Illustrations of the IPA: Slovak

Abstract

Slovak (sometimes also called Slovakian) is an Indo-European language belonging to the West-Slavic branch, and is most closely related to Czech. Slovak is spoken as a native language by 4.6 million speakers in Slovakia (that is by roughly 85% of the population), and by over two million Slovaks living abroad, most of them in the USA, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Canada and Great Britain (Office for Slovaks Living Abroad 2009).

Full text

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE IPA Slovak
Adriana Hanul´
ıkov´
a
Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Adriana.Hanulikova@mpi.nl
Silke Hamann
Heinrich-Heine-Universit¨
at D¨
usseldorf, Germany
Hamann@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de
Slovak (sometimes also called Slovakian) is an Indo-European language belonging to the
West-Slavic branch, and is most closely related to Czech. Slovak is spoken as a native
language by 4.6 million speakers in Slovakia (that is by roughly 85% of the population), and
by over two million Slovaks living abroad, most of them in the USA, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Canada and Great Britain (Office for Slovaks Living Abroad 2009).
There are broadly three dialect regions: Eastern, Central and Western (see ˇ
Stolc 1968
for details). Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible although intelligibility depends on
various factors, sufficient exposure to the other language being one of them (see Sloboda 2004
for further discussion). Czech speakers are often reported to experience more difficulties in
comprehending Slovak than Slovak speakers in comprehending Czech (Musilov ⁄
a 2000). This
asymmetry is partly driven by more exposure to Czech through Slovak media than vice versa
(Mitter 2007).
The transcriptions of the wordlists and of the short text are based on recordings of a
female Slovak native speaker (aged 28 years) from Bratislava who speaks what is considered
Standard Slovak. The remaining examples are spoken by a female speaker (aged 32 years)
from Koˇ
sice who also speaks Standard Slovak.
Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2010) 40/3 C
International Phonetic Association
doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162

374 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA
Consonants
Bilabial Labio- Alveolar Post- Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar
Plosive pb td ck
Nasal m n 
Fricative fvszʃ x
Affricate t°sd°z t°ʃd°
Trill r
r…
Approximant j
Lateral
approximant
l
l…
¥
Slovak has eight plosives, four voiceless non-aspirated ones and four fully voiced ones. It
has a palatal series of two stops, a nasal, a lateral and a glide, though the stops and the nasal
are more accurately described as alveolo-palatal (based on the data by Dvonˇ
cov ⁄
a, Jenˇ
ca &
Kr ⁄
al’ 1969). It further has a postalveolar series of two fricatives and two affricates, for which
the IPA symbols /ʃt°ʃd°/ are usually employed (e.g. Short 1993). These sounds are often
apical (Pavl ⁄
ık 2004: 103f.) and could therefore be described as retroflex (see the discussion
in Hamann 2004).
The alveolar nasal /n/ has a velar allophone [N] before a velar, e.g. mienka [mi8ENka]
‘opinion’, and a labial allophone [m] before a labial, e.g. hanba [amba] ‘shame’. Speakers
of Western Slovak dialects often pronounce [n] where Standard Slovak uses [], e.g. neviem
[nEi8Em] ‘I do not know’.
The labiodental /v/ is realized as a voiced fricative [v] only in onset position before voiced
obstruents, as in vzrast [vzrast] ‘increase’. In syllable onset before a vowel or a liquid, /v/
is realized as a voiced approximant [], e.g. krvav´
y[krai…] ‘bloody’. In onset before a
voiceless obstruent, /v/ is devoiced, see the section on assimilation below. In coda position,
/v/ can be pronounced either as an approximant [] or as a glide [υ8] (sometimes transcribed
as [w]), e.g. krv [krυ8]∼[kr] ‘blood’ (see Sabol 1961, Isaˇ
cenko 1968, Tabaˇ
cekov ⁄
a 1981 and
Kr ⁄
al’ 1988 for further discussion).
Slovak has a contrast between palatal and alveolar laterals, where the alveolar lateral is
slightly velarized, i.e. it shows some raising of the dorsum towards the velum (see the data
in Dvonˇ
cov ⁄
a et al. 1969: 38). The palatal /¥/ is often produced as an alveolar lateral with
secondary palatalization (see the data in Dvonˇ
cov ⁄
a et al. 1969: 47). The contrast between
these two laterals is neutralized towards the velarized alveolar before front vowels; in Western
Slovak dialects this neutralization occurs before all vowels (Rend ⁄
ar 2006).
The long lateral and the long trill are often considered to be allophones of /l/and/r/,
respectively (see e.g. ˇ
Duroviˇ
c 1975; Short 1993, 2000) because there are no minimal pairs
for /l…/and/l/or/r…/and/r/. However, the two pairs are not in complementary distribution: the
long lateral and the long rhotic can only occur in the syllable nucleus, their short counterparts
in the nucleus and elsewhere. For this reason we follow Bujalka, Bal ⁄
aˇ
z&R ⁄
yzkov ⁄
a (1996: 42)
in considering all four sounds phonemes. Short /r/ is in the majority of the cases realized as
atap[ɾ] (Isaˇ
cenko 1968: 185; Pavl ⁄
ık 2004), but some instances show two closure phases.
The glottal stop is not considered a phoneme of Slovak, it can occur before vowel-initial
words and word-internally after a prefix (Rend ⁄
ar 2008).
The affricate [d°z] does not occur in word-initial position (except for two low-frequency
words, dzekat’ ‘to pronounce [d°z] instead of []’ and the interjection dziny). The affricate [d°]
mostly occurs in words of foreign origin, e.g. dˇ
z´
us ‘juice’.

