ENGLISH CONSONANTS AND CLASSIFICATION

Name : Mega Basith PratiwiNPM : 20118100546Subject : Phonology

Lecture : Drs. H. Romdani, M.Pd

IntroductionA. Background of study

Human languages shows a large number and variety of sounds called phones or speech sounds.

English speech sounds are formed by forcing a stream of air out of the lungs through the oral or nasal cavities, or both.

Language can be written, record mechanically, and even produced by computers in limited ways, but nevertheless, speech remains the primary way we encode it.

Phonetic transcription Efforts have been made to devise a universal

system for transcribing the sounds of speech since the sixteenth century. The best-known system is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has been developing since 1888.

IPA uses this symbol to represent the sound in whichever language it is heard. The use of standardized phonetic alphabet enables linguistics to transcribe language consistently and accurately.

DESCRIPTIONA. English consonantsIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a

speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.

Producing a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it usually is. We call this narrowing a constriction. Which consonant you're pronouncing depends on where in the vocal tract the constriction is and how narrow it is. It also depends on a few other things, such as whether the vocal folds are vibrating and whether air is flowing through the nose.

Consonants ClassificationWe classify consonants along three major

dimensions: place of articulation manner of articulation voicing

What is “The place of articulation”?The place of articulation (or POA) of a

consonant specifies where in the vocal tract the narrowing occurs.

From front to back, the POAs that English uses are:

Bilabial

In a bilabial consonant, the lower and upper lips approach or touch each other. English [p], [b], and [m] are bilabial stops.

LabiodentalIn a labiodental consonant, the lower lip

approaches or touches the upper teeth. English [f] and [v] are bilabial fricatives.

DentalIn a dental consonant, the tip or blade of the tongue

approaches or touches the upper teeth. English [θ] and [ð] are dental fricatives.

There are actually a couple of different ways of forming these sounds:

The tongue tip can approach the back of the upper teeth, but not press against them so hard that the airflow is completely blocked.

The blade of the tongue can touch the bottom of the upper teeth, with the tongue tip protruding between the teeth -- still leaving enough space for a turbulent airstream to escape. This kind of [θ] and [ð] is often called interdental.

The diagram to the right shows a typical interdental [θ] or [ð].

AlveolarIn an alveolar consonant, the tongue tip (or

less often the tongue blade) approaches or touches the alveolar ridge, the ridge immediately behind the upper teeth.

Postalveolar

In a postalveolar consonant, the constriction is made immediately behind the alveolar ridge. The constriction can be made with either the tip or the blade of the tongue. The English fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ] are made at this POA, as are the corresponding affricates [tʃ] and [dʒ].

RetroflexIn a retroflex consonant, the tongue tip is

curled backward in the mouth. English [ɹ] is a retroflex approximant -- the tongue tip is curled up toward the postalveolar region (the area immediately behind the alveolar ridge).

PalatalIn a palatal consonant, the body of the tongue

approaches or touches the hard palate. English [j] is a palatal approximant -- the tongue body approaches the hard palate, but closely enough to create turbulence in the airstream.

VelarIn a velar consonant, the body of the tongue

approaches or touches the soft palate, or velum. English [k], [ɡ], and [ŋ] are stops made at this POA.

GlottalThe glottis is the opening between the vocal

folds. In an [h], this opening is narrow enough to create some turbulence in the airstream flowing past the vocal folds. For this reason, [h] is often classified as a glottal fricative.

What is “The manner of articulation”?Speech sounds also vary in the way the

airstreams is affected as it flow form the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose. It may be blocked or practically blocked; the vocal cords may vibrate or not vibrate. It refers to this as the manner of articulation. The process by which the moving column of air is shaped called the manner of articulation.

StopsA stop consonant completely cuts off the

airflow through the mouth. In the consonants [t], [d], and [n], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow at that point. In [t] and [d], this means that there is no airflow at all for the duration of the stop. In [n], there is no airflow through the mouth, but there is still airflow through the nose.

nasal stops, like [n], which involve airflow through the nose, and

oral stops, like [t] and [d], which do not. Nasal stops are often simply called nasals.

Oral stops are often called plosives. Oral stops can be either voiced or voiceless. Nasal stops are almost always voiced. (It is physically possible to produce a voiceless nasal stop, but English, like most languages, does not use such sounds.)

FricativesIn a fricative consonant, the articulators

involved in the constriction approach get close enough to each other to create a turbluent airstream. The fricatives of English are [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ].

ApproximantsIn an approximant, the articulators involved

in the constriction are further apart still than they are for a fricative. The articulators are still closer to each other than when the vocal tract is in its neutral position, but they are not even close enough to cause the air passing between them to become turbulent. The approximants of English are [w], [j], [ɹ], and [l].

AffricatesAn affricate is a single sound composed of a

stop portion and a fricative portion. In English [tʃ], the airflow is first interuppted by a stop which is very similar to [t] (though made a bit further back). But instead of finishing the articulation quickly and moving directly into the next sound, the tongue pulls away from the stop slowly, so that there is a period of time immediately after the stop where the constriction is narrow enough to cause a turbulent airstream. In [tʃ], the period of turbulent airstream following the stop portion is the same as the fricative [ʃ]. English [dʒ] is an affricate like [tʃ], but voiced.

LateralsSounds which involve airflow around the side

of the tongue are called laterals. Sounds which are not lateral are called central.

[l] is the only lateral in English. The other sounds of Englihs, like most of the sounds of the world's languages, are central.

More specifically, [l] is a lateral approximant. The opening left at the side of the tongue is wide enough that the air flowing through does not become turbulent.

What is “voicing”?The vocal folds may be held against each

other at just the right tension so that the air flowing past them from the lungs will cause them to vibrate against each other. We call this process voicing. Sounds which are made with vocal fold vibration are said to be voiced. Sounds made without vocal fold vibration are said to be voiceless.

Plosives- the flow of air is blocked and suddenly released, a bit like an explosion. So, for example, p (labial) is produced by closing the lips and releasing them.

Fricatives- the flow of air is restricted to make a hissy sound, a bit like friction.

Semi-consonants are produced by keeping the vocal tract briefly in a vowel like position, and then changing it rapidly to the position required for the following vowel.

Description of articulation consinants

Laterals-l is the only English lateral and is produced by putting the tip of the tounge against the gums and letting the air pass on either side of the tounge. (memorable because lateral = sides)

Nasal consonants are made with the soft palate down – air passing through the nose.

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