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Consonants
The consonant system of Slovak has 27 phonemes. The overall character of Slovak consonantism is similar to that of closely related Czech. The main differences are following: a voiced affricate and alveolopalatal lateral  in Slovak and fricative trill /r̝/ in Czech. The phoneme occurs mainly in loanwords. Both languages feature syllabic, e.g. vlk (wolf), prst (finger), krk (neck). A peculiarity of Slovak are long (indicated in the spelling with the acute accent: ŕ and ĺ), they are always syllabic, e.g. vĺča—vĺ-ča (wolfling), vŕba—vŕ-ba (willow-tree).

The soft-hard correlation is represented by four pairs: /t - c, d - ɟ, n - ɲ, l - ʎ/ where alveolar constants contrast with alveolopalatal ones. However, the contrast tends to be neutralized before front vowels, where only  occurs. This neutralization is taken further in Western dialects, in which merges with  in all environments.

Allophones

 * Voiceless stops and affricates are unaspirated, while voiced are fully voiced.
 * are bilabial, articulated with the lips pressed together.


 * are labiodental, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth. In onset position, and  are in complementary distribution, a fricative  is used before a voiced obstruent, an approximant  before a vowel, syllabic  or a liquid . In coda position, /v/ has a labiovelar allophone  in free variation with a labiodental.
 * are (denti-)alveolar, articulated with the tip and blade of the tongue touching the front part of the alveolar ridge, the contact may be extended forward so that the tip of the tongue touches the back of the front teeth. characterizes the main allophone of  as apical .  has a velar allophone  in front of the velar plosives.
 * are laminal alveolar, articulated with the tip of the tongue rested behind the lower teeth and with the blade touching or nearing the alveolar ridge.
 * are regularly articulated as nasal approximants rather than nasal occlusives before fricatives and thus is a labiodental  in front of labiodentals,  is a laminal alveolar  before sibilants  and a velar  before.
 * are apical alveolar . A non-syllabic is most often a tap  or a trill with two contacts, while a syllabic  is a trill  with two or more contacts. A long syllabic  vibrates for four or more contacts.
 * are slightly velarized apical alveolar lateral, articulated with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge while both sides (or one side) of the tongue are away from the roof of the mouth. The place of articulation may be retracted to postalveolar. The syllabic are articulated in a similar fashion although their place of articulation may be adjusted to surrounding consonants.
 * are postalveolar sibilants  with an apico-laminal or (less often) a laminal contact. In apico-laminal variants, the tip of the tongue raised and positioned under the upper gums. A closure or a light contact is made by the tip with the alveolar ridge. In laminal variants, the tip of the tongue is lowered behind the lower teeth and a contact or a constriction is formed by the blade against the alveolar ridge. In either case, the side rims of the tongue are in contact with the upper side teeth. The tongue forms a gentle arch and rises towards the front part of the hard palate, occupying a significant portion of the oral cavity.  transcribes the main allophones of  as apical  which according to  could be a one of characteristic features of retroflex articulation. However, x-rays images in  depict a bunched up tongue body inconsistent with retroflexion.  concludes in her evaluation of retroflexion in Czech and Slovak that "both articulatory and phonological evidence show that the sibilants in Czech and Slovak are postalveolar ʃ and ʒ and not retroflex as in Polish, Russian or Lower Serbian."
 * are alveolopalatal or, articulated with the front of the tongue creating a closure against the front part of the hard palate, with the tip of the tongue rested on the lower teeth or more rarely raised towards the upper teeth.  characterizes the main allophone of  as palatized laminal alveolar . The plosive  are made with a affricated release  which is typical for articulation of (alveolo)palatal stops when a large surface contact is released.  The forms  differ from the prototypical alveolopalatal affricates  in the brevity of the friction associated with the affricated release.
 * is typically palatalized laminal (denti-)alveolar or . It is articulated with the tip of the tongue rested on the lower teeth or pointing towards the upper teeth and the blade of tongue touching the alveolar ridge. The tongue is arched towards the hard patate. Alternatively,  is realized as a alveolopalatal lateral  with the front of the tongue making an postalveolo–prepalatal contact.  The alveolopalatal realization is the least common one.
 * is a lax (alveolo)palatal approximant.
 * are velar . They are produced by a complete closure or constriction formed between the back of the tongue and the soft palate.  has a voiced allophone, which occurs as a result of assimilation before a voiced consonant.
 * is a breathy voiced glottal.