A GRAMMAR OF CZECH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Karel Tahal

Karel Tahal: A Grammar of Czech as a Foreign Language
WORD STRESS
Přízvuk
As we have mentioned above,
Stress is placed on the first syllable of the word,
regardless the length of vowels.
Special rules are applied to the stressing of prepositional constructions:
● Most prepositions have the power of attracting the stress from the following word, which
results in pronouncing the preposition and the immediately following word as one unit.
(In the following examples, we use bold type for the stressed syllables.)
spelling
pronunciation
na stole [´nastole] on the table
ve škole [´veškole] at school
do hotelu [´dohotelu] to the hotel
za naším domem [´zanaším domem] behind our house
pro tebe [´protebe] for you
bez vaší pomoci [´bezvaší pomoci] without your help
● If the preposition is followed by a word with an initial vowel, the (stressed) preposition is
separated by means of the “glottal stop“, in the International Phonetic Alphabet indicated as
[ ʔ ].
Moreover, the glottal stop behaves as a voiceless consonant, with the consequence of
devoicing the preceding voiced vowels, in accordance with the above mentioned assimilation
rules.
spelling
pronunciation
do auta [´doʔauta] into the car
u okna [´uʔokna] near the window
z Anglie [´sʔanglije] from England
v Evropě [´fʔevropje] in Europe
● Some prepositions however, do not divest the following word of its stress, the prepositional
construction thus being prounounced with “level stresses“. This concerns especially the
prepositions během, kromě, vedle, kolem, okolo, blízko, podle, místo (see chapter 28 -
Genitive), proti, naproti, kvůli (see chapter 30 - Dative), mezi (see chapter 31 -
Instrumental). See also the summarizing list – chapter 36. Examples:
během léta [´bjehem ´léta] during the summer
kromě pátku [´kromňe ´pátku] except Friday
kolem stolu [´kolem ´stolu] round the table
blízko nádraží [´blísko ´nádraží] near the railway station
proti vám [´proť i ´vám] against you
mezi námi [´mezi ´námi] among us
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