The consonants of English

The consonants of English

Q: - 1 Describe the consonants of English.

Q: - 1 Describe various consonants according to their place, manner and lip positions.

Introduction:-

Any consonants can be described by three ways.

According to the position of glottis they are considered whether they are voiced or voiceless.

According to the stricture involved in articulation. Plosive, affricate, nasal, fricative, etc. are labels given to consonants according to their manner of articulation.

Consonants can be described according to their places of articulation.

Three are 24 consonants of English. If we analyses it will show the following strength.

Plosives = 6 consonants

Affricates = 2consonants

Nasals = 3consonants

Fricatives = 9 consonants

Lateral = 1 consonants

Approximant = 3consonants

Place Manner

Bilabial

Labio-dental

Dental

Alveolar

Post- Alveolar

Palato- Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Voice

less

Nasal

Plosives

p b

Affricate

t ¦

d₃

Fricative

Lateral

A.mat

(1) Plosives Consonants:-

“A Sound produced with a stricture of complete closure and sudden release is called plosives sound.” “The initial sounds in the words pin, bin, tin, din, kin, and gun are plosives. i.e. /p/, /b/, /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/ are plosive sounds.

/p/ consonant:-

Soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is shut. Two lips come together. Oral passage is closed. Vocal cords are kept wide. Lung air is pushes. It comes out suddenly making an explosive sound. Thus /p/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive.

/p/ consonant: -

It is like /p/. During articulation vocal cords vibrate. Thus /b/ is a voiced bilabial plosive.

/t/ consonant:-

Soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is shut. The tip of the tongue makes a firm contact with the alveolar ridge and thus the oral passage is closed. Vocal cords are kept wide. When the tip of the tongue is removed suddenly from the teeth ridge, the air comes out suddenly making an explosive sound. Thus /t/ is a voiceless alveolar plosive.

/d/ consonant: -

It is like /t/. Vocal cords vibrate. Thus /d/ is a voiced alveolar plosive.

/k/ consonant: -

Soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is shut. The back tongue comes in firm contact with soft palate. Vocal cords are kept wide. When the back of the tongue is removed suddenly from the soft palate, the air comes out suddenly making an explosive sound Thus /k/ is a voiceless velar plosive.

/g/ consonant:-

It is almost like /k/. Vocal cords vibrate. Thus /g/ is a voiced velar plosive.

(2) Affricate sounds:-

“Sound produced with a stricture of complete closure and slow releases is called Affricate. ”

Mouth is completely closed and after in the air is released slowly. Oral and nasal passage is blocked first and then oral passage opens slowly to push the air out. While speaking these sounds little friction (not explosive) sound is heard.

“The initial sounds in the words chin and jam are affricative sounds

1. / t ¦/ consonant:

During the articulation of / t ¦/ the soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is shut. The tip of the tongue goes alveolar ridge. Front tongue is raised to the hard palate. Air is ready to come out. The tip and blade are removed. Vocal cords are wide apart. So / t ¦/ is a voiceless palato-aveolar affricate consonant.

2. / d₃/ consonant:-

This consonant is same as / t ¦/. Vocal cards vibrate. So it a voiced Palato-alveolar affricate consonant.

(3) Nasal sounds:-

“Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of complete oral closure are called Nasals.”

Oral passage complete closed. The soft palate is lowered. Nasal passage is opened. Through nostrils the air freely escapes. Thus From nose air is released that create Nasalize sounds.

“The initial sounds in the words sum, sun and sung are some example of nasal consonants

/m/ consonant:-

During the articulation of /m/, the two tips make a firm constant with each other and The soft palate is lowered. Oral passage is shut. Vocal cords vibrate producing voice. Glottis remains open as well. So /m/ is voiced bilabial nasal consonant.

/n/ consonant:-

During the articulation of /n/, The tongue touches to alveolar ridge and The soft palate is lowered. Oral passage is shut. Vocal cords vibrate producing voice. Glottis remains open as well. So /n/ is voiced alveolar nasal consonant.

/J/ consonant:-

During the articulation of /J/, The back of the tongue touches soft palate. and The soft palate is lowered. Oral passage is shut. Vocal cords vibrate producing voice. Glottis remains open as well. So /m/ is voiced Velar nasal consonant.

(4) Fricatives sounds:-

“Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of close approximation are called Fricatives.”

The soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is shut. Lung air passes the narrow passage created between soft palate and tongues. It is almost close approximation. There is also friction which is audible. .

“The initial sounds in the words five, vine, thin, sip, zip, sheep and hat are some example of fricatives consonants. i.e. /f/, /v/, /q/, /ð/. /d/, /s/, /z/, /h/.

/f/ consonant:-

During the articulation of /f/ the soft-palate is raised and closes nasal passage. The lower lip comes near upper teeth. The air passes through a narrow gap between them. Through a narrow gap between them. Audiable friction is heard. Vocal cord are wide apart. /f/ is voiceless libio-dental fricative.

/v/ consonant:-

Like /f/ this consonant is spoken. Vocal cords vibrate producing voice. So /v/ is voiced libio-dental fricative.

/q/ consonant:-

Like /f/ and /v/ friction is there. But the tongue goes to the front teeth. Vocal cords are apart. /q/ is voiles dental fricative.

/ð/ consonant:-

It is similar to /q/. Vocal cords are closed. Vibration is there. /ð/ is voiced dental fricative.

/s/ consonant:-

It is like other fricatives. But the tip of the tongue goes to teeth ridge. Vocal cords are open. So /s/ is a voiceless alveolar fricatives.

/z/ consonant:-

Same as /s/. Vocal cords are wide open. So it is voiced alveolar fricative consonant.

/h/ consonant:-

The lung air passes through a narrow glottis. So it is a voiceless glottal fricative consonants.

(5) Laterals sounds:-

“Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of complete closure in the centre of the vocal tract but with the air escaping along the sides of tongue without any friction are called laterals.”

1. /l/ consonants:-

During the articulation of /l/ the soft palate is raised so as to shut off nasal passage of air. The tip of the tongue make a firm contact with the alveolar ridge. The tongue sides are lowered and vocal cord vibrate producing voice. /l/ is thus a voiced alveolar consonant.

(6) Approximants sounds:-

“Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of open approximation are called frictionless continuants and semi- vowels.”

There are three approximants in English. These are /r/, /j/, /w/.

/r/ consonant: -

The tip of the tongue goes near the teeth ridge. Air passes through it, without any friction. The vocal cords vibrate producing voice. This is a voiced post alveolar approximant.

/j/ consonant: -

The front tongue is raised up to between front close and front half-close. Soft palate is raised. Nasal passage is blocked Vocal cords vibrate. Lips are spread in rounding position a bit. /j/ is voiced palatal approximant.

/w/ Consonant:-

Soft palate goes up. Nasal passage is shut. Lips are rounded. Vocal cords vibrate as they are closed. So /w/ is a voiced lebio-velar approximant.

These consonant often have slight variation following the next consonant. They are known as allophonic variation.