[Lexicog] Turkey

[Nick Miller]

>>As for Czech i/í and y/ý: According to my references, these letters
represent the same vowel phonemes (/i/ and /i:/) but signal palatalization
(before i, í) or lack of palatalization (before y, ý) of the preceding
consonant. Since consonant palatalization is quite salient in Czech, the
homophony of the vowels shouldn't be expected to be much of a source of
verbal play.

That's the received info; however, it is amazingly a big cause for spelling
mistakes among Czech school children and some adults. If they truly sound
different that oughtn't to be the case. I mean I have never had any trouble
remembering how to spell Czech words with 'i' and 'y'[*]. What is more, I
can't personally hear the difference in many cases, so I'm not sure if
imagination isn't playing a bit of a role here, 'rules' aside. Maybe I just
can't hear it, though I've lived in the CR for about 12 years and not in the
ex-pat community nor just in Prague.
As for imagining differences in English, as in the example of
'sought'/'sort', I can think of a lot of similar words to 'sort', such as
'port', 'fort', 'tort', then to 'sought' - 'ought', 'thought', 'bought'
(avoiding any with 'r') and the different is there for me, even though I'm
not Scottish and wouldn't say I'm rhotic (or even neu-rhotic ¢), just a
glottal-stopping Southener.
Nick Miller
[*I have a theory that, being English, I'm used to all kinds of weird ways
of spelling the same sounds so my brain remembers words differently to
someone with a language with a stricter system of spelling rules (not just
"'i' before 'e' except after 'c'"]  




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