Description
of English Consonant Sounds
--- place of articulation
--- manner of articulation
--- phonation ----- voiceless or voiced
B. Manners of Articulation
1. Stop Consonants
There
are 6 stop/ plosive consonants in English.
--- [p,
b, t, d, k, g] = 6
They are produced when the airstream is
completely
obstructed and then released suddenly as the sound is
articulated.
Three classes of stop consonants in pair:
---
bilabial stop [p] and [b]
--- alveolar stop [t]
and [d]
---
velar stop [k] and
[g]
They
can be further classified as voiceless and voiced
in
phonation.
Stop consonants
Voiceless Voiced
[p] peg,
pig, pet [b] beg, big, bet
[t] tick,
ten, take [d] den, dear, duck
[k] kick, king, kid [g]
get, good, girl
*
Phonation is the only feature to distinguish the sounds which have the same
place and manner of articulation.
2. Fricative consonants
There are 9 English fricatives. --- [f,
v, θ,
ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h]
They are
produced when airstream is partially obstructed and the air steam escapes
through the gaps in the articulator producing friction sounds.
4
classes of fricatives in pair:
---
labiodental fricatives ----- [f] and [v]
---
interdental fricatives ----- [θ] and [ ð]
--- alveolar fricatives ----- [s] and [z]
--- palatal fricatives ----- [ ʃ ] and [ʒ]
** glottal ----- [h]
(alone)
Phonation
is the only feature to distinguish the fricatives which have the same place and
manner of articulation.
Fricative Consonants
Voiceless Voiced
[f] fit,
feet, flip [v] vain, vase, vine
[θ] three, faith, truth [ ð] father, brother, mother
[s] see,
same, sea [z] zoo, zip, zeal
[ʃ] she, share, pressure [ ʒ] measure, pleasure
[h] hat, health, hot
3. Affricatives (Affricates)
There are 2 affricates in English: à [ʧ, ʤ]
The [ʧ ] speech sounds is made up of [t] stop
consonant
and [ʃ]
fricative consonant. The [ʤ]speech sounds
consists of [d] stop consonant and [ʒ] fricative
consonant.
Affricative Consonants
Voiceless Voiced
[ʧ ] church, chair, rich [ʤ] bridge, orange, ridge
4. Approximant Consonants à [w, j, l, r]
= the glide sounds
The
production of these sounds are similar to the
production of vowels as there is little obstruction of air
stream. (There is no obstruction
of air stream for the
production of vowels.)
They all
are voiced speech sounds.
Based on the manner of production, they can be and
classified and identified easily.
The
bilabial approximate [w] is produced with slight lip rounding and is voiced. It is close to [U] speech sound but shorter.
The
palatal approximant [j] is orthographically associated with the alphabet
‘y’. It is close to [I] but shorter.
Both
[w] and [j] are considered semi-vowels.
For
the alveolar approximant [l], air escapes via the side of the tongue and thus
it is also called the lateral alveolar.
For
the alveolar approximant [r], it is produced with the tongue tip curled
slightly towards alveolar ridge. It is
also called retroflex.
Both
phonemes [l, r] are also called liquid sounds.
They are distinguished in terms of air flow.
Approximant Consonants
Voiced
[w] wet,
wait, wide, we, went
[j] you,
youth, young, yet, yes
[l] live,
love, like, line, look
[r] read, red, run, rain, reach
5. Nasals
--- [m, n, ŋ]
There are 3 nasal consonants, namely, [m,
n, ŋ].
The places of articulation of the nasal
consonants are
the same as the stop consonants.
---
bilabial nasal ----- [m] (bilabial stops ----- [p, b])
---
alveolar nasal ----- [n] (alveolar stops ----- [t, d])
---
velar nasal ----- [ŋ]
(velar stops ----- [k, g])
A nasal sound is produced when the velum
is lowed
and the air stream is diverted to the
nasal cavity.
All nasal sounds are voiced.
Nasal
Consonants
Voiced
[m] mother,
maid, moon, may, map
[n] no,
never, net, neither, nor, corner
[ŋ] sing,
ring, sting, sink, bank (ng, nk)
Most
consonants can be found in initial, middle and in the end position with the
exceptions *.
For
examples:
1. [p]
pan, apple, cap 2. [b]
bat tabulate, lab
3. [t]
tea, patent, pat 4. [d]
dear, ladder, lad
5. [k] cat, reckon, tick 6. [g]
good, gurgle, rag
7. [ʃ]
ship, fishing, rash 8. [ʒ] *, treasure,
barrage
9. [tʃ] char, richer, rich 10.
[dʒ] June, bridging, judge
11.
[f] fan, raffle, rough 12. [v]
verb, seven, save
13.[s] sea, assess, cakes 14. [z] zoo, muzzy, breeze
15.
[θ]
three, wealthy, truth 16. [ ð] this,
father, *
17.
[h] hat, *, * 18.
[m] moon, common, roam
19.[n] no, manner, on 20. [ŋ] *,
English, bring
21.
[l] like, collect, tell 22. [r] read, terrible, *
23.
[w] wall, toward, * 24. [j]
yes, humid, *
