PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Segmental Aspects

Short /Ʌ/ does not sound much different from /a/ in Slovak. As for Slovak, /a/ occurs in all three possible positions in words (initial, medial and final), representing the letter a, e.g. adresa /adresa/, kravata /kravata/. In English, it is also pronounced in all the three positions in words, e.g. upper /Ʌpə/, dove /dɅv/, but in a final position it can alter with the schwa /ə/ in non-standard pronunciation, e.g. idea /aɪ´dɪjɅ/ or /aɪ´dɪə/, fellow /felɅ/ or /felə/ (Bázlik, Miškovičová, 2012). In the written form, /Ʌ/ is a spoken representation of the graphemes u, as in butter /bɅtə/, o, as in love /lɅv/, or of the vowel clusters ou, as in touch /tɅtʃ/, or oo, as in blood /blɅd/.

Long /ɑ:/ is a central-back vowel in English, whereas in Slovak it is a central vowel. This means that the tongue occupies an extreme position for the English /ɑ:/ – it is as low and as backwards as possible. As far as its occurrence in words is concerned, in Slovak, it is found either initially (but only rarely, hence not in many words), e.g. áno /áno/, medially, e.g. málo /málo/ or finally, e.g. hľadá /hľadá/, always represented by the letter á. In English, it is also pronounced in all the above-mentioned positions, e.g. ask /ɑ:sk/, father /fɑ:δə/, bar /bɑ:/. It is pronounced when the grapheme a is followed mainly by r, s, or l, e.g. arm /ɑ:m/, last /lɑ:st/, balm /bɑ:m/, but also other consonants occur, as well, as in bath /bɑ:θ/, rather /rɑ:δə/. Rarely, it can be spelt as e, e.g. clerk /klɑ:k/.

Short /e/ is found in the phonemic inventory of both English and Slovak, but its long counterpart exists only in Slovak. The English /e/ is never pronounced finally in words, because as a letter it has a zero phonemic realisation, e.g. come /kɅm/, i.e. it is silent (or mute). As a phoneme, it is found at the beginning of words, e.g. any /eni/, or word-medially, e.g. merry /meri/. The graphemes e a u or the succession of vowels ea, ei, ie are pronounced as a vowel /e/, e.g. bet /bet/, anything /enɪθɪη/, bury /beri/, bread /bred/, leisure /leʒə/, friend /frend/. In Slovak, there is no reason to talk about any discrepancy between writing and speaking – the letter e is always pronounced /e/ and is found word-initially, medially, as well as finally, e.g. egreš /egreʃ/, čerešne /ʧereʃňe/. Short /e/ is often heard in casual speech as a substitution for /æ/ represented by the letter ä with its higher-style pronunciation /æ/, e.g. päta /peta/ instead of /pæta/. In Slovak, the vowel ä follows the bilabial consonants p, b, m, e.g. päť /peť/ or /pæť/, bábätko /bábetko/ or /bábætko/, mäso /meso/ or /mæso/.

Slovak long initial /é/ is only found in words of foreign origin, e.g. éra /éra/. Long /é/ is also used in the word-medial and the word-final position, e.g. jéj /jéj/, or it occurs in loanwords, e.g. méta /méta/. Long /é/ is also used as a part of grammatical endings, e.g. ktorého /ktorého/, or as a grammatical ending of the feminine and neutral gender in adjectives, e.g. pekné /pekné/.

In English, long é as a grapheme is found in words of foreign origin where it is diphthongised and thus pronounced as /eɪ/, e.g. fiancé /fɪ´ɑ:nseɪ/. This phenomenon occurs only in words borrowed from French.

