Oldřich Švarný (1920–2011)

Oldřich Švarný (1920–2011)
Hana Třísková
Professor Oldřich Švarný, representing the oldest living generation of Czech and
Slovak Sinologists, passed away on April 19, 2011, shortly before his 91st birthday.
He dedicated his lifelong efforts to the research of Standard Chinese
(Mandarin). He focused on its prosodic, i.e. suprasegmental features, connecting
them to grammar. Švarný strived to reveal the relationship between the four
Mandarin canonical tones on one hand, and stress, junctures and intonation
patterns found in connected speech on the other, taking into account the
changes in speech tempo. His goal was both the accurate phonetic description of
these phenomena and their phonological interpretation. He aimed at applying
the results of his research to practical language teaching as well. 1 It is worth
saying that such specialization is rather unique in the field of Chinese linguistics
and pedagogy worldwide.
Oldřich Švarný was born on May 1st, 1920, in the little town Velké Němčice
in Moravia. His childhood and young years were difficult: he was orphaned at
the age of 7. After graduating from the Public Classical Gymnasium in Brno in
1939, he enrolled at Masaryk University to study Latin and Greek. Shortly
afterwards, Czech universities were closed down by the Germans, and Švarný
was summoned to forced labour in Germany. Working on road construction
sites, he fully devoted his spare time to the study of languages—Italian, French,
Spanish, Greek, English and Russian. The aspect in foreign languages that attracted him most was phonetics. He was especially fascinated by the rhythmical
patterns of Old Greek. His interests soon drew his attention to the tone
language par excellence, to Chinese. After World War II, Švarný returned to
Masaryk University, this time choosing English and Russian as his fields. After
graduation in 1947, he taught these two languages for three years at several
secondary schools in Brno. In 1950, he plunged into postgraduate studies of
Sinology and Phonetics at Charles University in Prague. Soon he attracted the
attention of Professor Jaroslav Průšek (1908–1980) who entrusted him with
1
For an appreciation in Czech, see David Uher, »Prof. PhDr. Oldřich Švarný, CSc.—pedagog«
[Professor Švarný as a Teacher], SOS 4 (2005), 275–280.
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designing a new, phonologically consistent version of the Czech transcription of
Standard Chinese. Švarný completed it in 1951; the system is in use in parallel
with Hanyu pinyin to this day.
In 1951 Švarný came to the Oriental Institute (which was later incorporated
into the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences founded in 1952). Shortly
afterwards, he defended his doctoral (PhDr.) thesis devoted to the study of
prosodic features of the Chinese syllable and their modifications within
connected speech (1952). His conclusions were based on the results of the
instrumental analysis of speech data conducted in the Phonetic Institute of the
Philosophical Faculty of Charles University (note that he cooperated with the
renowned phonetician Professor Bohuslav Hála, 1894–1970). Švarný’s experimental research in the field of articulatory phonetics was summed up in the
study »Études experimentales des articulations chinoises« (1955, in cooperation
with Karel Ohnesorg). The study offers a detailed description of the articulations of Mandarin vowels and consonants based on the original radiographies
and palatograms. It is worth mentioning that a similar study by Chinese authors
appeared only eight years later.2
In the year 1955 Švarný spent four months in the PRC as member of a
delegation of the Ministry of Education. It turned out to be his sole visit to
China during his whole lifetime. He made contacts with the Chinese linguists Lü
Shuxiang 呂叔湘 (1904–1998) and Xu Shirong 徐世榮 (1912–1997). In 1963,
Švarný defended his CSc. thesis (roughly equal to a Ph.D.). For a change, it was
focused on a topic related to grammar and lexicology, dealing with the problem
of Chinese morphemes and words. Švarný introduced here the concept of a
monosyllabic semantic unit without any functional specifications, different from
the Western notion of the morpheme and closely matching the concept of yǔsù
語素 proposed by Chinese linguists years later. This research formed the theoretical foundations for Švarný’s future four-volume lexicographic work Učební
slovník jazyka čínského published several decades later (A Learner’s Dictionary of
Modern Chinese, 1998–2000, see below). In 1966 and 1967 he published two
articles discussing the variable degree of neutralization of atonic syllables (in
cooperation with Ms Guan Mingzhe 關明哲 Janoušová). From the mid-1950s
onwards, Švarný had been working on the large-scale project of a comprehensive
2
Zhou Dianfu 周殿福 and Wu Zongji 吳宗濟, Putonghua fayin tupu 普通話發音圖譜 [Articulatory
Diagrams of the Sounds of Standard Chinese] (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1963). Note that
numerous diagrams of sagittal cuts and palatograms from both publications are available in
Hana Třísková, »Segmentální struktura čínské slabiky« [The Segmental Structure of the
Mandarin Syllable] (Ph.D. thesis, Praha: Charles University, 2010), accepted for publication by
Karolinum, Praha.
