Correct, but the hardening of written “s” into a spoken “z” is about equally common. Then, some words have the “vz-” prefix, which some mix up with “s-” or “z-” too, and even “zvláštní” (means “strange” and has no prefix) gets misread as “vzláštní” extremely often.
I see. I assume the confusion comes from the z being softened to a voiceless fricative depending on the surrounding sounds?
Correct, but the hardening of written “s” into a spoken “z” is about equally common. Then, some words have the “vz-” prefix, which some mix up with “s-” or “z-” too, and even “zvláštní” (means “strange” and has no prefix) gets misread as “vzláštní” extremely often.
Interesting. Thanks for the insight. I’m a bit of a hobby linguist.
Me too. I wonder if the hardening of “s” is something we got from the Germans, although we don’t have that other substitution they do (cukr-Zucker).