Clusters of consonants are quite common in Czech. Some words have no vowels at all. A couple that I came across recently: brzd [ˈbr̩st] (break) and krb [kr̩p] (fireplace).
Brzd is the genitive plural of brzda (brake (in a vehicle)). Related words include: brzdit [ˈbr̩zɟɪt] (to break) and brzdný [ˈbr̩zdniː] (breaking).
Krb means fire, hearth, fireplace or ingle. Related words include: krbový (relating or pertaining to fireplaces), krbová deska (hearthstone) and krbové náčiní (fire irons).
Other vowelless words include:
- blb [ˈbl̩p] = wally (stupid person)
- chrp [ˈxr̩p] = of cornflowers
- drhl [ˈdr̩ɦl̩]= he scrubbed, scoured, rubbed
- hrkl [ˈɦr̩kl̩] = he rattled
- krk [kr̩k] = neck
- plch [pl̩x] = dormouse
- scvrkl [ˈst͡svr̩kl̩] = he shrank
- škrtl [ˈʃkr̩tl̩] = he cancelled, deleted, scratched
- vlk [vl̩k] = wolf
Source: Wiktionary
There are several tongue twisters made up of words like this:
- Strč prst skrz krk.
Stick your finger through your throat. - Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh.
Morel full of stains got wet from the fog. - Plch zdrhl skrz drn, prv zhltl čtvrthrst zrn.
A dormouse escaped through a turf; first it swallowed a quarter-handful of grain.
In fact, the r and l in these words funtion as semi-vowels, so you could say that they’re not really vowelless. This doesn’t make them any easier to pronounce.
Sources: Wiktionary and bab.la
I heard that finger-to-throat sentence in school (if memory serves) when I was young and have liked it ever since, even though its meaning isn’t very pleasant. I sometimes say it out loud to myself just for fun.
I can’t believe you missed this one:
Chrt zdrhl z Brd. Vtrhl skrz strž v tvrz srn, v čtvrť Krč. Blb! Prskl, zvrhl smrk, strhl drn, mrskl drn v trs chrp. Zhltl čtvrthrst zrn skrz krk, pln zrn vsrkl hlt z vln. Chrt brkl, mrkl, zmlkl. Zvlhls?
(This is copypasta, I don’t understand it myself and wonder if it really ends in š.)
That’s just a denialist way of saying “syllabic consonants”. 🙂 They “function as vowels” in the sense that they’re syllable nuclei, and in no other.
Most Englishes (and most kinds of German) are full of syllabic /m/, /n/, /l/ and, if rhotic, also /r/. There are even not a few minimal pairs, like buckling in two syllables (“young buck”) vs. buckling in three syllables (“to buckle”). For many Americans, squirrel is a vowelless word.