The english plosive

Three degrees of stricture need to be mentioned:

Closure: the articulators are in firm contact,

Narrowing: the articulators are close together, but not touching, and there is turbulence in the
airflow and audible friction.
Approximation: the gap between the articulators is not sufficient to cause turbulence and thus
audible friction. The sounds produced are approximants.

Sonorant is a sound which is voiced and does not cause enough obstruction to the airflow to
prevent normal voicing from continuing. The sonorants are nasals, laterals, approximants and
vowels.
Obstruents are made with some obstruction to the airflow in the vocal tract. Obstruents are
plosives, fricatives and affricates.
The term stop describes the manner of articulation. Stops are sounds for which there is
complete closure in the oral cavity. Stops are plosives, affricates and nasals.
Plosives

A complete closure at some point. During the period of closure the air is being forced up the
vocal tract by the lungs and it thus becomes trapped. It can not escape from leaving through
one of the cavities. There are three stages of plosive articulation: the approach stage is when
the active articulator is approaching the passive articulator. Compression stage is when the air
pressure rises in the vocal tract. The release stage is when the active articulator loses contact
with the passive articulator and moves away and the compressed air is released with an
explosive noise.
There are six plosive in English: / p t k b d g/. /p b/ bilabial, /t d/ alveolar, /k g/ velar.
The fortis plosives /p t k/ have energetic articulation and are voiceless. The lenis plosives / b d
g/ have weaker articulation and have potential voice.
Aspiration- an aspirated plosive is followed by a brief h-sound. There is a delay between the
release of the primary closure of the articulators and the beginning sound that follows. During
this delay, air continues to be expelled from the lungs through the open glottis. Aspiration is
really a delay in the onset of voicing, and sounds like a puff of air.
Types of release
Oral release is a typical type of the plosive release that occurs when plosive is followed by a
vowel ( wide median release). Another type of oral release is when plosive is followed by a
fricative( cops, tubs...). This is narrow median release.
No audible release is when a plosive is in a final position(map, road...). In careful speech the
release may be present. Release masking takes place in plosive+plosive or plosive+affricate
clusters, either within a word or at word boundaries: the first plosive has no audible release
( dropped, subject). The release of the first plosive is masked by the hold of the second plosive.
Nasal release is when a plosive is followed by the homorgranic ( same place of articulation)
nasal consonant. The soft palate lowers, which allows the airstream to pass through the nasal
cavity ( submit, bacon). Nasal release of /t d/ is aso heard in final / tn dn/ leading into syllabic
nasal (srodent).
When a plosive is followed by a heterorganic( different place of articulation) consonant(
subnormal, admire, dogma). In this cases, the plosive closure is not normally released until the
articulatory movements for the nasal consonants have been accomplished. Hterorgranic nasal
release occurs in fast speech.
Lateral release- /t/ and /d/ can have lateral release, the alveolar closure is maintained but the
sides of the tounge are lowered. These plosives are homorgranic with /l/. This type of release
occurs when the following /l/ is syllabic(settle, medal), or initial in the next syllable word(atlas).
Laterel release also occurs when the plosive and the lateral are not homorgranic(apple, blink).
the tongue takes up the alveolar position for /l/ during the hold stage of plosive.

AFFRICATES
A complete closure at some point in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up; the
separation of the organs is
slow compared with that of plosive, so that friction is a characteristic second element of the
sound.
In English only /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are treated as phonemic affricates. These sounds are referred to as
compound phonemes.
The English affricate is a homorganic sequence of plosive+fricative.

/tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are both palate-alveolar according to their place of articulation (poc). They are
strongly labialized, with
trumpet-shaped lip rounding.
ALLOPHONES OF AFFRICATES
phoneme /tʃ/ voice- voiceless, place- palato-alveolar, manner- affricate

phoneme/dʒ/ voice- voiced, place- palate-alveolar, manner- affricate// voicing- when word-
initial it is partially devoiced,
e.g. jet, juice, gem; when final it is devoiced, e.g. fudge, badge.
ADDITIONAL VARIANTS-some careful speakers use /t/ and /d/ + /j/ in certain words instead of
affricates: e.g. statue,
virtue, fortune, Christian, educate, gradual, mutual. Some speakers omit the plosive element in
the consonant clusters
/ntʃ/ and /ndʒ/ in word-final positions, e.g. French, lounge, lunch, branche, hinge, challenge,
scrounge, etc. This
variation in pronunciation is called free phonemic variation.
NASALS
A complete closure at some point in the mouth, but the soft palate being lowered allows the
airstream to escape

through the nose. No audible friction is produced during the articulation of nasals. They are
usually voiced so they don’t
come in voiced/voiceless pairs. There are three nasal consonants in English: bilabial /m/,
alveolar /n/, and velar /ŋ/. If

the nasal passage is blocked, during a cold for example, the nasals will be realized as the
corresponding plosives /m/ - /p
b/, /n/ - /t d/, /ŋ/ - /k g/. The only distributional restriction is that the velar nasal does not occur
initially, meaning that

no English words begin with /ŋ/ (PHONOTACTIC RESTRAINT). Nasals readily perform the syllabic
function of vowels:
most often /n/, e.g. mutton, bacon; less commonly /m/, e.g rhythm; occasionally, with some
speakers, /ŋ/, e.g. bacon,

thicken.
ALLOPHONES OF NASALS
phoneme /m/ voice- ed, place- bilabial, manner –nasal// voicing- devoiced, when a voiceless
consonant precedes, e.g.

smart, topmost. POC- labiodental, before labiodentals /f/ or /v/, e.g. comfort, circumvent.
phoneme /n/ voice- ed, place- alveolar, manner- nasal// voicing- devoiced, when a voiceless
consonant precedes, e.g.
sneeze, chutney. POC- labiodental, before labiodentals /f/ or /v/, e.g. infant, invoice; dental,
before dentals /θ/ or /ð/,
e.g. tenth, when they, and sometimes after dentals, e.g. earthen, southern; post-alveolar,
before /r/, e.g. unrest, Henry.
phoneme /ŋ/ voice- ed, place- velar, manner- nasal.