In memoriam · Obituaries
255
textbook of Mandarin, resulting in Úvod do hovorové čínštiny (Introduction to
Spoken Chinese, 1967) in cooperation with Jarmila Kalousková, Čang Ťing-jü 張
璟瑜 Rotterová and Josef Bartůšek. The book was published in two volumes, unfortunately disappearing from the market shortly after the Soviet invasion in
1968.
Despite the dim political situation, Švarný managed to visit the USA for the
whole academic year of 1969/70. He stayed at the universities in Princeton and
Berkeley. At the University of California in Berkeley, he worked in the phonetic
laboratory of Professor William S.-Y. Wang (Wang Shiyuan 王士元, b1933).
Here he had the opportunity to pursue the major interest of his career—the
analysis of fluent Chinese speech. He instrumentally analyzed the recordings
brought from Prague, verifying the findings of his previous research related to
his PhDr. thesis. An extensive article »Variability of Tone Prominence in
Chinese (Pekinese)« (1974) precisely drew on the results brought from the US. It
dealt with the problem of word stress in Mandarin. Using the means of arduous
statistics based on a large corpus of data, Švarný explored the variability of
accentuation found in disyllabic words depending on changing context. He
established four degrees of tone prominence of the Chinese syllable, using them
to outline seven ‘accentuation types’ of disyllabic words displaying different
levels of accentual variability (or stability). He clearly showed that there is a
substantial difference between the notion of word stress in common European
languages and the ways the particular syllable of a polysyllabic word receives
stress in the particular context of Mandarin utterances.
After his return from the US, Švarný worked for more than five years on
analyzing the vast corpus of speech data (i.e. thousands of sample sentences
prepared for the future dictionary Učební slovník jazyka čínského) recorded by his
lifelong collaborator Ms Tang Yunling 唐雲凌 Rusková (a native speaker of
Beijing Chinese). He transcribed the whole bulk of material by means of the
innovative prosodic transcription he designed after an analysis of this
voluminous corpus of data. The system is based on Hanyu pinyin, making use of
various graphic conventions to express the degree of tonality/stress in particular
syllables as well as junctures of several levels. The prosodic transcription has
several subsequent versions, reflecting Švarný’s lifelong findings in the field of
Mandarin prosody (cf. both Třísková 2011). The last version appears in the
sample sentences of the dictionary Učební slovník jazyka čínského (1998–2000, see
below).
After 1968, Švarný was forced to bear various political pressures. He was
eventually dismissed from the Oriental Institute for ideological reasons in 1976,
i.e. four years before his retirement. In spite of his difficult financial situation,
he continued his research. He launched a statistical analysis of his speech
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database (i.e. the sample sentences from the Učební slovník jazyka čínského) in
dependence on changes of speech tempo. The outcome was a comprehensive
overview of the prosodic system of Mandarin including the technical description
of the prosodic transcription and of the ‘accentuation types’ of disyllabic words.
This overview was published in two sequels in 1991 in Archív Orientální.
