual IPA version supports using two
separate letters which can be joined by a tiebar.
Jump up ^ The "long-leg R" ??? is sometimes used to transcribe voiced ?r?
(unofficially). This character was withdrawn from the IPA and replaced by the
"lower-case R" with the "up-tack" diacritic mark, which denotes "raised alveolar
trill".
Voicing assimilation[edit]
See also: Czech phonology
All the obstruent consonants are subject to voicing (before voiced obstruents
except ?v?) or devoicing (before voiceless consonants and at the end of words);
spelling in these cases is morphophonemic (i.e. the morpheme has the same spelling
as before a vowel). An exception is the cluster ?sh?, in which the /s/ is voiced to
/z/ only in Moravian dialects, while in Bohemia the /?/ is devoiced to /x/ instead
(e.g. shodit /sxo??t/, in Moravia /z?o??t/). Devoicing /?/ changes its articulation
place: it becomes [x]. After unvoiced consonants ?r? is devoiced: for instance, in
tri 'three', which is pronounced About this sound [tr??] (helpinfo). Written
voiced or voiceless counterparts are kept according to the etymology of the word,
e.g. odpadnout ['otpadno??t] (to fall away) - od- is a prefix; written /d/ is
devoiced here because of the following voiceless /p/.

For historical reasons, the consonant [g] is written k in Czech words like kde
('where', < Proto-Slavic *k?de) or kdo ('who', < Proto-Slavic *k?to). 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.).

Final devoicing[edit]
Unlike in English but like German and Russian, 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 ['l?t] ledy ['l?d?] (ice ices)

let ['l?t] lety ['l?t?] (flight flights)
"Soft" I and "Hard" Y[edit]
The letters ?i? and ?y? are both pronounced [?], while ?? and ?? are both
pronounced [i?]. ?y? was originally pronounced [?] as in contemporary Polish.
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 native origin "soft" ?i? and ?? cannot follow "hard" consonants, while "hard" ?
y? and ?? cannot follow "soft" consonants; "neutral" consonants can be followed by
either vowel:

Hard and soft consonants

Soft , , c, r, c, j, d, t, n
Neutral b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z
Hard h, ch, k, r, d, t, n, g
When ?i? or ?? are written after ?d, t, n? in native words, these consonants are
soft, as if they were written ?d, t, n?. That is, the sounds [??, ?i?, c?, ci?, ??,
?i?] are written ?di, d, ti, t, ni, n? instead of ?di, d, ti, t, ni, n?, e.g.
in cetina ['t????c?na]. The sounds [d?, di?, t?, ti?, n?, ni?] are denoted,
respectively, by ?dy, d, ty, t, ny, n?. In words of foreign origin, ?di, ti, ni?
are pronounced [d?, t?, n?]; that is, as if they were written ?dy, ty, ny?, e.g. in
diktt, dictation.

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?: tc (plate) tcy
(plates).

Because neutral consonants can be followed by either ?i? or ?y?, in some cases they
distinguish homophones, e.g. bt (to be) vs. bt (to beat), mt (to wash) vs. mt
(to have). At school pupils must memorize 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.

Letter E[edit]
The letter ?e? is a vestige of Old Czech palatalization. The originally
palatalizing phoneme /e/ [??] became extinct, changing to [?] or [j?], but it is
preserved as a grapheme which can never appear in the initial position.

[??, c?, ??] are written ?de, te, ne? instead of ?de, te, ne?, analogously to ?di,
ti, ni?
[bj?, pj?, vj?, fj?] are usually written ?be, pe, ve, fe? instead of ?bje, pje,
vje, fje?
In words like vjezd (entry, drive-in) objem (volume), ?bje, vje? are written
because in such cases je- is etymologically preceded by the prefixes v- or ob-
[m??] is usually written ?me? instead of ?mne?, except for morphological reasons in
some words (jemn, soft -> jemne, softly)
The first-person singular pronouns me (for the genitive and accusative cases) and
mne (for the dative and locative) are homophones [m??]see Czech declension
Letter U[edit]
There are two ways in Czech to write long [u?]: ?? or ?u?. ?u? cannot occur in
initial position, while ?? occurs almost exclusively in initial position or at the
beginning of a word root in a compound.

Historically, long ?? changed into the diphthong ?ou? /ou?/ (as also happened in
the English Great Vowel Shift with words such as "house"), though not in word-
initial position in the prestige form. In 1848 ?ou? at the beginning of word-roots
was changed into ?? in words like ourad to reflect this. Thus, the letter ?? is
written at the beginning of word-roots only: hel (angle), trojhelnk (triangle),
except in loanwords: sktr (scooter).

Meanwhile, historical long ?? [o?] changed into the diphthong ?uo? [?o]. As was
common with scribal abbreviations, the letter ?o? in the diphthong was sometimes
written as the letter ?u? with a ring above it: ?u?, e.g. kn > kuon > kun (horse),
like the origin of the German umlaut. Later, the pronunciation changed into [u?],
but the grapheme ?u? has remained. It never occurs at the beginning of words: dum
(house), domu (home, homeward).

