I did…didn’t I?
You know when you leave the house for a long trip, and you’re suddenly aware that maybe you left the keys in the lock of the door instead of taking them with you? Or you can’t recall if you left the oven on? Or you realize you forgot to turn the outside water off for the winter and now you are thousands of miles away and the pipes are likely going to burst while you are gone?
When we were living in the Czech Republic, we had to get by pretty frugally at the beginning, and had a budget the equivalent of just over a dollar a day. It was pretty manageable, as long as we ate a lot of rolls (see previous post!). I could, after all, get a standing room ticket at the opera for about 30 cents.
But after a year of scrimping and saving, we had enough money to go on a trip to Spain (by bus!) for our first wedding anniversary. We hadn’t left the country very much in that year, and so were maybe a bit out of practice with traveling. But feeling quite sure of myself as we left our flat, I said, “in the end, all you really need to go on a trip is your wallet and your passport.”
And with these prophetic words, we were off.
My bags are packed, I’m ready to go!
Timothy Cheek, an expert on Czech diction, and my absolute guide for pronunciation, invented a rule that he calls “I did, didn’t I?” It’s super helpful for remembering that the letters “d”, “n” or “t”, when followed by “i”, are softened, becoming something like this:
ď
ť
ň
*you may find this softening of other consonants, but you will have a haček (the “hook” over a letter) over the following vowel for the consonant to take on that sound.
It’s a simple, handy rule to remember, that helps one distinguish it from the rules for softening in other languages, like in the French-Canadian pronunciation of our mega star Celine Dion’s last name. Or in the palatalization of Russian consonants that are followed by sounds [i] or [Ɛ].
In Rusalka’s famous Song to the Moon aria, she sings:
díváš se v příbytky lidí
(Which translates as: You look into the dwellings of the people.)
This softening happens on the “dí” of díváš and lidí.
In Czech, when you want to soften these consonants, you simply place the tip of your tongue on the lower inside retainer that you may or may not have to pronounce the ď, ť, ň sounds, as opposed to touching your upper inside retainer to pronounce them in their regular “hard” way.
* * *
If Rusalka’s moon had been looking into my dwelling, he would have doubled over in a fit of fairy laughter to see my passport patiently waiting on our kitchen table, as I confidently made my way to the metro station.
For the life of me, I have no idea why I left my passport on the table, in the first place, let alone how I couldn’t see it when walking out the door as our place was the size of a postage stamp.
6 long metro stops from home, I reached in to my carry-on, just to be sure it was there. Of course it wasn’t. In a panic, I hopped out at the next stop and caught the metro back home. Amazingly, I made it back to the bus stop for our departure with a few minutes to spare prior to our 30-hour journey. It would’ve been a pretty lonely first anniversary trip for my husband if I hadn’t made it there in time!
These days, I’ve learned to follow a pretty simple rule when walking out the door to head to the airport (no more long bus trips for me!): after confidently declaring, “I DID pack my passport and my wallet”, I add a dubious “didn’t I?” and a quick double check of my bag before I leave home.
