Consonants are those speech sounds in the production of which the air stream from the lungs is obstructed at some place. In describing the articulation or production of consonants, four points must be touched on, namely, –
- Place of articulation, the place where this obstruction takes place.
- Manner of articulation – i.e, what kind of obstruction is offered to the air stream from the lungs.
- Whether a sound is voiced or unvoiced – i.e. whether the vocal cords vibrate or not
- Position of the soft palate – i.e, whether the soft palate is raised so that the lung air escapes all through the mouth or lowered so that the lung air escapes all through the nose.
Classification of Consonants
- Manner of articulation
- Stop Consonants – in the case of stop consonants, the air stream from the lungs is completely stopped at a point. When it is released suddenly we have plosive consonants. When it is released slowly we have the affricate consonants. So a stop consonant involves three features, namely, – stop, release and the accompanying stop sound.
- Plosive – there are six plosives in English. They are /p, b, t, d, k, g/. /p, b/ are bilabial consonants or plosives. p is voiceless and b is voiced. The soft palate is raised so that the lung air goes out through the oral passage. Some of the commonest words in English that contain these sounds are /p/ – pen, upright, cap /b/ – bat, rubber, tub. /t, d/ are alveolar, i.e, the obstruction takes place between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. t is voiceless and d is voiced. Soft palate is raised so that the lung air passes through the oral passage. Some of the commonest words in English that contain these sounds are /t/ – tap, better, pot /d/ – dog, ladder, mad. /k, g/ are velar, between soft palate and the tongue. /k/ is voiceless and g is voiced. Soft palate is raised. Some of the commonest words are /k/ – kite, bucket, park /g/ – gun, begin, bag.
- Note: when the plosives /p,t,k/ are followed by vowels, the release after a stop is accompanied by a puff of air. This is called aspiration. Aspiration is denoted by a superscribed /h/ above these. E.g. pen – /phen/, ten – /tten/ key – /khi:/
- Affricates – there are two affricates in English. They are / tʃ, dʒ/.
They are palate-alveolar. tʃ is voiceless and dʒ is voiced. Soft palate is raised, so that the lung air goes out through the oral passage. Some of the words in English that contain these words are / tʃ/ – chair, teacher, catch and /dʒ/ – jam, ledger, bridge
Note: aspiration tʃ is aspirated before vowels.
- Fricatives – (friction consonants) (close approximants). There are nine fricatives in English. They are /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, / ʒ/ and /h/.
/f, v/ are labio-dental fricatives. /f/ is unvoiced and /v/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised so that the air from the lungs goes out through the mouth. /θ, ð/ are dental fricatives. /θ/ is unvoiced and /ð/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised. /s, z/ are alveolar fricatives. /s/ is unvoiced and /z/ is voiced, the soft palate is raised. /ʃ, ʒ/ are palato-alveolar. /ʃ/ is unvoiced and /ʒ/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised. /h/ is glottal (between the vocal cords) an unvoiced fricative.
Some of the commonest words in English are
/f, v/ – fan, van, before, never, calf, give
/θ, ð/ – thin, then, nothing, mother, death, with
/s, z/ – sun, zip, missing, lazy, pass, gaze
/h/ – hot, behind (no word ends with /h/ sound)
/ʃ, ʒ/ – ship, zone, wishing, pleasure, push, mirage
Note: /ʒ/ does not occur in word initial position in English
/h/ does not occur in word final position in English
There are 24 consonants and 20 vowels. Some examples are given below.
Consonants
/b/ – bag, bib
/d/ – den, lid
/f/ – fan, rough
/g/ – gun, bag
/h/ – hen, behind
/j/ – yet, beyond
/k/ – kite, pick
/l/ – love, bill
/m/ – man, gem
/n/ – neck, pen
/p/ – pen, cup
/r/ – run, rubber
/s/ – sun, pause
/t/ – ten, tent
/v/ – van, leave
/w/ – with, beware
/z/ – zen, breeze
/θ/ – thick, death
/ð/ – then, with
/ʃ/ – shell, bush
/ʒ/ – measure, garage
/ŋ/ – sing, singer
/tʃ/ – chair, teacher
/dʒ/ – jug, bridge
Vowels
/i/ or /I/ – it, fit
/i:/ – eat, feet
/e/ – bet, bed
/ æ/ – apple, bat
/a:/ – ask, past
/ ɒ/ – dog, pot
/ ɒ:/ – ball, hall
/u/ – put, full
/u:/ – do, food
/ ʌ/ – love, fun
/ ə/ – about, father
/ ə: / or /ɜ:/ – girl, bird
Diphthongs (Di – two; phthongs – round)
/iə/ – hear, near, fear
/eə/ – bare, fair
/ei/ – fail, bail, pray, game
/ɔi/ – boy, coy
/ai/ – five, dive, lie
/əu/ – go, so
/au/ – now, how
/uə/ – poor, tour, sure