Editing Czech language (section)

==Phonology==
{{main|Czech phonology}}
[[File:Synagoga v Úštěku.ogg|thumb|Spoken Czech (text reading)]]
===Vowels===
[[File:Czech vowel chart.svg|right|thumb|A Czech vowel chart]]
Standard Czech contains ten basic [[vowel]] [[phoneme]]s, and three diphthongs. The vowels are {{IPA|/a/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /o/, and /u/}}, and their long counterparts {{IPA|/aː/, /ɛː/, /iː/, /oː/ and /uː/}}. The diphthongs are {{IPA|/ou̯/, /au̯/ and /ɛu̯/}}; the last two are found only in loanwords such as {{lang|cs|auto}} "car" and {{lang|cs|euro}} "euro".<ref>{{Harvnb|Dankovičová|1999|p=72}}</ref>

In Czech orthography, the vowels are spelled as follows:
*Short: {{lang|cs|a, e/ě, i/y, o, u}}
*Long: {{lang|cs|á, é, í/ý, ó, ú/ů}}
*Diphthongs: {{lang|cs|ou, au, eu}}

The letter {{angle bracket|[[ě]]}} indicates that the previous consonant is palatalized (e.g. {{lang|cs|něco}} {{IPA|/ɲɛt͡so/}}). After a labial it represents {{IPA|/jɛ/}} (e.g. {{lang|cs|běs}} {{IPA|/bjɛs/}}); but {{angle bracket|mě}} is pronounced /mɲɛ/, cf. {{lang|cs|měkký}} ({{IPA|/mɲɛkiː/}}).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=George L.|author2=Gareth King|title=Compendium of the world's languages|date=1984|publisher=Routledge}}</ref>

===Consonants===
The consonant phonemes of Czech and their equivalent letters in Czech orthography are as follows:<ref>{{Harvnb|Dankovičová|1999|pp=70–72}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!colspan=2| 
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br/>alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!colspan=2| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPAlink|m}} {{angle bracket|m}}
| {{IPAlink|n}} {{angle bracket|n}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|ɲ}} {{angle bracket|ň}}
| 
| 
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Stop consonant|Plosive]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| {{IPAlink|p}} {{angle bracket|p}}
| {{IPAlink|t}} {{angle bracket|t}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|c}} {{angle bracket|ť}}
| {{IPAlink|k}} {{angle bracket|k}}
| 
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPAlink|b}} {{angle bracket|b}}
| {{IPAlink|d}} {{angle bracket|d}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|ɟ}} {{angle bracket|ď}}
| ({{IPAlink|ɡ}}) {{angle bracket|g}}
| 
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|t͡s}} {{angle bracket|c}}
| {{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} {{angle bracket|č}}
| 
| 
| 
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| 
| ({{IPAlink|d͡z}})
| ({{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}})
| 
| 
| 
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! {{small|[[voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
| {{IPAlink|f}} {{angle bracket|f}}
| {{IPAlink|s}} {{angle bracket|s}}
| {{IPAlink|ʃ}} {{angle bracket|š}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|x}} {{angle bracket|ch}}
| 
|-
! {{small|[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPAlink|v}} {{angle bracket|v}}
| {{IPAlink|z}} {{angle bracket|z}}
| {{IPAlink|ʒ}} {{angle bracket|ž}}
| 
| 
| {{IPAlink|ɦ}} {{angle bracket|h}}
|-
!rowspan=2| [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
! {{small|plain}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|r}} {{angle bracket|r}}
| 
| 
| 
| 
|-
! {{small|[[Voiced alveolar raised non-sonorant trill|fricative]]}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|r̝}} {{angle bracket|ř}}
| 
| 
| 
| 
|-
!colspan=2| [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
| {{IPAlink|l}} {{angle bracket|l}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|j}} {{angle bracket|j}}
| 
| 
|}

Czech consonants are categorized as "hard", "neutral", or "soft":

*Hard: {{IPA|/d/, /ɡ/, /ɦ/, /k/, /n/, /r/, /t/, /x/}}
*Neutral: {{IPA|/b/, /f/, /l/, /m/, /p/, /s/, /v/, /z/}}
*Soft: {{IPA|/c/, /ɟ/, /j/, /ɲ/, /r̝/, /ʃ/, /t͡s/, /t͡ʃ/, /ʒ/}}

Hard consonants may not be followed by ''i'' or ''í'' in writing, or soft ones by ''y'' or ''ý'' (except in loanwords such as ''[[kilogram]]'').<ref>{{cite web|title=Psaní i – y po písmenu c|url=http://prirucka.ujc.cas.cz/en/?id=102|website=Czech Language Institute|access-date=11 August 2014}}</ref> Neutral consonants may take either character. Hard consonants are sometimes known as "strong", and soft ones as "weak".<ref>{{Harvnb|Harkins|1952|p=11}}</ref> This distinction is also relevant to the [[Czech declension|declension]] patterns of nouns, which vary according to whether the final consonant of the noun stem is hard or soft.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|pp=20–21}}</ref>

[[Voice (phonetics)|Voiced]] [[consonant]]s with unvoiced counterparts are unvoiced at the end of a word before a pause, and in [[consonant cluster]]s [[voicing assimilation]] occurs, which matches voicing to the following consonant. The unvoiced counterpart of /ɦ/ is /x/.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dankovičová|1999|p=73}}</ref>

The phoneme represented by the letter ''[[ř]]'' (capital ''Ř'') is very rare among languages and often claimed to be unique to Czech, though it also occurs in some dialects of [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]], and formerly occurred in Polish.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=Joanna |author1-link=The Evolution of Slavic |date=2018|editor1-last=Klein |editor1-first=Jared |editor2-last=Joseph |editor2-first=Brian |editor3-last=Fritz |editor3-first=Matthias |title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics |pages=1607}}</ref> It represents the [[raised alveolar non-sonorant trill]] ([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]: {{IPA|[r̝]}}), a sound somewhere between Czech ''r'' and ''ž'' (example: {{audio|Cs-řeka.ogg|"řeka" (river)}}),<ref name="dyk">{{Harvnb|Harkins|1952|p=6}}</ref> and is present in ''[[Dvořák]]''. In unvoiced environments, /r̝/ is realized as its voiceless allophone [r̝̊], a sound somewhere between Czech ''r'' and ''š''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dankovičová|1999|p=71}}</ref>

The consonants {{IPA|/r/, /l/, and /m/}} can be [[syllabic consonant|syllabic]], acting as [[syllable nuclei]] in place of a vowel. ''[[Strč prst skrz krk]]'' ("Stick [your] finger through [your] throat") is a well-known Czech [[tongue twister]] using syllabic consonants but no vowels.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=5}}</ref>

===Stress===
Each word has primary [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] on its first [[syllable]], except for [[enclitic]]s (minor, monosyllabic, unstressed syllables). In all words of more than two syllables, every odd-numbered syllable receives secondary stress. Stress is unrelated to vowel length; both long and short vowels can be stressed or unstressed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Harkins|1952|p=12}}</ref> Vowels are never reduced (e.g. to [[schwa]] sounds) when unstressed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Harkins|1952|p=9}}</ref> When a noun is preceded by a monosyllabic preposition, the stress usually moves to the preposition, e.g. {{lang|cs|'''do''' Prahy}} "to Prague".<ref>{{cite web |title=Sound Patterns of Czech |url=https://fonetika.ff.cuni.cz/en/czech-phonetics/ |website=Charles University Institute of Phonetics |access-date=3 November 2021}}</ref>