The letter ?u? now has the same pronunciation as the letter ?? (long [u?]), but
alternates with a short ?o? when a word is inflected (e.g. nom. kun ? gen. kone,
nom. dum ? gen. domu), thus showing the historical evolution of the language.

Agreement between the subject and the predicate[edit]

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

masculine animate pes byl koupen psi byli koupeni a dog was bought/dogs were
bought
masculine inanimate hrad byl koupen hrady byly koupeny a castle was
bought/castles were bought
feminine kocka byla koupena kocky byly koupeny a cat was bought/cats
were bought
neuter mesto bylo koupeno mesta byla koupena a town was bought/towns
were bought
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:

mui a eny 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[edit]
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
(as in German), e.g. 1. den (= prvn 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
principal (independent) clauses, for instance. A comma is not placed before a
(and), i (as well as), ani (nor) and nebo (or) when they connect parts of sentences
or clauses in copulative conjunctions (on a same level). It must be placed in non-
copulative conjunctions (consequence, emphasis, exclusion, etc.). A comma can,
however, occur in front of the word a (and) if the former is part of comma-
delimited parenthesis: Jakub, muj mlad bratr, a jeho ucitel Filip byli prli
zabrni do rozhovoru. Probrali ltku, kter bude u zkouky, a t, kdo na n bude.
A comma also separates subordinate conjunctions introduced by compostide
conjunctions a proto (and therefore) and a tak (and so).

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)
Prelo, a proto nikdo nepriel. It was raining, and this is why nobody came.
(consequence)
J vm, kdo to je. I know who he is. Myslm, e se ml. I think (that) you are
wrong. (subordinate relation)
Jak se m, Anno? How are you, Anna? (addressing a person)
Karel IV., rmsk csar a cesk krl, zaloil hrad Karltejn. Charles IV, Holy
Roman Emperor and Bohemian king, founded the Karltejn Castle. (comma-delimited
parenthesis)
Quotation marks. The first one preceding the quoted text is placed to the bottom
line:

Petr rekl: Prijdu ztra. 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[edit]
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.), V
(your pl.); Buh (God), Mistr (Master), etc.
Headings The first word is capitalized.
Cities, towns and villages All words are capitalized, except for prepositions:
Nov Mesto nad Metuj (New-Town-upon-Metuje).
Geographical or local names The first word is capitalized, common names as ulice
(street), nmest (square) or more (sea) are not capitalized: ulice Svornosti
(Concordance Street), Vclavsk nmest (Wenceslas Square), Severn more (North
Sea). Since 1993, the initial preposition and the first following word are
capitalized: lkrna U Cernho orla (Black Eagle Pharmacy).
Official names of institutions The first word is capitalized: Mestsk rad v
Kolne (The Municipal Office in Koln) vs. mestsk rad (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 anglick (English adjective) and
prask (Prague adjective, e.g. prask 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).
History[edit]
There are five periods in the development of the Czech orthographic system:

Primitive orthography. For writing sounds which are foreign to the Latin alphabet,
letters with similar sounds were used. The oldest known written notes in Czech
originate from the 11th century. The literature was written predominantly in Latin
in this period. Unfortunately, it was very ambiguous at times, with c, for example,
being used for c, c, and k.

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. It had
some features that Polish orthography has kept, such as cz, rz instead of c, r, but
was still crippled by ambiguities, such as spelling both s and as s/ss, z and
as z, and sometimes even c and c both as cz, only distinguishing by context. Long
vowels such as were sometimes (but not always) written double as aa. Other
features of the day included spelling j as g and v as w, as the early modern Latin
alphabet had not by then distinguished j from i or v from u.

Diacritic orthography by Jan Hus. Using diacritics for long vowels ("virgula", an
acute, "crka" in Czech) and "soft" consonants ("punctus rotundus", a dot above a
letter, which has survived in Polish z) was suggested for the first time in "De
orthographia Bohemica" around 1406. 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.

Brethren orthography. The Bible of Kralice (15791593), 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 ("hcek"). There were some differences from the current orthography,
e.g. the digraph ?? was used instead of ; 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 (gegj = jej, hers). Y was written always after c, s and z (e.g. ciz,
foreign, was written cyz) and the conjunction i (as well as, and) was written y.

Modern orthography. During the period of the Czech National Renaissance (end of the
18th century and the first half of the 19th century), Czech linguists (Josef
Dobrovsk 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.

Computer encoding[edit]
In computing, several different coding standards have existed for this alphabet,
among them:

ISO 8859-2
Microsoft Windows code page 1250
IBM PC code page 852
Kamenick brothers or KEYBCS2 on early DOS PCs and on Fidonet.[1]
Unicode
See also[edit]
Czech language
Czech phonology
Orthographia bohemica
Czech declension
Czech verb
Czech word order
International Phonetic Alphabet
Phonemic orthography
Hcek
Krouek
Non-English usage of quotation marks
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Prehled kdovn cetiny". Cestina.cz. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
External links[edit]
Czech Language
Czech Encodings FAQ and list of known encodings (in Czech)
Typo.cz Information on Central European typography and typesetting
Categories: Czech languageLatin-script orthographies
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