Besides his scholarly research, Švarný devoted much of his time to pedagogic
activities. Not being allowed to teach at Charles University for many years, he
engaged himself in private training of students of Sinology, and of young Sinologists who unofficially but regularly visited his apartment (the author of the
present article being one of them). He tutored them freely in Mandarin
phonetics—prosody in particular, precisely the aspect of language rather neglected in university courses.
Being unable to have a second edition of his early textbook Úvod do hovorové
čínštiny published, Švarný, in cooperation with a lecturer at a Prague language
school, Ms Tang Yunling Rusková, compiled the teaching material Gramatika
hovorové čínštiny v příkladech (A Grammar of Spoken Chinese in Examples, 1991–
93), re-edited in a revised version in 1998 under a slightly different title Hovorová
čínština v příkladech (Spoken Chinese in Examples). This textbook in four volumes
comprises a detailed survey of the Chinese grammar with numerous sample
sentences, given both in Chinese characters and in Švarný’s prosodic transcription. The textbook also offers theoretical chapters on Chinese grammar and
phonetics, as well as a dictionary part. A set of tape-recordings, consisting of 6 or
10 items, respectively, is available, too. Another piece of work aiming at improving language teaching was Úvod do studia hovorové čínštiny (Introduction to the
Study of Spoken Chinese, 1997; 2nd edition in 2001, in cooperation with David
Uher). After the ‘Velvet Revolution’ of November 1989, Švarný began to teach
Mandarin phonetics at several universities: at Comenius University in Bratislava
(1989–91), at Charles University in Prague (1990–97), and later on also at Palacký
University in Olomouc (1994–2007).
In the years 1998–2000, Švarný’s opus magnum, the four-volume dictionary
Učební slovník jazyka čínského (»A Learner’s Dictionary of Modern Chinese«) was
finally published. Švarný had been working on it literally for several decades—
and note that according to Jaroslav Průšek’s suggestion it was originally intended
as the third volume of the older two-volume textbook issued in 1967. Švarný
constantly and unsuccessfully fought for its publication, finally succeeding only
in the late 1990s. This tremendous piece of work reflects the results of Švarný’s
lifelong research in the field of Mandarin grammar and prosody. It is a dictionary
of Chinese morphemes, listing nearly 2,000 of the most frequent monosyllabic
morphemes (yǔsù) of Standard Chinese with a detailed analysis of their
grammatical properties, usage, as well as thousands of sample sentences (given
In memoriam · Obituaries
257
both in characters and in Švarný’s prosodic transcription based on Hanyu pinyin;
Czech translations of the sentences are added, and the recordings are available as
well on a set of three CD-ROMs). The dictionary, unfortunately not written in
English, is a unique item in Sinological lexicography worldwide—both in terms
of its overall concept and in terms of the scope of the speech material included
(note that the original recordings of the 16,000 sample sentences took more
than 50 hours, each sentence being recorded in two versions).
Švarný became docent at Palacký University in Olomouc in 1998, and was
appointed professor at the same university in 2000. He abandoned teaching in
Olomouc as late as in 2007, still enjoying relatively good health during his late
years and keeping rather active almost until his last days. His life was long and
fruitful, yet far from smooth. His lifetime companion was Ms Jožka Švarná
(b1922) who lovingly supported him during good times and bad times, constantly
offering a helping hand with his work (note that Švarný never came to use a
computer, keeping faithful to his typewriter).
Oldřich Švarný is among the most outstanding personalities of Czech and
Slovak Sinology. And even more, he is a significant figure in the field of modern
Chinese linguistics worldwide, although his work (a large part of which is not
widely accessible because it is written in Czech) has not necessarily drawn broad
attention. He merits praise for having explored a field which is still rather underresearched compared to other aspects of the Chinese language such as syntax,
lexicology and so forth—let alone specializations such as Chinese literature,
history, sociology or fine arts. The prosodic features and phenomena of Standard
Chinese (such as the interplay between tone and stress, between tone and
sentence intonation, between stress and grammar, the distribution of stress,
etc.), are still far from sufficiently described. As a consequence, the methodology
of teaching these features to students has not been worked out yet. No wonder
that these aspects tend to be rather neglected in second language teaching.
