Consonants

TASK 1: Summarize the chapters that you have learnt.

CONSONANT
 Three criteria to describle a consonant:

1. Place of articulation Where an obstruction of the airflow occurs.

2. Manner of articulation The kind of obstruction.

3. Phonation ( Voicing ) Whether the vocal folds vibrate or not.

 Plosive/ Stop (âm tắc/ âm bật) are formed during 4 phases:

Articulators move against each other to form stricture ( phase 1

1. Closing
– P1)
The air is compressed and stopped from escaping ( phase 2 –
2. Compression
P2)
The articulators are moved to follow air to escape ( phases 3 –
3. Release
P3)

4. Post – release This happens immediately after the third phase ( phases 4 – P4)

 English Plosives include [ p, t, k, b, d, g ]

- The glottal plosive [ʔ] occurs frequently but is less important.

- Place of articulation:

[ p, b] called bilabial The lips are pressed together.

[ t, d] called alveolar The tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge.
[ k, g] called velar The back of the tongue is pressed against the velum.

- These six plosive can occur at the begining of a word ( initial position),
between other sounds ( medial position) and at the end of a word ( final position).
 + Initial position ( consonant – Vowel or C – V)

P1 Takes place silently.

P2 No voicing in [ p, t, k] and little voicing in [ b, d, g].
The release of [p, t, k] is followed by an audibe plosion while that of [ b, d,
P3
g] is follwed by a weak plosion.
Aspiration happens in the production of [ p, t, k] ( air escapes through vocal
P4
cords like in [h] ) and voicing begins in that of [b, d, g].

+ Aspiration distinguishes [ p, t, k] from [ b, d, g].

*[ p, t, k] can be preceded by [s] and is unaspirated [ sp, st, sk].
*[ b, d, g] can’t be preceded by any consonant.

+ Medial position ( V – C – V): the pronunciation depends on the stress of

preceding/ following syllables.

+ Final position ( V –C):

* Plosion is weak and often not audibe.

* The difference between them is that vowels preceding [ p, t, k]

are much shorter than [ b, d, g]. This process is called pre – fortis clipping.

 Fortis and Lenis - phụ âm mạnh và yếu

- [ p, t, k] are produced with more force → some phoneticians call them Fortis
( strong). Similarly, [ b, d, g] are created with less force → Lenis ( weak).

Placce of articulation
Bilabial Alveolar Velar
Fortis ( voiceless) p t k
Lenis ( voiced) b d g

 Fricatives – âm xát
- Make a long [s] and gradually lower your tongue → hissing sound will stop.
 - Make a long [f] sound and then pull the lower lip away from the upper teeth →
hissing sound will disappear.
- It is important to the air escape through a narrow passage and make a hissing
sound in order to create the fricatives.
- Fricatives are continuant consonants: you can continue making them without
interruption ( plosives are not continuants).

Place of articulation
Labiodenta Post -
Dental Alveolar Glottal
l alveolar
Fortis ( voiceless) f θ s ʃ
h
Lenis ( voiced) v ð z ʒ

- The fortis fricatives are said to be articulated with greater force than the lenis,
and their friction noise is louder.
- The lenis fricatives have very little or no voicing in initial and final positions,
but may be voiced between voiced sounds.
- Fortis fricatives can shorten the preceding vowel.

 English Fricatives:

where the lower lip is in contact with the

[f, v] are labiodental sounds
upper teeth.
[θ, ð] ( called theta and eth) are dental with the tongue is placed behind the upper
sounds teeth.
[s, z] are alveolar fricatives with the same place of articulation as [t, d].

[ʃ, ʒ] ( called esh and yogh) are post - with the tongue touches further back area
alveolar than [s, z] and the lipss are rounded.

