UniLang

For a complete beginner, what do the acute accents mean?

I read somewhere that u with the round thing (ů) is indeed ú, but they decided to write it differently for some reason. Is this because the person who got to decide had a special thing for Scandinavia or one of the Scandinavian countries? The Czech money is also called "crowns," so I couldn't help but ask myself the question.

And my main question is: is it allowed to write ú instead of ů, if I find it more consistent with the overall orthography and I like it better, or would that be wrong? I would also be happy writing the round thing everywhere instead of the accents, but I don't think that's possible

For a complete beginner, what do the acute accents mean?
Acute accent is ´ and means long pronunciation - a short x á long

I read somewhere that u with the round thing (ů) is indeed ú, but they decided to write it differently for some reason. Is this because the person who got to decide had a special thing for Scandinavia or one of the Scandinavian countries? The Czech money is also called "crowns," so I couldn't help but ask myself the question.
I think there is nothing with Scandinavia. In fact ring over the u is o So changes throught ages were ó - uo - then u with little o on its right side down I cannot write it - and finally ů.

And my main question is: is it allowed to write ú instead of ů, if I find it more consistent with the overall orthography and I like it better, or would that be wrong? I would also be happy writing the round thing everywhere instead of the accents, but I don't think that's possible
Definitely not. But you can try it.

Woods wrote:And my main question is: is it allowed to write ú instead of ů, if I find it more consistent with the overall orthography and I like it better, or would that be wrong? I would also be happy writing the round thing everywhere instead of the accents, but I don't think that's possible

There's more than one way to be "consistent". The reasons for maintaining distinct symbols are more than just historical. <ů> alternates with <o> whereas <ú> does not, e.g. <dům>, locative <domu>, but <úl>, loc. <úlu>.

Oh, so both letters ú and ů are present in the Czech alphabet... apparently what I've read (that the ů took over the ú) was wrong. So ú is a long u, what is ů then?

Woods wrote:Oh, so both letters ú and ů are present in the Czech alphabet... apparently what I've read (that the ů took over the ú) was wrong. So ú is a long u, what is ů then?

They represent the same sound from different sources, like <rz> and <ż> in Polish. There's a summary of the historical developments here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_orthography#Letter_.C5.AE. (My understanding is the that <ou> often replaces <ú> in vernacular speech, but I don't know the details.)

I’m also curious – what are Ď, Ň and Ť?

I also see the small letters Ď and Ť are written with an apostrophe instead of the accent – probably because it’s considered the accent wouldn’t fit with the line of the d, or for some other reason?

For these two, is it allowed to write the accent instead of the apostrophe?

Woods wrote:I’m also curious – what are Ď, Ň and Ť?

I also see the small letters Ď and Ť are written with an apostrophe instead of the accent – probably because it’s considered the accent wouldn’t fit with the line of the d, or for some other reason?

For these two, is it allowed to write the accent instead of the apostrophe?

Do you not have access to Wikipedia articles in your country?

Yes, but I've been too busy today. I'll check it

And I also added an extra reply before your last post indeed...

Yes, you can write the accent, but the apostrophe is used more.

Woods wrote:For a complete beginner, what do the acute accents mean?

I read somewhere that u with the round thing (ů) is indeed ú, but they decided to write it differently for some reason. Is this because the person who got to decide had a special thing for Scandinavia or one of the Scandinavian countries? The Czech money is also called "crowns," so I couldn't help but ask myself the question.

And my main question is: is it allowed to write ú instead of ů, if I find it more consistent with the overall orthography and I like it better, or would that be wrong? I would also be happy writing the round thing everywhere instead of the accents, but I don't think that's possible

It's easy. At the beginning of a word you write ú and in the middle there's ů. The only exceptions are some compound words like trojúhelník (triangle) = troj úhelník ( pětiúhelník etc.) and some foreign words. For example kůra (tree bark) and kúra ( cure).