Since I'm in rehearsals for a Czech opera right now, it only seems fair that we discuss Czech diction this week! Mezzo-soprano Lucie Ceralova is here with the text "Oblak a mrákota jest vůkol něho", focusing on devoicing consonants, vocalic L and R, the palatalized N [ɲ], D [ ɟ] or [d] and T [c] or [t] and a few ways to practice our favorite Czech consonant ř.

"Oblak a mrákota jest vůkol něho" is the first song in Dvořak's Biblické Písně (Biblical Songs), taken from the Book of Psalms of the Kralice Bible, which is the Czech equivalent to the English King James Bible or the German Luther Bible. This text can also be found in Timothy Cheek's Singing in Czech, with a translation and the IPA.

The tongue twisters that we talked about at the end are:

Třista třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes třista třicet tři stříbrných střech.
Strč prst skrz krk.

Have fun with them :-)

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter @dictionpolice or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com