 The glottal fricatives and its “relatives” – âm xát hầu

- [h] is a glottal fricative, which means that the narrowing producing the friction
noise is between the vocal folds.
- This is a special “ copy – cat” phoneme: hat [hæt] when [h] is produced, the
tongue, jaw and lip position are similar to that of [æ].
→ [h] has [æ] quality.
→ The consonant always has the quality of the vowel it precedes.
 - Phonetically, [h] is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the voiced vowel that
follows it.

- Phonologically, [h] is a consonant which is usually found before vowels. When

it occurs between voiced sounds, it is pronounced with weak voicing ( breathy
voice).

- [h] is omitted in unstressed pronunciations of her, he, him, his and have, has,
had when they occur at the middle or near the end of a sentence.

+ E.g: Tell her I love her.

 Affricate – âm tắc xát

- Afficates are sounds that begin as plosives and end as fricatives.
- Afficates can only be made by a plosive and a fricative that are homorganic (=
being made with the same articulator).
- Speakers normally round their lips when making these sounds.
- [tʃ] is slightly aspirated and post – alveolar. It tends to shorten a preceding
vowel.
- [dʒ] is voiced and post – alveolar.

 Fortis consonant
- Syllable final fortis consonants can shorten a preceding vowel, especially long
vowels and diphthongs. Similarly, they can shorten [ l, m, n, ŋ] in words like bump
[bʌmp] and bank [bæŋk].
- Fortis consonants are articulated with open glottis because the airflow is
essential to produce them successfully. But with plosives, an alterative is to produce
the consonant with closed glottis. This is Glottalisation which usually occurs before
[p, t, k, tʃ ].
+ E.g: catching [k æ tʃ ɪ ŋ ] → [k æʔ tʃ ɪ ŋ ]
riches [ r ɪ tʃ i z] → [ r ɪʔ tʃ i z]

- Glottalisation of [p, t, k] happens, though not noiticeable, when the plosive is

followed by another consonant or a pause.
+ E.g: football [fʊt.bɔːl] → [fʊʔt.bɔːl]
mat [ mæt] → [mæʔt]
 Glottal Stop
- Although the glottal plosive [ʔ] is less important, it would be devastating to
your English comprehension if you were not able to recognize this sound.

TASK 2:
Exercise 1: Underline and transcribe.
The words that begin with a bilabial consonant.
mat knee pseudo bat mnemonic
pat
The words begin with a velar consonant.
knoll get lot cot hat pot gnat
The words begin with a labiodental consonant.
fat cat that mat chat vat
The words begin with an alveolar consonant.
zip nip lip sip tip kip
The words begin with a dental consonant.
pie thy shy thigh guy high
The words begin with post-alveolar consonant.
sigh shy tie thigh thy lie
The words end with a fricative consonant.
race wreath hush bring breathe bang
rave rouge ray rose rough
The words end with a stop (plosive) consonant.
 pill lip lit limb crab dog
hide laugh back

The words end with an affricate consonant.

much back edge ooze
The words end with a nasal consonant.
rain rang deaf dumb
The words begin with a lateral consonant.
nut lull ball rob llama one which
The words that begin with an approximant consonant.
we you one run sword
The words with possible glottalization.
love mutton water tatoo beer
The words with possible syllabicity.
veteran lantern sullen thicken handful

Exercise 2: Write the phoneme that corresponds to the following

phonetic descriptions. Give an English word that contains this sound.
E.g.: voiced bilabial nasal [m] mouth
voiced bilabial plosive [b] ball
voiceless alveolar fricative [s] saw
voiceless labiodental fricative [f] five
voiceless post-alveolar affricate [ʃ] fish
voiceless post-alveolar fricative [tʃ] church
voiced labiodental fricative [v] vibe
voiced velar plosive [ɡ] god

Exercise 3: Describe the consonants in the word “skinflint”.

• [s] : fortis alveolar fricative
• [k] : fortis velar plosive
• [n] : lenis alveolar nasal
• [f] : fortis labiodental plosive
• [l] : lenis alveolar lateral approximant
• [n] : lenis alveolar nasal
• [t] : fortis alveolar plosive