Strč prst skrz krk

{{Short description|Czech- and Slovak-language tongue twister}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

File:StrcPrstSkrzKrk.png for the Czech expression]]

File:Milan Cabrnoch, Strč prst skrz krk (cz).webm pronouncing {{lang|cs|Strč prst skrz krk}} in 2014]]

{{lang|cs|Strč prst skrz krk}} ({{IPA|cs|str̩tʃ pr̩st skr̩s kr̩k|pron|Prst a krk.ogg}}) is a tongue twister in Czech and Slovak meaning 'stick a finger through the neck'.{{cite AV media|language=fr|url=http://design.radio.cz/en/article/51349|title=Le virelangue – jazykolam : strč prst skrz krk|work=Radio Prague}} 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.

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 {{lang|cs|sedm}} in Czech.) As a result, there are plenty of words without vowels. Examples of long words of this type are {{lang|cs|scvrnkls}} 'you (m.) flicked (something) away', {{lang|cs|čtvrthrst}} 'quarter handful',{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4G478q9TepMC&pg=PR20 | title = Moravians in Prague: A Sociolinguistic Study of Dialect Contact in the Czech Republic | isbn = 9783631586945 | last1 = Wilson | first1 = James | year = 2010| publisher = Peter Lang }} and čtvrtsmršť 'quarter whirlwind',{{cite web |url=http://www.ujc.cas.cz/jazykova-poradna/porfaq.html#nej |title= Na co se nás často ptáte - Ústav pro jazyk český|website=www.ujc.cas.cz |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309081723/http://www.ujc.cas.cz/jazykova-poradna/porfaq.html#nej |archive-date=9 March 2013}} the latter two being artificial, though grammatical, constructs unlikely to occur spontaneously.

There are other examples of vowelless sentences in Czech and Slovak, such as {{lang|cs|prd krt skrz drn, zprv zhlt hrst zrn}}, meaning 'a mole farted through grass, having swallowed a handful of grains'.{{cite journal|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/francistapon/2017/05/22/czechia-has-won-the-czech-republic-name-debate/|title=Czechia Has Won The Czech Republic Name Debate|author=Francis Tapon|journal=Forbes|date=22 May 2017}}

The longest Czech vowelless sentence (with 25 words and 82 consonants) as of 2013 is {{lang|cs|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}},{{Cite web|date=25 September 2013|title=Blba vlka porazil škrt plch. Nejdelší souhlásková věta má 30 znaků navíc|url=https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/domaci/v-pelhrimove-zaevidovali-novou-nejdelsi-ceskou-vetu-ze-souhlasek.A130925_162052_jihlava-zpravy_mv|access-date=29 March 2021|website=iDNES.cz}} 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'.