This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Slovak language.
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Slovak language.
![Monophthongs of Slovak with their allophonic ranges, from Pavlik (2004:95). The short open front vowel /ae/
surfaces as an opening diphthong [ea], which is how it is transcribed in phonetic transcription. Ranges of Slovak monophthongs.svg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Ranges_of_Slovak_monophthongs.svg/250px-Ranges_of_Slovak_monophthongs.svg.png)
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | u | uː |
| Mid | e | ( eː ) | ɔ | ( ɔː ) |
| Open | (æ) | a | aː | |
| Diphthongs | (ɪu) ɪe ɪɐ ʊɔ | |||
Sources differ in the way they transcribe Slovak. The differences are listed below.
| This article | Short 2002 [11] | Pavlík 2004 [20] | Krech et al 2009 [21] | Hanulíková & Hamann 2010 [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | i | i̞ | i | i̞ |
| iː | iː | i̞ː | iː | i̞ː |
| u | u | u̞ | u | u̞ |
| uː | uː | u̞ː | uː | u̞ː |
| e | e | e̞ | ɛ | ɛ |
| eː | eː | e̞ː | ɛː | ɛː |
| ɔ | o | ɔ̝ | ɔ | ɔ |
| ɔː | oː | ɔ̝ː | ɔː | ɔː |
| æ | æ | ɛ̠̆ɐ̟̆ | æ | æ |
| a | a | ɐ̞ | a | a |
| aː | aː | ɐ̞ː | aː | aː |
| ɪu | iu | ĭ̞ʊ | — | ɪ̯u̞ |
| ɪe | ie | ĭ̞e̞ | i̯ɛ | ɪ̯ɛ |
| ɪɐ | ia | ɪ̟̆a̽ | i̯a | ɪ̯a |
| ʊɔ | uo | ŭ̞o̞ | u̯ɔ | ʊ̯ɔ |
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c [22] | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ [22] | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | tʂ | |||||
| voiced | dz | dʐ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | x | |||
| voiced | v | z | ʐ | ɦ | ||||
| Approximant | plain | j | ||||||
| lateral | short | l | ʎ | |||||
| geminated | lː | |||||||
| Trill | short | r | ||||||
| geminated | rː | |||||||
Some additional notes includes the following (transcriptions in IPA unless otherwise stated):
 |
In the standard language, the stress is always on the first syllable of a word (or on the preceding preposition, see below). This is not the case in certain dialects. Eastern dialects have penultimate stress (as in Polish), which at times makes them difficult to understand for speakers of standard Slovak. Some of the north-central dialects have a weak stress on the first syllable, which becomes stronger and moves to the penultimate in certain cases. Monosyllabic conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of the verb byť (to be) are usually unstressed.
Prepositions form a single prosodic unit with the following word, unless the word is long (four syllables or more) or the preposition stands at the beginning of a sentence.
| |
Slovak linguists do not usually use IPA for phonetic transcription of their own language or others, but have their own system based on the Slovak alphabet. Many English language textbooks make use of this alternative transcription system. In the following table, pronunciation of each grapheme is given in this system as well as in the IPA.
| grapheme | IPA | transcr. | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | /a/ | a | mama ('mother') |
| á | /aː/ | á | láska ('love') |
| ä | /æ/ | a, e, ä | mäso ('meat, flesh') |
| b | /b/ | b | brat ('brother') |
| c | /ts/ | c | cukor ('sugar') |
| č | /tʂ/ | č | čaj ('tea') |
| d | /d/ | d | dom ('house') |
| ď | /ɟ/ | ď | ďakovať ('to thank') |
| dz | /dz/ | ʒ | bryndza ('sheep cheese') |
| dž | /dʐ/ | ǯ | džem ('jam') |
| e | /e/ | e | meno ('name') |
| é | /eː/ | é | bazén ('pool') |
| f | /f/ | f | farba ('colour') |
| g | /ɡ/ | g | egreš ('gooseberry') |
| h | /ɦ/ | h | hlava ('head') |
| ch | /x/ | x | chlieb ('bread') |
| i | /i/ | i | pivo ('beer') |
| í | /iː/ | í | gombík ('button') |
| j | /j/ | j | jahoda ('strawberry') |
| k | /k/ | k | kniha ('book') |
| l | /l/,/l̩/ | l | plot ('fence') |
| ĺ | /l̩ː/ | ĺ | mĺkvy ('prone to silence') |
| ľ | /ʎ/ | ľ | moľa ('clothes moth') |
| m | /m/ | m | pomoc ('n. help') |
| n | /n/ | n | nos ('nose') |
| ň | /ɲ/ | ň | studňa ('n. well') |
| o | /ɔ/ | o | kostol ('church') |
| ó | /ɔː/ | ó | balón ('balloon') |
| ô | /ʊɔ/ | ŭo | kôň ('horse') |
| p | /p/ | p | lopta ('ball') |
| q | /kv/ | kv | squash (squash) |
| r | /r/,/r̩/ | r | more ('sea') |
| ŕ | /r̩ː/ | ŕ | vŕba ('willow tree') |
| s | /s/ | s | strom ('tree') |
| š | /ʂ/ | š | myš ('mouse') |
| t | /t/ | t | stolička ('chair') |
| ť | /c/ | ť | ťava ('camel') |
| u | /u/ | u | ruka ('arm') |
| ú | /uː/ | ú | dúha ('rainbow') |
| v | /v/ | v | veža ('tower') |
| w | v | whiskey ('whiskey') | |
| x | /ks/ | ks | xylofón ('xylophone') |
| y | /i/ | i | syr ('cheese') |
| ý | /iː/ | í | rým ('rhyme') |
| z | /z/ | z | koza ('goat') |
| ž | /ʐ/ | ž | žaba ('frog') |
The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun. The transcription is based on a recording of a 28-year-old female speaker of standard Slovak from Bratislava. [41]
/ˈrassaˈseveraːkaˈsl̩nkɔˈɦaːdali|ˈktɔzɲixjeˈsilɲejʂiː/
[ˈrassaˈseʋeraːkaˈsl̩ŋkɔˈɦaːdali|ˈktɔzɲiɣjeˈsilɲejʂiː] [42]
Raz sa severák a slnko hádali, kto z nich je silnejší. [43]
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