# Slovak: à



## laur&a

Ahojte,

Is there *any* difference between à and á ? 

Do you spot an imperfection or a *mistake* in "holografickà nàlepka"?

How do you write à on a Slovak keyboard?


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## jarabina

> Is there *any* difference between à and á ?



Yes,* à *is not a Slovak vowel.

Slovak has *a* and *á*. The two sounds have the same quality but *á* is twice as long as *a*.



> Do you spot an imperfection or a *mistake* in "holografickà nàlepka"?



It should be holografick*á* n*á*lepka.



> How do you write à on a Slovak keyboard?



If the keyboard is set up for Slovak then press the key with number 8 on it that is found in the second top line of the keyboard (not the numberpad). 

Here is an image of a Slovak keyboard http://www.google.sk/imgres?imgurl=...CwWUOfSEO_64QSl34HICg&ved=0CGYQ9QEwAw&dur=451


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## laur&a

jarabina said:


> ...* à *is *not a *Slovak vowel.....



Hi jarabina, thanks for the useful link. I use the "short *Slovak dictionary" by Kacala *(1997), and the second headword I find is* "à" *and it is not a typo , as  it says : *"meter à 100* Sk"

I wondered if there is a* glottal stop* there!, anyway I have it in my Italian keyboard, and I was just wondering what is the effect of  "à è ì ò ù' on a Slovak reader.
Am I allowed to ask for a good Slovak or English-Slovak dictionary? or is it against the Forum rules?
Thanks


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## jarabina

laur&a said:


> I use the "short *Slovak dictionary" by Kacala *(1997), and the second headword I find is* "à" *and it is not a typo , as  it says : *"meter à 100* Sk"



This is a borrowing from French. It is also used in English and we keep the diacritic in English because it is a borrowed word. This is the same in Slovak with *meter à 100* Sk. But *à *is notused in words of Slovak origin. In fact, it is my understanding that this *à* is only really used in Slovak accounting, like in Engish where we would use @. But as I'm not Slovak and my Slovak leaves much to be desired, you'd better ask a Slovak for confirmation on that.



> I was just wondering what is the effect of  "à è ì ò ù' on a Slovak reader.


 All I can say is that they are not used in Slovak words of Slovak origin, so if you use them in Slovak words instead of á é í ó ú then it is a mistake.



> I wondered if there is a* glottal stop* there


 There are no glottal stops in Slovak. But I have to admit I have no idea how you would pronounce *à *in Slovak as I've only ever seen it written down. Perhaps a Slovak could help with that one too?


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## francisgranada

I fully agree with the explanations of Jarabina. As to the pronounciation of *meter à 100* Sk, this *à* is pronounced as a long *á* (also to distinguish it from the conjunction "a", I think). Occasionally, I've seen also "*á* 100 Sk".



> I was just wondering what is the effect of  "à è ì ò ù' on a Slovak reader.


I think the effect is the same as _á, ú, í_ on an Italian reader in words like cittá, gioventú, sí ... instead of città, gioventù, sì ... The effect on me is that I suddenly know that the author of the text is an Italian


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## laur&a

francisgranada said:


> I fully agree with the explanations of Jarabina. As to the pronounciation of *meter à 100* Sk, this *à* is pronounced as a long *á* (also to distinguish it from the conjunction "a", I think). Occasionally, I've seen also "*á* 100 Sk".
> 
> 
> I think the effect is the same as _á, ú, í_ on an Italian reader in words like cittá, gioventú, sí ... instead of città, gioventù, sì ...


There is no effect whatsoever, nobody would notice *"cittá *" . We should distinguish between *"è and é" "ò and ó*", but nobody does, nobody pays attention to that. 
On our keyboards "ó" doesn't even exist!!!


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## francisgranada

laur&a said:


> There is no effect whatsoever, città,... is written like that ...


 The same in Slovak, there is no "real" effect but to write e.g. nàlepka is unusual and, finally, not correct. 



> ...We should distinguish between *"è and é" "ò and ó*", but nobody does, nobody pays attention to that ...


Somebody yes ... in Tuscany, Bologna etc ... (Prova a dire questo sul forum italiano, t'ammazzano ... )



> On our keyboards "ó" doesn't even exist!!!


I didn't know that.


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## laur&a

The difference is only phonetic, 
But in writing, nobody cares.


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## francisgranada

I know, but, please, let us not discuss about the Italian on the Slavic forum ...  Back to the Slovak: the accent in Slovak does not indicate the stress, but the length of the vowel (as you surely know it), so it cannot be ommitted in writing. E.g. _dom _and _dóm _are two different words, with different pronounciation and meaning.

For curiosity, in the East Slovak dialects, the stress is always on the penultimate syllable, and the unstressed syllables are alway short (similar to Polish).


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## laur&a

THAT'S INTERESTING, I didn't know that, but surely that cannot be true *for all words*?


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## francisgranada

Why not? (If you have other questions about this, I suggest you to open a separate thread)


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## laur&a

No special questions, Francis, I just couldn't imagine one could pronounce "pos 'cho die" or "nadria 'de ny" etc.


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## Azori

laur&a said:


> Is there *any* difference between à and á ?


This is the Slovak alphabet:

lower-case letters: a, á, ä, b, c, č, d, ď, dz, dž, e, é, f, g, h, ch, i, í, j, k, l, ĺ, ľ, m, n, ň, o, ó, ô, p, q, r, ŕ, s, š, t, ť, u, ú, v, w, x, y, ý, z, ž.

upper-case letters: A, Á, Ä, B, C, Č, D, Ď, DZ, DŽ, E, É, F, G, H, CH, I, Í, J, K, L, Ĺ, Ľ, M, N, Ň, O, Ó, Ô, P, Q, R, Ŕ, S, Š, T, Ť, U, Ú, V, W, X, Y, Ý, Z, Ž.

Source: Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu. 3., upravené a doplnené vyd. Bratislava: Veda 2000. (PDF)

As you can see, there is no à.


> I use the "short *Slovak dictionary" by Kacala *(1997), and the second headword I find is* "à" *and it is not a typo , as  it says : *"meter à 100* Sk"


Besides the letters from the alphabet, there are also other letters used in words of foreign origin, for instance, ö, ü. Words with such letters can be found in dictionaries.


jarabina said:


> Slovak has *a* and *á*.


There's also *ä*.


> If the keyboard is set up for Slovak then press the key with number 8 on it that is found in the second top line of the keyboard (not the numberpad).


laur&a was asking about à, not about á.


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