Adriana Hanul´
ıkov´
a & Silke Hamann: Slovak 375
In the following word list, the consonant under consideration is in word-initial position
andisfollowedbythevowel/a/, with the exception of /d°z/ and the syllabic consonants.
p pakti§pakty ‘pacts’ b bapka babka ‘grandma’
ttaʃka taˇ
ska ‘bag’ d dart°sadarca ‘donor’
cca
at’a v a ‘camel’ asnɔd’asno ‘gum’
k kaba:tkab´
at ‘coat’ acE gate ‘slacks’
ffat°ska facka ‘slap’ vaki§vaky ‘bagpacks’
s sadra sadra ‘plaster’ zzapnu§:czapn´
ut’ ‘to switch on’
ʃʃatka ˇ
satka ‘kerchief’ apka ˇ
zabka ‘frog’
t°st°sap cap ‘billy goat’ d°zt°su§d°zi8a cudzia ‘foreign’
t°ʃt°ʃakac ˇ
cakat’ ‘to wait’ d°d°aɔtdˇ
zavot ‘jabber’
x xata chata ‘cottage’ adi§hady ‘snakes’
rraki§ra ky ‘crayfish’ (pl) r…mr…ti§m´
rtvy ‘dead’
krkkrk ‘neck’
l lapki§labky ‘paws’ l…ml…ki§m´
lkvy ‘silent’
lkvlk ‘wolf’
¥¥ai§:l’a v ´
y‘left’ jjablkɔjablko ‘apple’
m matka matka ‘mother’ n nanu§k nanuk ‘ice lolly’
adrɔˇ
nadro ‘breast’
Vowels
Slovak has the vowels /i§ Eaɔu§/and/i§…E…a…ɔ…u§…/ (see Figure 1). Standard Slovak lists
an additional vowel /æ/, orthographically represented as ¨
a, which does not have a long
counterpart. Its use is becoming rare, and its pronunciation is nowadays often merged with
/E/, as is the case with the speaker in our recordings. The phoneme /ɔ…/ occurs only in
loanwords (e.g. telef´
on ‘telephone’). The phoneme /i§/ corresponds to the orthographically
distinct graphemes i, yand the phoneme /i §…/to⁄
ı, ⁄
y. The acute accent indicates that the
vowel is long. Eastern dialects lack phonemic quantity.
Figure 1 Vowel diagram (left) and plot of F1versus F2-F1for average values of ten tokens for each vowel spoken by one female
speaker (right).

