Strč prst skrz krk (pronounced [str̩tʃ pr̩st skr̩s kr̩k] ⓘ) is a tongue twister in Czech and Slovak meaning 'stick a finger through the neck'.[1] The sentence is well known for being a semantically and syntactically valid clause without a single vowel, the nucleus of each syllable being a syllabic r, a common feature among many Slavic languages. It is often used as an example of such a phrase when learning Czech or Slovak as a foreign language.[1]
In fact, both Czech and Slovak have two syllabic liquid consonants, the other being syllabic l. (There is also the syllabic bilabial nasal m in sedm in Czech.) As a result, there are plenty of words without vowels. Examples of long words of this type are scvrnkls, čtvrthrst,[2] and čtvrtsmršť,[3] the latter two being artificial occasionalisms.
There are other examples of vowelless sentences in Czech and Slovak, such as prd krt skrz drn, zprv zhlt hrst zrn, meaning 'a mole farted through grass, having swallowed a handful of grains'.[4]
The longest Czech vowelless sentence (with 25 words and 82 consonants) as of 2013 is Škrt plch z mlh Brd pln skvrn z mrv prv hrd scvrnkl z brzd skrz trs chrp v krs vrb mls mrch srn čtvrthrst zrn,[5] meaning 'Stingy dormouse from Brdy mountains fogs full of manure spots firstly proudly shrank a quarter of handful seeds, a delicacy for mean does, from brakes through bunch of Centaurea flowers into scrub of willows'.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Le virelangue – jazykolam : strč prst skrz krk. Radio Prague (in French).
- ^ Wilson, James (2010). Moravians in Prague: A Sociolinguistic Study of Dialect Contact in the Czech Republic. ISBN 9783631586945.
- ^ "Na co se nás často ptáte - Ústav pro jazyk český". www.ujc.cas.cz. Archived from the original on 9 March 2013.
- ^ Francis Tapon (22 May 2017). "Czechia Has Won The Czech Republic Name Debate". Forbes.
- ^ "Blba vlka porazil škrt plch. Nejdelší souhlásková věta má 30 znaků navíc". iDNES.cz. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2021.