The Pronunciation of the Slovak Accents

In the previous entry, The Slovak Accents: Acute, Caron and Circumflex, we discussed the three Slovak accents: acute, caron and circumflex. These three accents are represented in the following examples respectively: 'í', 'ň', and 'ô'. The purpose of this entry is to explain how each of these accents is pronounced in Slovak. Understanding their pronunciation is important for the development of your Slovak speaking (and spelling!) skills. The correct pronunciation will also ensure that you convey the right meaning to a word. This can prevent two words, which are spelt differently but pronounced somewhat similarly, from being confused (for example, “vodit'” and “vodič”).

Let's start!

Pronouncing the Acute Accent
The pronunciation of the acute accent was briefly covered in the entry An Introduction to Slovakia and Slovak. To quickly recap, the acute accent occurs with vowels only and serves to lengthen the pronunciation of the vowel. By lengthening the vowel, the vowel is also emphasised. Two further examples include: “druhý”, which is pronounced something like “drew-hee”, and means “second”; and “dúha”, which is pronounced something like “d0o-hah”, and means “rainbow”.

Where the acute accent occurs above the consonants 'l' and 'r', these consonants are considered vowels. The pronounciation of 'ĺ' sounds like “lurid” in English. There is no known English equivalent for the 'ŕ' sound. However, let's take a quick look at the pronunciation of the Slovak 'r' without an accent to give you some idea. It is pronounced very differently to the 'r' in English but the same as the 'r' in German, Italian and Spanish. Say the Spanish words "arriva" and "carramba" out loud. Did you feel your tongue vibrating? Well, that's how you say the Slovak 'r'. To understand how to pronounce the 'r' with an accent, try to hear the pronunciation of the words “hŕba” or “vŕtať”, which mean “heap” and “drill” respectively.  You can listen to the pronunciation of “arriva” on the Forvo website here as a guideline for the Slovak 'r'.

Pronouncing the Caron
The caron was introduced in the previous entry The Slovak Accents: Acute, Caron and Circumflex. To quickly recap, the caron is used above consonants only and is shown either as a “v” mark (above the letters c, n, s or z) or as an apostrophe (behind the letters d, l, t).

The caron serves to soften the sound of the consonants when it is pronounced. Some examples of their usage and pronounciation are shown below:
~ 'č' – “čo”, which is pronounced something like the “ch” in “chello”, and means “what”.
~ 'ň' – “voňavka”, which is pronounced something like “vo-njau-ka”, and means “perfume”. To help with the pronunciation, think of the 'n' sound in the English word “news”.
~ 'š' – “náš”, which is pronounced something like “sh” in “ship”, and means “ours”.
~ 'ž' – “žaba”, which is pronounced something like “zha-bah”, and means “frog”. To help with the pronunciation, think of the 'si' sound in the English word “television”.
~ 'ď' – “ďakujem”, which is pronounced something like “dja-koo-yem”, and means “thank you”. To help with the pronunciation, think of the 'd' sound in the English word “during”.
~ 'ľ' – “vľavo”, which is pronounced something like “vlja-voh”, and means “to the left”. There is no known English equivalent for this sound however, it is similar to the Italian pronounciation in the word “Cagliari”. Hear the pronunciation of this word on the Forvo website here.
~ 'ť' – “ťava”, which is pronounced something like “tja-vah”, and means “camel”. To help with the pronunciation, think of the 'tj' sound of the last 't' in the English word “attitude”.

Pronouncing the Circumflex
The circumflex was introduced in the previous entry, The Slovak Accents: Acute, Caron and Circumflex. To quickly recap, the circumflex is used above the letter 'o' only to produce the letter 'ô'. This particular character is known as a dipthong.

The Greek word “dipthongos” means “two sounds” or “two tones”. Dipthongs therefore consist of two vowels and also two sounds. In Slovak, there are four dipthongs ('ia', 'iu', 'ie' and 'ô'). The letter 'ô' is represented by the vowels 'u' (pronounced as a short, weak "oo") and 'o' in the order 'uo', where the 'u' is less pronounced than the 'o'. Examples of the usage of this consonant in Slovak are: “kôň”, “kôl” and “kôpor”, which mean “horse”, “stake” and “dill” respectively. The pronunciation is represented by “ku-onj”, “ku-ol” and “kuo-por”. Notice how your mouth changes shape when saying these words and how the 'o' is emphasised more than the 'u'.

In summary, the pronunciation of many of the vowels and consonants we have considered so far can be heard online at the Omniglot website. Listen to the sound file for the “Sample text in Slovak” on the Slovak page. The text version of the audio file is shown below. Read it before listening to the audio and refer to it while listening to match the vowels and consonants with their written versions.

“Všetci ľudia sa rodia slobodní a sebe rovní, čo sa týka ich dôstojnosti a práv. Sú obdarení rozumom a majú navzájom jednať v bratskom duchu.”

Next time we will look at the pronunciation of the letters in the Slovak alphabet which do not have accents.

Notes:

1. In the above extract from Omniglot, the word “dôstojnosti” was incorrectly spelt in the original text as “dostôjnosti”. It has been corrected here to ensure the text correctly matches the pronunciation heard in the audio file.

2. It has been suggested that the word “jednať ” should be replaced with the word “konať ” in this context. This is a common mistake caused by the use of the word “jednať ” in Slovak based on its use in the Czech language. However, “jednať ” in Czech is actually equivalent to “konať” in Slovak.