376 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA
SHORT VOWELS LONG VOWELS
i§i§ʃ…i§…niˇ
zˇ
s´
ı‘lower’ i§…i§…zav´
yzva ‘appeal’
EEi8Et°sveniec ‘wreath’ E…tE…za t´
eza ‘thesis’
aaki§vaky ‘bagpacks’ a…a…zi§v´
azy ‘vases’
ɔɔzi§vozy ‘wagons’ ɔ…tɔ…ni§t´
ony ‘tones’
u§ ku§ra kura ‘chicken’ u§…fu§…zi§f´
uzy ‘mustache’
ææzi§v¨
azy ‘ligaments’
Slovak has four diphthongs, all of them are rising /i8a i8E i8u§υ8ɔ/ (e.g. Isaˇ
cenko 1968: 152f.;
Rubach 1995; Pauliny 1979). Most of these diphthongs are bigraphemes, except the last one,
which is represented orthographically with a circumflex ˆ
o.
DIPHTHONGS
i8api8atɔkpiatok ‘Friday’
i8Eki8Etɔkkvietok ‘little flower’
i8u§mEnʃi8u§menˇ
siu ‘smaller’ (fem acc)
υ8ɔυ8ɔavˆ
oˇ
na ‘odor’
Final devoicing and regressive voice assimilation
Voiced obstruents of Slovak undergo final devoicing, which can lead to neutralization, e.g.
both stred ‘middle’ and stret ‘conflict’ are realized as [strEt]. An exception represents /v/
which has the allophones [υ8]and[] in coda position (see above).
Slovak has regressive voice assimilation, whereby obstruents are assimilated to the voicing
of a following consonant, even when a word boundary intervenes. Thus clusters of voiced–
voiceless consonants are realized as fully voiceless, e.g.h´
adka [a…tka] ‘quarrel’, ztela[scEla]
‘from the body’ and vˇ
cela [ft°ʃEla] ‘bee’. Clusters of voiceless–voiced consonants are fully
voiced, e.g. platba [pladba] ‘payment’, k domu [dɔmu§] ‘to the house’ and vrana [rana]
‘crow’. No assimilation occurs before /v/ if the previous consonant belongs to the onset of
the same word, see sval [sal] ‘muscle’ (Isaˇ
cenko 1968). If a word boundary intervenes,
assimilation occurs, e.g. s vakom [zakɔm] ‘with the bag’. Voicing assimilation of velar
/x/ is usually reported to result in a voiced allophone [G], e.g. vzduch bol [vzdu§Gbɔl]‘air
was’, though none of our speakers assimilates in this context. In final devoicing and the
processes of voicing assimilation, voiced glottal // is realized as voiceless velar [x], e.g. kruh
[kru§x] ‘circle’. In addition to consonants, vowels too can cause voicing assimilation across
word boundaries, e.g. vlak ide [lai§E] ‘the train goes’. For more details on assimilation
processes, see Kr ⁄
al’ (1988).
Stress and accentuation
Primary stress is always on the first syllable of the phonological word. Prepositions are
integrated into the phonological word, and therefore attract stress if they contain a vowel
(e.g. na stole ["nastɔlE] ‘on the table’). Eastern dialects have penultimate stress due to Polish
influence.
According to the so-called ‘rhythmical law’ or ‘law of rhythmical shortening’, a long
vowel, a long liquid, or a diphthong should not be followed by a long segment or diphthong
in the next syllable if the two are within the same word (for exceptions, see Short 1993: 538;
Rubach 1995: 174f.). In such cases, the second nucleus is shortened. Hence biely [bi8Eli§]
‘white’ ends with a short [i§], although adjectival endings are usually long (e.g. mal´
y[mali§…]
‘little’). Western dialects often violate the rhythmical law by lengthening short vowels.

Adriana Hanul´
ıkov´
a & Silke Hamann: Slovak 377
Transcription of recorded passage
"ras sa "sEEra…k a "slNkɔ"a…dali§|"ktɔzi§GjE "si §lEjʃi§…"f tɔm "zbadali §
"pɔt°sEstnE…ɔ |"ktɔri§…"kra…t°ʃal "zakri§ti §…"pla…ʃcɔm"dɔhɔdli §sa |E "si§lEjʃi §…
jE "tEn |ktɔ"akɔ"pri§…"dɔka…E|"abi§ si § "pot°sEstni §…"i§zli8Ekɔl"pla…ʃc"a tag
"zat°ʃal "sEEra…k"fu§…kazɔ"fʃEtki§x "si§…l|"alE t°ʃi§…mi8at°s"fu§…kal |"ti§…mi8at°s
sa "pot°sEstni §…"zakri§…al "pla…ʃcɔm"nakɔi8Et°s sa "sEvEra…g "vzdal "zbi §tɔt°ʃnEj
"na…mai§ "pɔtɔm "slNkɔ"zat°ʃalɔ"si8Eci§ca"ri8ac "za malu§…"xi§…¥ku§"bɔlɔ
"pɔt°sEstnE…mu§"cEplɔ|a"
i§zli8Ekɔlsi§"pla…ʃc"sEvEra…k"mu§sEl "nakɔi8Et°s"u§znac
|E "slNkɔjE "si§lEjʃi8E"akɔɔn
Orthographic version
Raz sa sever ⁄
ak a slnko h ⁄
adali,kto z nich je silnejˇ
s⁄
ı. V tom zbadali pocestn ⁄
eho,ktor ⁄
y
kr ⁄
aˇ
cal zakryt ⁄
ypl ⁄
aˇ
st’om.Dohodli sa,ˇ
ze silnejˇ
s⁄
ıje ten,kto ako prv ⁄
ydok ⁄
aˇ
ze,aby si pocestn ⁄
y
vyzliekol pl ⁄
aˇ
st’. A tak zaˇ
cal sever ⁄
akf ⁄
ukat’ zo vˇ
setk ⁄
ych s ⁄
ıl,ale ˇ
c⁄
ımviacf ⁄
ukal,t⁄
ymviac
sa pocestn ⁄
yzakr ⁄
yval pl ⁄
aˇ
st’om.Nakoniec sa sever ⁄
ak vzdal zbytoˇ
cnej n ⁄
amahy.Potom slnko
zaˇ
calo svietit’ ahriat’ . Z amal ⁄
uchv ⁄
ıl’ku bolo pocestn ⁄
emu teplo a vyzliekol si pl ⁄
aˇ
st’. Sever ⁄
ak
musel nakoniec uznat’, ˇ
ze slnko je silnejˇ
sie ako on.
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