Consonants and Vowels | PT2

IDB164 – W5
Reading, Davenport & Hannahs
 Consonants are divided into two main groups:

stops

fricatives obstruent
the airflow is restricted, with the articulators
affricates either in complete closure or close
approximation

nasals

sonorant liquids
the air has free passage through glides
the vocal tract

IDB164 – W5
 Consonants are divided into two main groups:

stops

fricatives obstruent voiced & voiceless

affricates

nasals

voiced sonorant liquids

glides

IDB164 – W5
 In the following parts of the course, we are going to see the
sounds from languages of the world in terms of International
Phonetic Alphabet (We will deal with it in detail in the
following weeks). It is a system of orthography which was
designed to write the sounds (i.e., written as pronounced).

Note that, whenever a symbol is intended as a phonetic

representation, it will be enclosed in square brackets: thus
[dɪɡ] represents the pronunciation of the word ‘dig’ – and [θɪŋ]
represents the word ‘thing’ (Spelling forms will be indicated by
‘quotes’).

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

They are characterized by involving

complete closure in the oral tract,
preventing the airflow from exiting
through the mouth.

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

Characteristics of stops/plosives:
- One articulator is moved against
another, or two articulators are
moved against each other, so as to
form a stricture.
- After the stricture, the airflow is
released.
- If the air behind the stricture is under
pressure when the airflow is released,
the escape of air will produce noise –
plosion.

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

What happens when we produce a stop/plosive sound?

- The articulator or articulators move to form the stricture – closing phase
- The airflow is stopped from escaping - compression phase
- The articulators are moved apart so as to allow air to escape – release
phase
- What happens immediately after release – post-release phase

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

OBSTRUENTS
Stops Symbol Examples
bilabial voiceless [p] happy, tap
voiced [b] bit, rubber, lob
alveolar voiceless [t] writer, hit
voiced [d] dip, rider, bid
voiced flap [ɾ] writer, rider (North
Amr.)
velar voiceless [k] looking, tick
voiced [g] game, muggy, dog
glottal voiceless [ʔ] what (Manchester
variety)

Stop sounds do not have any restriction considering wher we employ them inside a
word, i.e., initial, medial, and final position.

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

p, t, k
The release of p, t, k is followed by audible plosion (i.e. burst of noise)
a post-release phase
air escapes through the vocal folds,
making a sound like h

aspiration

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Stops/Plosives

phaɪ spaɪ

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

In fricatives, air escapes through

a narrow passage and
makes a hissing sound.
e.g., the initial sounds of the words ‘fill’ and ‘seat’

Fricatives are called continuant consonants,

which means that we can continue making
them without interruption.
stops/plosives are not continuant

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

affricates begin as stops

and end as fricative
e.g. the initial and final sounds of the words ‘church’ and ‘judge’

stop/plosive
‘tea’ [ t iː ] ‘church’ [ tʃ ɜː tʃ ]
‘ship’ [ ʃ ɪ p ] ‘judge’ [ dʒ ʌ dʒ ]
fricative

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

Affricates
palato-alveolar voiceless [tʃ] chuck, butcher,
catch
voiced [dʒ] jog, lodger, fudge
Fricatives
labiodental voiceless [f] fun, loafer, stuff
voiced [v] very, liver, dive
dental voiceless [θ] thin, frothing,
death
voiced [ð] then, loathing,
bathe
alveolar voiceless [s] sin, icing, fuss
voiced [z] zoo, rising, booze
palato-alveolar voiceless [ʃ] ship, rasher, lush
voiced [ʒ] treasure, rouge
glottal voiceless [h] hop
velar voiceless [x] loch
(Irish, Scot., and
Welsh Eng.)
IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

labiodental fricatives
lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth

‘fan’ [ fæn ]
‘van’ [ væn ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

dental fricatives
(i) the tongue is placed between the teeth
and (ii) the tongue is placed behind the teeth

‘thumb’ [ θʌm ]
‘thus’ [ ðʌs ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

alveolar fricatives
the tongue is placed on the rough bone
behind the upper teeth

‘sip’ [ sɪp ]
‘zip’ [ zɪp ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

palato-alveolar fricatives
the tongue is in contact with the area
slightly further back than for z and s

