To elaborate on the existence of ů (u with ring above): The rule of thumb
is that it appears if and only if
you hear long 'u' inside native Czech
words, which is true, but it's more or less coincidential. (Note that this doesn't apply to loan word
s: for example "kůra" means "tree bark", whereas "kúra" means "treatment procedure". They are both pronounced the same, kinda like 'koo-ra' with a rolling 'r'.)
The point is that in old Slavic
languages, there was a long 'o' (ó) in place of the current ů. This has since differentiated in a number of ways in each of the languages - in Czech and Slovak
it turned into "uo". While Slovak has remained in this stage (the diphthong
is now spelled 'ô'), Czech (especially Bohemia
n dialects) went on to long 'u'. I've heard somewhere that the ring above ů is to resemble the original 'ó' sound, and for all I know, it may be true.
Anyway, the existence of ů has ethymological
And by the way, Balto-Slavic family of languages? Sub-family, perhaps. "Family" is a higher rank, and Slavic languages belong to the Indo-European
family of languages.
Sorry if I ramble too much, I just like to discuss stuff like this. :)