The English short /ɪ/ pronounced initially and medially in words, has its short counterpart /i/ found finally in words. Although both are short, /i/ sounds a little bit longer than /ɪ/. When pronouncing /i/ and /í/ in Slovak, the tongue occupies the highest and the most front position in the oral cavity. The tip of the tongue leans on the low part of the alveolar ridge and on lower teeth. Both /i/ and /í/ are the oral realisations of the Slovak letters y and ý. The English /ɪ/ is much more lax and dark than its Slovak counterpart. Its articulation is similar to the way of pronouncing /ə/, and that´s why in unstressed, usually penultimate syllables, schwa can be a substitute for /ɪ/, e.g. elephant /eləfənt/, responsibility /rɪ,spɒnsɪ´bɪlɪti/ or /rɪ,spɒnsɪ´bɪləti/. This substitution is never found word-finally (Pavlík, 2000). In words, the phonemes /ɪ/ or /i/ are often spelt as i, e.g. finish /fɪnɪʃ/, as y, e.g. mystery /mɪstəri/, as e, e.g. English /ɪηglɪʃ/, as u, e.g. busy /bɪzi/, as a, e.g. village /vɪlɪʤ/, or as vowel groups ea, ay, or ei, like forehead /forɪd/, Tuesday /tju:zdi/, foreign /forɪn/ (Bázlik, Miškovičová, 2012). As for its position in words, /ɪ/ represents the vowel sound in the initial and medial position in words, e.g. inch /ɪnʧ/, image /ɪmɪʤ/, /i/ is notated word-finally, e.g. happy /hæpi/. In Slovak, /i/ is heard in any position, e.g. ihla /ihla/, miska /miska/, or žili /ʒili/. (Initially, the letter y only occurs in foreign words, e.g. ypsilon /ipsilon/. On the other hand, it is frequently found in the prefix vy-, e.g. vybehnúť /vibehnúť/, and it is also found finally, often as an inflectional ending for some nominative plural nouns, e.g. ženy /ženi/ or nominative masculine adjectives, e.g. krásny /krásni/.)

Long /i:/ is either spelt as e, e.g. eve /i:v/, or it can be pronounced as /i:/ in vowel clusters the ee, ea, ei and ie, e.g. feet /fi:t/, feast /fi:st/, seizure /si:ʒə/, brief /bri:f/. In Slovak, as it has already been mentioned, /í/ not only represents the way of the pronunciation of the vowel letter í, e.g. šípka /ʃípka/, it is also spelt ý in words like, e.g. pýcha /píxa/. As far as its placement in words is concerned, in both languages it occupies all the three possible positions, e.g. evening /i:vnɪη/, measles /mi:zlz/, fee /fi:/ and íver /íver/, chrípka /xrípka/ plus word-finally, it is often found as an inflectional ending for some nominative plural adjectives, e.g. pekní /pekní/. (The letter ý never occurs initially in Slovak words, whereas it is quite frequently found word-medially, e.g. výhoda /víhoda/, often as a part of the prefix vý-, e.g. výkop /víkop/. It is also found finally, mainly as an inflectional ending for some nominative singular adjectives, e.g. hladný /hladní/.)

Short /ɒ/ does not sound the same in English and in Slovak. The English phoneme is more open, and the lips are not rounded so much as they are in Slovak. The English /ɒ/ is a speech sound having the features of both /ɒ/ and /Ʌ/. Short /ɒ/ is often spelt o or a (a preferably following w), e.g. pot /pɒt/ or wander /wɒndə/ (Bázlik, Miškovičová, 2012). It is heard word-initially (e.g. often /ɒfn̩,/), medially (e.g. block /blɒk/), but not word-finally. If the letter o occurs word-finally, it is diphthongized, e.g. so /səʋ/. In Slovak, it occupies all the three word-positions, e.g. okno /okno/ or prosba /prozba/. (It can even occur within one word in all the three positions, e.g. odpovedalo /otpovedalo/.)

Long /ͻ:/ is pronounced if “back of tongue is raised between half-open and half-close positions, medium lip rounding and no contact between rims and upper molars” (Crystal, 2011, p. 241). Letter clusters as or, oor, oar, aw, ough, aught are often articulated /ͻ:/, e.g. more /mͻ:/, door /dͻ:/, paw /pͻ:/, ought /ͻ:t/, taught /tͻ:t/. As it is demonstrated in the examples, long English /ͻ:/ is pronounced word-initially, medially and finally. In Slovak words, there is a tendency to find /ó/ in all positions, but mainly in borrowings from other languages, e.g. óda /óda/, móda /móda/, šapitó /ʃapitó/. Slovak long /ó/ represents vowel-letter graphemes io, eo or even ió, eó in which it forms part of a hiatus, e.g. šampión /ʃampión/ or neón /neón/ (for more information about hiatus, see Chapter 6.3).