‘ship’ [ ʃɪp ]
‘measure’ [ meʒə ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

glottal fricatives
the flow of air out of the body is
constricted by tightening the glottis

‘head’ [ hed ]
‘playhouse’ [ pleɪhaʊs ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

affricates begin as stops

and end as fricative
e.g. the initial and final sounds of the words ‘church’ and ‘judge’

stop/plosive
‘tea’ [ t iː ] ‘church’ [ tʃ ɜː tʃ ]
‘ship’ [ ʃ ɪ p ] ‘judge’ [ dʒ ʌ dʒ ]
fricative

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Fricatives and affricates

There are two affricate sounds in English.

Their place of articulation is same for ʃ and ʒ.
They are post-alveolar.

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Nasals

In producing nasal consonants, a ir

escapes through the nose

For this to happen, the air is blocked somewhere

inside the mouth (oral cavity) and the air escapes
through the nose (nasal cavity)

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Nasals

There are three types of closure in nasal consonants

bilabial alveolar velar

lips tongue blade back of the
against the palate tongue against
m the palate
n
ŋ

IDB164 – W5
 the nature of ŋ sound in English
• It cannot occur in word initial position.
• Medially, ŋ occurs quite frequently.
• In BBC accent, when we find the letters nk in the middle of a
word in its orthographic form, a k will always be pronounced;
however, some words with orthographic ng in the middle will
have a pronunciation containing ŋg and others will have ŋ
without g.

‘thinker’ [θɪŋkə] ‘finger’ [fɪŋgə] ‘singer’ [sɪŋə]

’anger’ [æŋgə] hanger’ [æŋgə]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Nasals

‘song’ [sɒŋ]
‘sing’ [sɪŋ]
‘bang’ [bæŋ]
‘long’ [lɒŋ]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Liquids

a cover term given to many ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds

(or laterals and rhotics)

liquids are produced with unhindered airflow

(which distinguishes them from obstruents)

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Liquid

Liquid sounds are sonorants, and

they are typically voiced.

lateral
There is a contact between the active BUT there is a difference between
articulator (the tongue) and the the pronunciation of the words
passive articulator (the roof of the ‘lea’ and ‘eel’
mouth), but only the central part of
the tongue is involved in this contact ‘clear l’ [ liː ] [ iːɫ ] ‘dark l’
(not any sides). Since the air exits
through the sides, we call it lateral.

‘lion’ [laɪən]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Liquid

Liquid sounds are sonorants, and

they are typically voiced.

rhotics
The tip of the tongue approaches the
alveolar area in approximately the way it
would for ‘t’ or ‘d’ but never actually
makes contact with any part of the roof of
the mouth.
One of the major dialect division in
English speaking world concerns the
distribution of rhotic. While some
produce r, some others do not, i.e.,
rhotic vs. non-rhotic accents

The tongue tip is curled backwards -

retroflex

drdrdrdrdr
IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Glides

In glides, there is no contact of any kind between the

articulators (an alternative term as semi-vowel)

They are produced like vowels

BUT behave as consonants.

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Glides

English has two glides:

palatal [j] as ‘yes’
labial velar [w] as ‘weigh’

‘pure’ [pjʊə]
‘tune’ [tjuːn]
‘twin’ [twɪn]
‘queue’ [kjuː]
‘quit’ [kwɪt]

IDB164 – W5
 1. Consonants
> Glides

Both glides and liquids are called

approximants. In addition, the sound l has
an exception in the sense that it is called
lateral approximant.

w–r–j l

IDB164 – W5
 SONORANTS
Nasals
bilabial voiced [m] man, tummy, rum
alveolar voiced [n] nod, runner, gin
velar voiced [ŋ] drinker, thing
Liquids
alveolar lateral voiced
clear [l] long, mellow
dark [ɫ] dull
alveolar rhotic voiced [ɹ] run, very
(North Amr. Eng.)
Glides
palatal voiced [j] yes
labial-velar voiced [w] with

IDB164 – W5
 stops

fricatives obstruent voiced & voiceless

affricates

nasals

voiced sonorant liquids

glides

IDB164 – W5
 Native phonetic inventory:
Speech Accent Archive

http://accent.gmu.edu

IDB164 – W5