Whatever is beyond the four citation tones on isolated syllables, neutral tone
morphemes, disyllabic combinations and tone sandhi, is most frequently hardly
mentioned, let alone practised. Švarný’s systematical attention to the study of
Mandarin prosody in close connection to teaching practice was literally groundbreaking. His extensive contribution to a deeper understanding of the sound
system of Mandarin built a profound basis for future research.
Švarný’s enthusiasm, personal warmth, his white beard and blue eyes will be
always remembered by the colleagues who knew him and by his students.
Czech Academy of Sciences, Oriental Institute, Prague
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Select Bibliography of Oldřich Švarný
Monographs
»Prosodické vlastnosti slabiky v čínštině a jejich modifikace v řeči souvislé«
[Prosodic Properties of the Chinese Syllable and Their Modifications in
Connected Speech], unpublished PhDr. thesis. Prague: Charles University,
1952.
»K otázce morfému a slova v moderní hovorové čínštině« [Discussing the Concept of the Morpheme and Word in Modern Spoken Chinese], unpublished
CSc. thesis. Praha: Orientální ústav, 1963.
Úvod do hovorové čínštiny [Introduction to Spoken Chinese], with Jarmila Kalousková, Čang Ťing-jü Rotterová and Josef Bartůšek, 2 vols. Praha: Státní
pedagogické nakladatelství, 1967.
Rok 2000: Jazyk jako most i propast [The Year 2000: Language as a Bridge and as a
Gap], with Josef Skácel and Petr Zima. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1982.
Gramatika hovorové čínštiny v příkladech [A Grammar of Spoken Chinese in
Examples], 2 parts in 4 vols. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského, 1991–93.
Reviewed by Hana Třísková, Nový Orient 49,5 (1994), 182–183.
Úvod do studia hovorové čínštiny [Introduction to Spoken Chinese], with David
Uher. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 1997; 2nd ed., 2001.
Hovorová čínština v příkladech [Spoken Chinese in Examples], with others, 4 vols.
Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 1998.
Učební slovník jazyka čínského [A Learner’s Dictionary of Modern Chinese], 4 vols.
Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 1998–2000.
Articles
»Some Remarks on the Articulation of the Cerebral Consonants in Indian
Languages, Especially in Tamil«, with Kamil Zvelebil. Archív orientální 23,3
(1955), 374–434.
»Études expérimentales des articulations chinoises«, with Karel Ohnesorg.
Rozpravy Československé akademie vĕd. Společenské vědy 65,5 (1955). *with
radiographies and palatograms.
»Reforma písma v Číně« [The Reform of the Writing System in China]. Nový
Orient 20,7 (1965), 214–215.
»Je čínština těžká?« [Is Chinese Difficult?]. Nový Orient 21,4 (1966), 116.
»Zum Problem der Differenzierung der unbetonten Silben im Peking-Dialekt«,
with Guan Mingzhe. Archív Orientální 34 (1966), 165–211.
In memoriam · Obituaries
259
»Zur Frage der Reduktion der Vokalelemente in den atonischen Silben im
Pekinger Dialekt«, with Guan Mingzhe. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der KarlMarx-Universität Leipzig (Gesellschafts- und Sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe)
16,1/2 (1967), 249–250.
»Prosodic Features and Their Functioning in Modern Chinese«, with others. In
Papers of the CIC Far Eastern Language Institute. Ann Arbor, 1968. 77–80.
»Pekinese Tones—Proposal of a New Approach«. Acta Universitatis Carolinæ.
Philologica 1: Phonetica Pragensia. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1972. 257–260.
»Variability of Tone Prominence in Chinese (Pekinese)«. In Asian and African
Languages in Social Context, ed. by Václav Černý & al. Praha: Academia, 1974.
127–186.