According to Bázlik, Miškovičová (2012), short /ʋ/ is more lax in English than in Slovak and in pronunciation, it is quite similar to /ə/. The lips are less rounded than for the pronunciation of /u:/. It is never pronounced initially in English, unless preceded by /j/, e.g. university /jʋnɪ´vɜ:sɪti/. On the other hand, its medial position is quite frequent, e.g. could /kʋd/. Bázlik and Miškovičová in their publication Pravidlá výslovnosti britskej a americkej angličtiny (2012) state that /ʋ/ is never pronounced word-finally in English. The letter representation of /ʋ/ is u, e.g. pullover /pʋ´ləʋvə/, ou, e.g. could /kʋd/ and oo, e.g. good /gʋd/. In Slovak, /u/ is often found in words initially and medially, e.g. udica /uďica/ or ruka /ruka/, while finally it is an inflectional gender-marked feminine ending of the accusative case for nouns, adjectives, e.g. krásnu prírodu /krásnu prírodu/ and pronouns, e.g. ju /ju/, or it forms grammatical endings of 3^rd person plural of verbs in the present tense, e.g. hádžu /háʤu/. Short /ʋ/ is also found in prepositions in pre-consonantal positions, e.g. ku mne /ku mňe/ (but k nám /k nám/).

Long /u:/ is defined as a central tense vowel. As a vowel-phoneme, it represents the letter u and is often preceded by /j/, e.g. use /ju:z/ or tune /tju:n/, but it can also be spelt as oo, ou, ew or ue, e.g. loose /lu:s/, route /ru:t/, pew /pju:/, clue /klu:/ (Bázlik, Miškovičová, 2012). It is not heard initially in words, but, on the other hand, as the earlier-mentioned examples manifest, it occurs medially and finally. As for the final position of the phoneme /u:/, it also occurs for instance in a personal pronoun you /ju:/, but only in its strong form /ju:/, its weak form in casual rapid speech being shortened to /ju/. Whereas long /u:/ loses its quantity in weak forms, it does not change its quality, thus in such cases, it is notated as /u/. In Slovak, /ú/ can occupy any position in words, e.g. úsmev /úsmeŭ/, prúdi /prúďi/, and it can also be grammatically marked word-finally, e.g. nesú /ňesú/.

Short schwa /ə/ is found only in the phonemic inventory of the English language. In Slovak, it is a sound, but not a phoneme. The schwa is also termed mixed vowel. In English, short schwa functions as a centre of weak syllables because this sound never occurs in stressed syllables. In fast speech, it is frequently used in weak forms of synsemantic unstressed words, like articles, pronouns, prepositions or auxiliary verbs, e.g. the /δə/, her /hə/, to /tə/ or must /məs(t)/ in which it often substitutes other vowels. It is the weakest English vowel, so it is often elided in autosemantic words, e.g. phonetics /fə´netɪks/ pronounced as /´fnetɪks/. It is also necessary to mention its functioning in weak syllables together with non-syllabic m, n, η, l, r in which it can be omitted and substituted only by syllabic consonants r̩, l̩, m̩, n̩, ŋ̩, e. g. garden /ga:dən/ or /ga:dn̩/. While it is not represented by any specific grapheme, it is very frequently used as a phoneme realisation of other graphemes or letter clusters, such as: u, e.g. circus /sɜ:kəs/, a, e.g. workaday /wɜ:kədeɪ/, o, e.g. customer /kɅstəmə/, e, e.g. hundred /hɅndrəd/, ar, e.g. custard /kɅstəd/, or, e.g. major /meɪʤə/, er, e.g. longer /lɒηgə/, ur, e.g. survive /sə´vaɪv/, ure, e.g. nature /neɪʧə/, ous, e.g. ferrous /ferəs/, ough, e.g. thorough /θɅrə/ or our, e.g. saviour /seɪvjə/. It can be found in words in all three positions: at the beginning, e.g. above /ə´bɅv/, medially, e.g. forget /fə´get/ and also finally, often in situations when a vowel is followed by the letter r in non-rhotic accents, e.g. doctor /dɒktə/ (in British English). The indefinite article a is pronounced as /ə/ in the pre-consonantal position. In unstressed, usually penultimate, syllables, schwa can substitute /ɪ/, e.g. individuality /ɪndɪ,vɪʤu´ælɪti/ or /ɪndɪ,vɪʤu´æləti/.

