Consonants in English

The word Consonants has been derived from the Greek word consonutem which means the sound produced with the help of some other sound. The consonants sounds are those during the articulation of which either complete or partial closure takes place in the passages of the air stream for a recognizable moment of time. There are forty-four sounds in English language. Out of these twenty four sound are distinctive consonants in English. All the twenty four consonants of English language can be described in terms of three labels ; manner of articulation, place of articulation and voicing patterns. The classification of these sounds according to manner of articulation indicates the nature of stricture (blockage of air-stream) involved, that is, how the passage of air-stream is blocked during the articulation. On the other hand place of articulation indicates the active and passive articulation role that is, the organ of speech involved in articulation. The voicing show the position of vocal cords. The closed position of vocal cords produces voiced sounds, and the open position produces voiceless sounds. Because of the closed position, vibration takes place in vocal cords during articulation and it result into voiced sounds, whereas it's open position does not cause vibration, and so the sounds produced are voiceless. Out of these three labels, manner of articulation is the most technical, and so, it is better to describe these sounds under this type. English language has the following type of consonant sounds. I. Plossives - /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/ II. Affricates - /tʃ/, /dʒ/ III. Nasal - /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ IV. Fricatives - /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/ V. Laterals - /l/ VI. Approximants - /w/, /r/, /j/ Plosives - These sounds are produced with a stricture of complete closure and sudden release of air causing a kind of explosive effect. Because of the complete closure of air-passage, these sounds are called stop sounds also. Soft palate is raised to block the nasal passage and so these are oral sounds. During the articulation of the sounds /p/ and /b/, complete closure is caused by the two lips, therefore, these are bilabial Sounds (place of articulation). The two lips block the passage of air for a recognizable moment and then sudden release takes place. Likewise, during the articulation of /t/ and /d/, complete closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge, and so these sounds are alveolar sounds (place of articulation). The sounds /k/ and /g/ are produced by the complete closure caused by the back of the tongue and soft palate (velum), and so these sounds are velar (place of articulation). Out of these six plosives, /p/, /t/ and /k/ are voiceless, and /b/, /d/ and /g/ are voiced, depending on the vibration of vocal cords during their articulation. Examples of plosives are; /p/ - pen, spin, tip, pill, cap /b/ - ball, bat, web, baby, bean, /t/ - two, sting, tea, rat /d/ - do, daddy, deep, bad /k/ - cat, kill, skin, kite, bike /g/ - go, get, beg, good, big Affricates - These sounds are also produced with the stricture of complete closure, but here the release of air is comparatively slow that causes an audible friction. The release is slow because the articulators gradually move apart, not suddenly like plosives. Soft palate is raised to block the nasal passage. The sounds /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are affricates. During the articulation of these sounds the complete closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge, but front of the tongue is also raised towards the hard palate making these sounds palato-alveolar (place of articulation). /tʃ/ is a voiceless sound and /dʒ/ is a voiced sound depending on the vibration of the vocal cords during their articulation. Examples of affricates are; /tʃ/ - cheese, fetch, chair, teacher, match /dʒ/ - jam, ledger, Nasals - These sounds are produced with the stricture of complete oral closure and release of air through the nose. Since the air is released through nasal passage, the sounds are called nasal. /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ are the three nasal sounds in English. During the articulation of /m/, the complete oral closure is caused by the two lips, and so, it is a bilabial sound (place of articulation). In the articulation of /n/ sound, the complete oral closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge, and so it is an alveolar sound (place of articulation). In the articulation of /ŋ/ sound, the complete oral closure is caused by the back of the tongue and the soft palate (velum) , and so, it is a velar sound (place of articulation). All these nasal sounds are voiced sounds as vocal cords vibrate during their articulation. Examples of nasal are; /m/ - moon, smile, mad, dam /n/ - tin, know, can, man, /ŋ/ - sing, king, finger, going Fricatives - These sounds are produced with a stricture of close approximation that means the two organs come very close to each other but some space is left between them through which the air escapes causing audible friction. Nasal passage is blocked by the raised soft palate. During the articulation of sounds /f/ and /v/, this kind of approximate closure is caused by the lower lip and the upper teeth, and so, these sounds are called labio-dental (place of articulation). In the articulation of the sounds /θ/ and /ð/, the closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth, and so, these sounds are called dental (place of articulation). Further, in the articulation of /s/ and /z/, the closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, and so, these sounds are called alveolar (place of articulation). Again, in the articulation of, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, the closure is caused by the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, but the front of the tongue is also raised towards the hard palate, and so, these sounds are called palato-alveolar sounds (place of articulation). The last fricative sounds is /h/ which is articulated with the narrowing of the glottis, and so, it is called glottal (place of articulation). Out of these nine fricative sounds, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/ and /h/ are voiceless, and /z/, /v/, /ʒ/, /ð/, are the voiced sounds depending on the vibration of the vocal cords during their articulation. Examples of fricatives are; /f/ - fool, leaf, fan, caf, fine /v/ - voice, have, oven, van /θ/ - thing, teeth, Athens, bath, author /ð/ - this, father, then, other /s/ - see, city, bus, son /z/ - zoo, rose, asthma, zebra, zass /ʃ/ - shot, brash, saw, shine, bishop /ʒ/ - vision, measure, pleasure /h/ - happy, hope, hat, behave Lateral - These sounds are produced with a stricture of complete closure in the center of the vocal tract, but air escapes through the sides palate. During the articulation of /l/ sound, the closure is caused by the tip or blade of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, so this sound is alveolar (place of articulation). It is a voiced sound because the vocal cords vibrate during its articulation. Examples of lateral are; /l/ - leg, lip, luck, fall, lap Approximants - These are the sounds produce with a sticture of open approximation. That means during the articulation of these sounds, the gap between the active and passive articulators is wide enough through which the air escape without any friction. Nasal passage is closed by the raised soft palate. The sound /r/ is articulated with the raising of the tip of the tongue towards the back of the alveolar ridge. Therefore, this sound is post-alveolar (place of articulation). Here, the space between the tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge is quite sufficient for the frictionless continuant. The sound /w/ is articulated with the rounding of the lips like vowel sounds. Therefore, this sound is called semi-vowel also. Since both the lips are articulators, this sound is bilabial (place of articulation). This sound is also called semi-vowel because of its similarity with the vowel sounds in term of articulation. All of these appointments are voiced sounds as vocal cords vibrate during their articulation. Examples of approximants are; /r/ - run, pray, mother /w/ - west, weep, sweet, wood /j/ - yes, beyond, human ------------x-------------