»Vývoj a možnosti znakového písma« [The Development and Future Prospects
of the Chinese Writing System]. In Kulturní tradice Dálného východu, ed. by
Jaroslav Bařinka & al. Praha: Odeon, 1980. 139–182.
»The Functioning of the Prosodic Features in Chinese (Pekinese)«. Archív
orientální 59,2 (1991), 208–216.
»Prosodic Features in Chinese (Pekinese): Prosodic Transcription and Statistical
Tables«, with Tang Yunling Rusková. Archív orientální 59,3 (1991), 234–254.
»Rhythmical Features of Spoken Chinese: Quantitative and Grammatical Analysis (Methodology)«. Rocznik orientalistyczny 47,2 (Warszawa, 1991), 131–137.
»Geneze standardní české transkripce« [The Genesis of the Standard Czech
Transcription of Chinese]. In Transkripce čínštiny [Transcribing Chinese], ed.
by Hana Třísková, 2 vols. Praha: Česko-čínská společnost, 1999. 2: 29–31.
»Prosodical Transcription of Modern Chinese: Experimental Research and
Teaching Practice«. In Papers in Phonetics and Speech Processing, ed. by Zdena
Palková and Hans-Walter Wordarz. Frankfurt am Main: Hector, 2000
(Forum Phoneticum; 70), 149–157.
Reviews
Isaenko, Boris Stepanovich. Opyt kitajsko-russkogo foneticheskogo slovaria [An
Attempt at a Chinese-Russian Phonetic Dictionary]. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo
inostrannoj literatury i natsional’nykh slovarej, 1957—Archív orientální 30
(1962), 355–359.
Fenn, Henry C.; Tewksbury, Malcolm Gardner. Speak Mandarin. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1967—Archív Orientální 37 (1969), 299–300.
Chao Yuen Ren [Zhao Yuanren 趙元任]. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1968—Journal of the American Oriental
Society 92,1 (1972), 136–137.
Kratochvíl, Paul. The Chinese Language Today. London: Hutchinson University,
1968—Linguistics 11 (1973), 109–111.
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Xiandai Hanyu pinlü cidian 現代漢語頻率詞典 [Frequency Dictionary of Modern
Chinese]. Beijing: Yuyan xueyuan chubanshe, 1986—»Nad frekvenčním
slovníkem současné čínštiny« [Introducing The Frequency Dictionary of
Modern Chinese], with Marie Tĕšitelová. Slovo a slovesnost 51,3 (1990), 237–
243.
DeFrancis, John. Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1989—Archív orientální 61 (1993), 210.
On Oldřich Švarný
Třísková, Hana. »Jubilant Oldřich Švarný« [Celebrating Oldřich Švarný’s 75th
Birthday]. Nový Orient 50,6 (1995), 239.
—. »Oldřich Švarný—bibliografie 1952–1993« [Oldřich Švarný—A Bibliography
1952–1993]. Bibliografická edice Orientálního ústavu 9,1–2 (Praha: Orientální
ústav, 1995), 29–46.
—. »Oldřich Švarný oslavil 85. jubileum« [Oldřich Švarný Celebrated his 85th
Birthday]. Nový Orient 60,3 (2005), 60–61.
—. »Za Oldřichem Švarným a jeho prozodickou transkripcí čínštiny« [Comme–
morating the late Oldřich Švarný and his Prosodic Transcription of Mandarin]. Nový Orient 66,3 (2011), 40–43.
—. »Prozodická transkripce čínštiny Oldřicha Švarného: čtyři historické verze
[Oldřich Švarný’s Prosodic Transcription of Mandarin: Four Subsequent
Versions]. Nový Orient 66,4 (2011), 45–50.
Uher, David. »Prof. PhDr. Oldřich Švarný, CSc.—pedagog« [Professor Švarný as
a Teacher]. Studia Orientalia Slovaca 4 (2005), 275–280.
In memoriam · Obituaries
Ms Jožka Švarná
in Front of a Portrait of the Late Professor Oldřich Švarný, Taken in 1971
(photograph by Hana Třísková, Praha, August 2011)
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