Consonants

The main difference between vowels and consonants is that with vowels sound production, there is no obstruction to the flow of the air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. With consonants sounds during production, there are obstructions made with parts of our vocal tract (lips, tongue, teeth). Because the number of possible sounds in all of the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique symbol to each consonant. Consonants occur together with vowels, not separately, there are 24 of them. Consonants are noises named after their sound.

Each consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features:

1. Manner of articulation = how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant sound is made. Manners include plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, laterals and approximants.

2. Place of articulation = where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial (obouretné), labiodental (retozubné), dental (zubné), alveolar (dásňové), palato-alveolar (patro-dásňové), palatal (patrové), velar (patrové) and glottal (hrdelné).

3. Phonation = how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation of consonant. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not vibrate at all, it is voiceless.

4. Aspiration = length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, begins.

Plosives

There are 6 of them: p b t d k g. When pronounced, the air accumulates behind the closure and suddenly the closure is released and the air bursts out of the mouth. In this explosion = plosion we can hear the typical sound of these consonants.

In Czech language we have voiced and voiceless plosives, however, this does not work in English so we have terms fortis (napjaté) and lenis (povolené). English fortis plosives P T K in the initial position are always aspirated (two, tea, car) and not to do is considered a bad pronunciation and Czechs often do it.

Lenis plosives B D G in the initial position are in English very little voiced (unaspirated) compared to Czech so we should not pronounce them strongly (bee, door, go, good). Clusters sp,st, sk (sport, sky, star) are not aspirated.

Fricatives

There are 9 of them. There is no full closure during pronouncing; only small narrow gap is made between two articulators thought which the air flows, producing a characteristic hissing sound.

They can be labiodental (fortis f and lenis v) where the gap is between lower lip and the upper teeth. With dental θ and ð the tip of the tongue is touching the lower teeth which is for Czech speakers difficult. English h in the initial position is very only little voiced (house, home) but between two vowels it is fully voiced (Ohio, beehive, ahead, behold).

Affricates

In manner of articulation, affricatives are joined pronunciation of the plosives and fricatives- tʃ and dʒ (Jack, jazz). In Czech we have C (cíl) that English does not have.

Nasals

There are 3 of them that are made by a complete closure of the oral cavity and the air escapes thought the nose. In bilabial M the closure is made by lips. In alveolar N the closure is made by the tip of the tongue that is pressed against alveolar. In velar ŋ soft palace and the back of the tongue is raised up and create a closure.

In words of one morpheme (anger, hunger, finger) G is pronounced but not in words of two morphemes (hanger, singer). There are exceptions, though, in gradation of adjectives G is pronounced (long – longer – longest).

Lateral

The only lateral consonant is L, the tongue touches alveolar. We have two L allophones. Clear L that occurs before a vowel (like, love, lake, clean) and dark L that occurs before consonant or in the final position (apple, cold).  The common trend in pronouncing is vocalisation of dark L to make it sound almost like a vowel (beautiful).

Approximants

Two articulators get very close to each other but do not get in touch. Bilabial w is when lips come close to each other resulting sound is characteristic w, though, Czech speakers tends to pronounce normal “v” which is a mistake.

We have three variants of R. English R is a post alveolar approximant when the tip of the tongue is raised up and moving to the post alveolar position but does not get in touch with the hard palate. Czech language has rhotic pronunciation where R is not pronounced as an approximant but as a trill (vibranta) when the tongue is trilling and touching alveolar. When it comes to American pronunciation, R can be also as retroflex when the tongue is twisted to the back (car, alligator, girl).

J is palatial. Sometimes J and W are called semi vowels because longed W makes U and longed J makes I. With lateral L the air flows along the side of the tongue and the tip of the tongue is pressed against alveolar.

Czech consonants

Czech language has 27 consonants. Some of these (pravé souhlásky) exist in pairs, distinguished as voiced and voiceless.

Plosives are p and b, t and d, k and g, in Czech also ď and ť.

Nasals are m, n and in Czech also ň.

Affriates are ts = in Czech c and tʃ = in Czech č, and dʒ.

Fricatives are f and v, s and z, ʃ = in Czech š, and ʒ= in Czech ž, and also x = in Czech ch, and h.

Approximants are j and l.

Vibrants are r trill + Czech specific ř.