On a roll
“Four rolls, please,” I try to spit out.
“Pardon me?”
“Rolls, please,” I decide to say instead, a little more clearly.
“Alright, how many?”
“Times 2.”
“Sure, okay. Anything else?”
“Yes, please – two more.”
“Of the rolls? So, four total? Here you go. Is that all?”
“Yes, thank you.”
This was one of several round-about ways I’d order my bread from the neighbourhood bakery on a daily basis when I lived in Prague.
Yummy, fresh rohlíky. On the street, they’d drill a hole through the middle an put a sausage inside.
You see, I had two daunting difficulties with the Czech language.
One was the grammar. With seven grammatical case endings to choose from, looking at that phrase “of the rolls” still puts me in a cold sweat! By waiting for the server to ask me how many I wanted, I cleverly avoided the genitive case altogether.
But I had one other nemesis:
ř
as brought to you by the Czech numbers 3 and 4. Much as the Czech language is quite simple to pronounce, no matter how much I practiced, I just couldn’t get that sound to come out right, especially when put on the spot.
This is a sound that the Czechs are enormously proud of: its pronunciation is unique to their language, and one of the main distinguishing features between Czech and Slovak. It’s fiendishly difficult to pronounce. So much so, that a substantial number of Czechs themselves can’t quite manage it.
You’re probably already familiar with seeing this symbol in the names of the famous Czech composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák.
Essentially, when broken down, it’s a sound that’s made up of two simultaneous components: a trilled or rolled [r] while at the same time pronouncing the letter [ʒ] (the same sound as in the French name Jacques). Initially, many foreigners are inclined to pronounce this letter as two separate sounds, one after the other, leading to much confusion for the native Czech speaker.
On the contrary, both sounds must burst forth in one vivacious flurry of activity!
I avoided this sound at all costs while living in Prague.
Instead, I resorted to ordering things in batches of twos and fives, and when absolutely necessary, I would use the standard “cheat” suggested by several Czech friends who also had difficulty with the sound, which was to simply leave the rolled [r] out altogether, and pronounce only [ʒ].
But I’ve since learned how to make the sound, and today I’m going to share that tip with you!
Step one:
Roll your [r], right up against the back of your upper teeth.
Step two:
Practice making the [ʒ] sound. Say “Jacques”. Now make the same sound, paying attention to how your upper and lower teeth are stacked on top of each other, with a bit of space.
Step three:
Put a pencil in your mouth: hold it between your upper and lower teeth. Now say [ʒ] again. Feel how the air is pushing through as you do this.
Step four:
Roll your [r], while doing step 3. You’re almost there!
Step five:
Remove the pencil and repeat step four. Now you’re really on a roll!
Success! Working on the ř with Alison Petten and Paul Rodermond
*N.B. There are two versions of this sound:
Voiced: [r̝]
Voiceless: [r̻]
for the voiceless version, replace [r] with [r̥] and [ʒ] with [∫].
Once you’ve gotten that far, it’s time for a coffee break. Put on a mask and flaunt your new-found skill to your friends with your exquisite pronunciation of Dvořák!
Alright, hot dog, here’s your next challenge:
čtyři
Panicking? Ladies and gentlemen, I present:
the Czech number 4!
As for the number 3, well, it looks innocent enough:
tři
Until you realize that the Czechs have a whole series of tongue twisters dedicated to this firecracker of a number.
For example:
Tři tisíce tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes tři tisíce tři sta třicet tři stříbrných střech
(3333 silver fire-engines squirt over 3333 silver roofs.)
That twister will generate enough saliva to put out any forest fire!
I’ll leave you to try your luck with that one. I think I’ll just roll right on by.
