Some years ago i decided to learn some Czech before
going to Prague. It's a very regular language, but it has some sounds that are
hard to learn for foreigners, such as the r + hacek. This looks like an r
with a small v above and it's pronounced as r + zh at the same time, according
to our native teacher. She needed a lot of patience when we practiced that
sound!
A favourite of mine was the numeral four,
ctyri, with haceks above c and r. Try saying
"tch-ti-rzh-i" ten times in a row, fast. Another
favourite was chces, "you
want", pronounced "kh-ts-esh" (kh as in German ach, but
slightly softer). And then there was the famous Czech sentence without a vowel:
"Strz prst skrz krk!" It means "Poke your finger through your
throat."
Hakan
Stop the presses! I know the language that takes
the prize for impossible
consonant clusters!
..... Klallam! It's a
language spoken (erh, or mumbled) in British Columbia,
Canada. I think
it's classified as "Salish", not sure. There have been many
a white man
who've choked to death attempting to speak it. Some words don't
look like
they have vowels. I believe that the Klallam-speaking people were
created
by benevolent linguistic elves! Teehee :)
-
gLeN