# Nouns with diphthongs



## PocketWatch

Do nouns that end with dipthongs have irregular changes in declension? I would very much appreciate some examples, thanks.


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## Jana337

Hm.  There are three Czech diphthongs: AU, EU, OU

I can't imagine a noun ending with AU and EU. Nouns can end with OU but it is a very regular ending of nouns ending with -a (žena - woman, mayor - starosta) in the instrumental case.

Please explain what prompted you to ask this question.


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## PocketWatch

I believe you replied to my thread about the reflexive verbs. The replies there prompted me.


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## Tchesko

PocketWatch said:


> I believe you replied to my thread about the reflexive verbs. The replies there prompted me.


 


In that thread, Jana wrote:First the declension: You would be almost right if "kůň" were a regular word but it isn't. The letter "ů" evolved from the diphthong "uo" and the letter "o" hasn't disappeared from the declensions - it features in both numbers and all cases except for nominative singular.​Some important words: Bůh = God, dům = house, vůl = ox, sůl = salt, kůl = pole, půl = half, hůl = stick/staff, stůl = table. ​
But not: Růst=growth (but "o" can be seen in verb conjugations), půst=fasting (although the verb is "postit se") and others.​Since this is the only part of the thread dealing with diphthongs, I believe it is what PocketWatch mentioned. Actually, words ending with ů+consonant don't end with diphthongs. In Czech, a diphthong is what Jana wrote earlier in this thread, ie AU, EU, OU.
As for the letter ů, it evolved from a former diphthong UO (a few centuries ago!!) but it is not considered as a diphthong for the simple reason that it is a single vowel, though pronounced long (its phonetic transcription is [u:] like in "fool" or "yes I do").

Now, I believe your question was already answered by Jana, too. Many words ending with ů+consonant are "irregular", ie have stem changes in declension where the letter "ů" becomes "o" (see examples in Jana's above-mentioned quote).

However, others are regular (again, see Jana's examples).
(In fact, I happen to disagree with Jana about "kůl" and "půl". We really use them the regular way, eg: "na kůlu" = on a stake and "na půli cesty" = at halfway point.)

To my knowledge, there is no rule allowing one to decide whether a word is irregular, ie if a stem change is needed or not. You just have to learn the words that change. They mostly are (or once were) frequently used words.

Note that a similar change exceptionally occurs with words ending with í+consonant where "í" becomes "ě", as in "sníh" (snow) --> "sněhu" etc.

Tchesko


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## tkekte

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Correct. Houfnice, in turn, probably has German roots.
> http://www.answers.com/topic/howitzer?cat=technology


I was wondering why hauf and haufnice from Old Czech changed to houf and houfnice in Modern Czech.  Is it because the German diphthong /au/ is foreign to Czech so it was gradually assimilated to /ou/? But Jana writes /au/ is one of the Czech diphthongs... also what about modern words that contain /ou/ as a part of the root, like moucha, mouka... did they use to be maucha, mauka also? (I am curious about etymology)

Also I would be grateful if someone gave me a link to a Czech etymological dictionary.  (I found this one, but it's no good at all. )


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## cajzl

The development was

*ú* > au > *ou*

*ó* > uo > *ů* (the same pronuntiation like *ú*)

The diphtongs *uo* and *au* were intermediate stages.

The Literary Czech preserved *ú* in the beginning of words (úřad instead of ouřad).

In Modern Czech the diphtongs *au* and *eu* occur only in foreign words (automobil, reumatismus, ...)

múka > mauka > mouka
súd > saud > soud
nesú > nesau > nesou

bóh > buoh > bůh
bohóv > bohuov > bohův > bohů (gen. pl.)


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## tkekte

Thank you for the informative reply. So it can be generally said that /ou/ is often a development of proto-slavic Yus. I wonder if moucha had a Yus though, since the nasals were preserved in Polish, but it's mucha there, not mącha. But mouka is mąka, and soud is sąd.


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