Consonants
Bulgarian has a total of 36 consonant phonemes (see table below). Three additional phonemes can also be found (, and ), but only in foreign proper names such as Хюстън /xʲustɤn/ ("Houston"), Дзержински /d͡zɛrʒinski/ ("Dzerzhinsky"), and Ядзя /jad͡zʲa/, the Polish name "Jadzia". They are, however, normally not considered part of the phonetic inventory of the Bulgarian language. The Bulgarian obstruent consonants are divided into 12 pairs voiced<>voiceless on the criteria of sonority. The only obstruent without a counterpart is the voiceless velar fricative /x/. The contrast 'voiced vs. voiceless' is neutralized in word-final position, where all obstruents are voiceless (as in most Slavic languages); this neutralization is, however, not reflected in the spelling.