Slovak phonology

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This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Slovak language.

Contents

Vowels

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
Monophthongs of Slovak with their allophonic ranges, from Pavlík (2004 :95). The short open front vowel /æ/ surfaces as an opening diphthong [ɛɐ], which is how it is transcribed in phonetic transcription.
Diphthongs of Slovak, from Pavlik (2004:97) Slovak diphthong chart.svg
Diphthongs of Slovak, from Pavlík (2004 :97)
Front Back
shortlongshortlong
Close i u
Mid e ( ) ɔ ( ɔː )
Open (æ) a
Diphthongs (ɪu) ɪe ɪɐ ʊɔ

Phonetic realization

Transcriptions

Sources differ in the way they transcribe Slovak. The differences are listed below.

Transcription systems
This articleShort 2002 [11] Pavlík 2004 [20] Krech et al 2009 [21] Hanulíková & Hamann 2010 [4]
iii
i̞ːi̞ː
uuu
u̞ːu̞ː
eeɛɛ
e̞ːɛːɛː
ɔoɔ̝ɔɔ
ɔːɔ̝ːɔːɔː
ææɛ̠̆ɐ̟̆ææ
aaɐ̞aa
ɐ̞ː
ɪuiuĭ̞ʊɪ̯u̞
ɪeieĭ̞e̞i̯ɛɪ̯ɛ
ɪɐiaɪ̟̆a̽i̯aɪ̯a
ʊɔuoŭ̞o̞u̯ɔʊ̯ɔ

Consonants

Slovak consonant phonemes [19]
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
voiced dz
Fricative voiceless f s ʂ x
voiced v z ʐ ɦ
Approximant plain j
lateral short l ʎ
geminated
Trill short r
geminated

Some additional notes includes the following (transcriptions in IPA unless otherwise stated):

Stress

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.

Official transcriptions

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.

graphemeIPAtranscr.example
a/a/amama ('mother')
á/aː/áláska ('love')
ä/æ/a, e, ämäso ('meat, flesh')
b/b/bbrat ('brother')
c/ts/ccukor ('sugar')
č/tʂ/ččaj ('tea')
d/d/ddom ('house')
ď/ɟ/ďďakovať ('to thank')
dz/dz/ʒbryndza ('sheep cheese')
/dʐ/ǯem ('jam')
e/e/emeno ('name')
é/eː/ébazén ('pool')
f/f/ffarba ('colour')
g/ɡ/gegreš ('gooseberry')
h/ɦ/hhlava ('head')
ch/x/xchlieb ('bread')
i/i/ipivo ('beer')
í/iː/ígombík ('button')
j/j/jjahoda ('strawberry')
k/k/kkniha ('book')
l/l/,/l̩/lplot ('fence')
ĺ/l̩ː/ĺmĺkvy ('prone to silence') [ˈml̩ːkʋi]
ľ/ʎ/ľmoľa ('clothes moth') [ˈmɔʎa]
m/m/mpomoc ('n. help')
n/n/nnos ('nose')
ň/ɲ/ňstudňa ('n. well')
o/ɔ/okostol ('church')
ó/ɔː/óbalón ('balloon')
ô/ʊɔ/ŭokôň ('horse') [ˈkʊɔɲ]
p/p/plopta ('ball')
q/kv/kvsquash (squash)
r/r/,/r̩/rmore ('sea')
ŕ/r̩ː/ŕvŕba ('willow tree')
s/s/sstrom ('tree')
š/ʂ/šmyš ('mouse')
t/t/tstolička ('chair')
ť/c/ťťava ('camel')
u/u/uruka ('arm')
ú/uː/údúha ('rainbow')
v/v/vveža ('tower')
wvwhiskey ('whiskey')
x/ks/ksxylofón ('xylophone')
y/i/isyr ('cheese')
ý/iː/írým ('rhyme')
z/z/zkoza ('goat')
ž/ʐ/žžaba ('frog')

Sample

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]

Phonemic transcription

/ˈrassaˈseveraːkaˈsl̩nkɔˈɦaːdali|ˈktɔzɲixjeˈsilɲejʂiː/

Phonetic transcription

[ˈrassaˈseʋeraːkaˈsl̩ŋkɔˈɦaːdali|ˈktɔzɲiɣjeˈsilɲejʂiː] [42]

Orthographic version

Raz sa severák a slnko hádali, kto z nich je silnejší. [43]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Pavlík (2004), pp. 93–95.
  2. Short (2002), p. 535.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 375.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 376.
  5. Short (2002), pp. 534–535.
  6. Kráľ (1988), pp. 64–65.
  7. Kráľ (1988), p. 64.
  8. Kráľ (1988), pp. 57, 64–65, 103.
  9. 1 2 Pavlík (2004), p. 94.
  10. 1 2 Kráľ (1988), p. 55.
  11. 1 2 Short (2002), p. 534.
  12. Pavlík (2004), pp. 93, 95.
  13. Pavlík (2004), pp. 94–95.
  14. Kráľ (1988), pp. 54, 92.
  15. Pavlík (2004), p. 95.
  16. 1 2 Pavlík (2004), pp. 96–97.
  17. Pavlík (2004), pp. 95, 97.
  18. 1 2 Pavlík (2004), p. 105.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 374.
  20. Pavlík (2004), pp. 95–96.
  21. Krech et al. (2009), p. 201.
  22. 1 2 3 Pavlík (2004), pp. 99, 106.
  23. Kráľ (1988 :73). The author describes /n/ as apical alveolar, but the corresponding image shows a laminal denti-alveolar pronunciation (which he does not discuss).
  24. Kráľ (1988), pp. 72, 74–75, 80–82.
  25. Kráľ (1988), p. 72.
  26. Pavlík (2004), pp. 98–99.
  27. Kráľ (1988), pp. 74–75.
  28. Pavlík (2004), pp. 103–104.
  29. Dvončová, Jenča & Kráľ (1969 :?), cited in Hanulíková & Hamann (2010 :374)
  30. Pauliny (1979), p. 112.
  31. Kráľ (1988), pp. 80–82.
  32. Pavlík (2004 :99–100, 102). This author transcribes the fricative part with ç,ʝ, which is incorrect as alveolo-palatal fricatives can only be sibilant (thus [ɕ, ʑ]).
  33. Recasens (2013), pp. 11, 13.
  34. 1 2 3 Kráľ (1988), p. 82.
  35. 1 2 3 Dvončová, Jenča & Kráľ (1969), pp. 94–95.
  36. Kráľ (1988), pp. 78–79.
  37. Kráľ (1988), p. 80.
  38. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), pp. 374, 376.
  39. Recasens (2013), p. 15.
  40. Pavlík (2004), p. 106.
  41. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 373.
  42. Based on the transcription in Hanulíková & Hamann (2010 :377). Some symbols were changed to keep the article consistent – see the section above.
  43. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 377.

Bibliography

Further reading