PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Segmental Aspects

British English consonant phonemes: p t k b d g f v θ δ s z ʃ ʒ h ʧ ʤ l m n η r j w

American English consonant phonemes: p t k b d g f v θ δ s z ʃ ʒ h ʧ ʤ l m n η ɹ j w

Slovak consonant phonemes: p t ť k b d ď g f v s z ʃ ʒ c dz ʧ ʤ h l ľ m n ň r j ĺ ŕ x

For enabling the contrasting of the qualities of British English, American English and Slovak consonants more easily, in the following, the symbols for the Slovak consonant phonemes and graphemes are presented:

the IPA symbol /ʃ/ represents the consonant grapheme š

the IPA symbol /ʒ/ represents the consonant grapheme ž

the IPA symbol /tʃ/ represents the consonant grapheme č

the IPA symbol /ʤ/ represents the consonant grapheme dž

 the IPA symbol /x/ represents the consonant grapheme ch

Consonants are defined as noises, while vowels create tones.

David Crystal emphasises the difference between the written and the spoken form of letters and sounds, pointing at the fact that 21 English letters of the written alphabet are manifested as 24 consonant sounds in speech. He explains that “because of the erratic history of English spelling, there is no neat one-to-one correlation between letters and sounds” (Crystal, 2011, p. 242).

The consonants of British English, American English and Slovak share the same characteristic features: from the phonetic point of view they can be defined as “speech sounds produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by any of various constrictions of the speech organs“ (Webster´s II New Riverside University Dictionary, 1984, p. 302). The obstruction can be realized as a closure (complete or partial), narrowing or narrowing without friction.

Phonological definition focuses on the information about a position and function of speech sounds in words. Consonants function at the edges of syllables, e.g. heart /ha:t/. Three consonants forming a consonant cluster (group of consonants) can occur together in the initial syllable-position while four consonants as a cluster can occupy the final syllable position, e.g. spray /spreɪ /, texts /teksts/.

For revealing the cross-linguistically shared features of consonants, it is inevitable to identify the specific criteria according to which consonants are classified. The classification of the English consonants follows the publication of Roach (2009), the considered classification of the Slovak consonants is supported by the publication by Kráľ and Sabol (1989):

1. PLACE OF ARTICULATION
2. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
3. VOICING
4. POSITION OF THE SOFT PALATE
5. FORCE OF ARTICULATION
6. PRESENCE OF THE NOISE COMPONENT
7. POSSIBLE LENGTH
8. THE AMOUNT OF HIGH-FREQUENCY ENERGY
9. THE DIRECTION OF THE AIRSTREAM
10. THE SOURCE OF THE ENERGY