Long schwa /ɜ:/ is always found in stressed syllables. It is not represented by any specific grapheme, but it is often pronounced when the letter r follows the vowel letters, as in e.g. girl /gɜ:l/. Besides its medial word-position, it is often heard word-finally, e.g. fur /fɜ:/ in non-rhotic accents. Its initial position in words is also recorded, e.g. earl /ɜ:l/. Long schwa can also represent the whole monosyllabic word err /ɜ:/. In Slovak, the schwa is neither recognized as a phoneme nor a grapheme.

The vowel /æ/ is often found initially and medially in English words, e.g. apple /æpl/, ham /hæm/, but it is never pronounced word-finally. According to Bázlik and Miškovičová (2012), the word-medial position of /æ/ is realised only if a consonant follows it, e.g. catch /kæʧ/ or imagine /ɪ´mæʤɪn/. In the written form, it is represented by the grapheme a, e.g. hand /hænd/. In Slovak, the letter ä representing the phoneme /æ/ occurs only after the bilabial consonants p, b, m, e.g. päta /pæta/, bábätko /bábætko/, mäsiar /mæsĭar/, but it is thus pronounced only in the marked, higher style of Standard Slovak pronunciation, or it is used by the speakers of the particular Central or Eastern Slovak dialects. In ordinary, casual speech, the phoneme /e/ replaces the pronunciation of /æ/ in words. Thus, the above-mentioned words will be pronounced /peta/, /bábetko/ and /mesĭar/.

Crystal published the research results concerning the frequency of occurrences of English vowels and consonants, and he presents them in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language concluded from the sample of conversational RP. The total occurrence for all vowels was 39.21 %, for all consonants occurrence equalled 60.78 %. The most frequently used vowel was /ə/ (10.74 %), the second place was occupied by /ɪ/ (8.33 %), then it was /e/ (2.97 %), /aɪ/ (1.83 %), /Ʌ/ (1.75 %), /eɪ/ (1.71 %), /i:/ (1.65 %), /əʋ/ 1.51 %), /æ/ (1.45 %), /ɒ/ (1.37 %), /ͻ:/ (1.24 %), /u:/ (1.13 %), /ʋ/ (0.86 %), /ɑ:/ (0.79 %), /aʋ/ (0.61 %), /ɜ:/ (0.52 %), /eə/ (0.34 %), /ɪə/ (0.21 %), /ͻɪ/ (0.14 %). The least frequently used vowel-sound was /ʋə/ (0.06 %) (Crystal, 2011, p. 239).

Mistrík, a prominent Slovak linguist, carried out similar research when he analysed the occurrences of the Slovak short and long vowel-graphemes in the selected text(s). He analysed 1 000 000 Slovak words and he came to the conclusion presented in the following percentage: graphemes a, á were found in 10.668 %, o, ó in 9.127 %, e, é in 8.437 %, i, í in 5.745 %, u, ú in 3.096 %, y, ý in 2.674 %, ä in 0.0165 % (Mistrík, 1984, p. 27). In Slovak, it is easy to conclude the occurrences of vowel-phonemes from the above-mentioned statistics. Graphemes a, á, o, ó, é u, ú are transformed to their corresponding phonemes, whereas i, í, y, and ý are pronounced identically as phonemes /i í/, and in casual speech, both of the graphemes e and ä are pronounced as /e/.