FRICATIVES
Narrowing without a complete closure. Two organs approximate to such an extent that the
airstream passes through
them with friction. The English fricatives come in four pairs: /f v/ labiodental; /θ ð/ dental; /s z/
alveolar; /ʃ ʒ/ palato-

alveolar and /h/ glottal (which has no phonemic voiced counterpart). /f θ s ʃ/ are fortis and /v ð
z ʒ/ are lenis. /v ð z ʒ/
tend to be fully voiced only when they occur between voiced sounds: e.g. cover, other, easy… In
initial and (especially) in

final position, the voiced fricatives are partially devoiced. The voiceless series /f θ s ʃ/ remains
completely voiceless in all
positions.
ALLOPHONES OF FRICATIVES

phoneme /f/ voice- voiceless, place- labiodental, manner- fricative

phoneme/v/ voice- voiced, place- labiodental, manner- fricative // voicing- when word-initial,
/v/ is partially devoiced
e.g. vat, vine, voice. Additional variants: word-final /v/ may change to /f/ before a voiceless
consonant which is initial in
the word to follow; this process occurs in the phrase have to.
phoneme /θ/ voice- voiceless, place- dental, manner- fricative
phoneme /ð/ voice- voiced, place- dental, manner- fricative// voicing- when word-initial, /ð/ is
partially devoiced, e.g.
that, though, then; when final, it is devoiced, e.g. breathe, soothe, clothe
Additional variants: The dental fricatives /θ ð/ are ‘marked’ sounds, they are relatively rare in
the languages of the

world, and children tend to learn them late. Native speakers of English also pronounce /θ/ and
/ð/ in different ways: as
dental- the tongue tip makes near contact with the rear of the upper teeth resulting in dental
friction, or as interdental-

where the tongue tip may protrude between the teeth(common type of articulation in AmE).
One of the non-SSB/non-
standard features is TH-fronting/stopping, where /θ/ changes to /f/ and /ð/ to /v/ in words like
third, mother, etc. TH-
fronting shouldn’t be imitated by non-native speakers of English.

phoneme /s/ voice- voiceless, place- alveolar, manner- fricative //poc – postalveolar when
followed by postalveolar /r/,
e.g. classroom, x-ray.
phoneme /z/ voice- voiced, place- alveolar, manner- fricative //voicing- when word-initial /z/ is
partially devoiced, e.g.
zinc, xerox, zoo; when final, it is devoiced, e.g. breeze, ears, says. Poc- postalveolar when
followed by postalveolar /r/,
e.g. Israel, newsroom.

phoneme /ʃ/ voice- voiceless, place- palate-alveolar, manner- fricative

phoneme /ʒ/ voice- voiced, place- palate-alveolar, manner- fricative// voicing- when word-
initial it is partially devoiced,
e.g. gigolo; when final it is devoiced, e.g. garage, rouge.

phoneme /h/ voice-voiceless, place-glottal, manner-fricative// voicing –it may have some
voicing medially between
voiced sounds, e.g. behave, perhaps.
‘H dropping’ - The omission of /h/ in pronunciation, including lexical words. It is very frequent in
Cockney, e.g.
(h)ammer, (h)ouse, etc. It is not imitated by non-native speakers.

APPROXIMANTS
In the production of approximants, the airstream escapes freely through a relatively narrow
aperture(opening) in the
mouth without friction, but with voice. There are four oral approximants in English: /l r j w/. /l/
and /r/ are often
classified as liquids, whereas /j/ and /w/ are often termed semi-vowels. When they
(approximants) occur in consonantal
clusters they are devoiced if the preceding consonant is voiceless, e.g. /k/ produces devoicing in
clay, crawl, queer.
When the first consonant is an unvoiced plosive, the devoicing phenomenon is a result of the
aspiration of the plosive,
as in play, approve, accuse, twin.
LATERAL approximant- For the articulation of /l/, the tip and blade of the tongue form a central
closure with the
alveolar ridge, while air passes down the sides of the tongue. The airstream escapes over the
lowered sides. This is why
this speech sound is called lateral. Depending on the context in which the lateral approximant
occurs, the tongue takes
on different positions. In some phonetic environments the front of the tongue is raised in the
direction of the hard
palate and /l/ is palatalized. This type of /l/ is called clear L. Clear l occurs before vowels, as in
leap, and also before /j/,
as in value, etc. Secondly, when the front of the tongue is somewhat depressed and the back
raised in the direction ofthe soft palate, a velarized speech sound is produced. It is called dark L.
This allophone of /l/ occurs before consonants,as in help, and before a pause, e.g. still, or put
simply after vowels. Dark l is often syllabic, when it’s usually longer, e.g.hospital.
Phoneme /l/ voice- ed, place- alveolar, manner- lateral(approximant)// Position of tongue-
palatalized,
before vowels, e.g. leap, glad, million; velarized, after vowels, e.g. real, belt, uncle.// Voicing-
devoiced, when a voiceless
consonant precedes, e.g. slow, please// POC- dental, when followed by a dental /θ/ or /ð/, e.g.
wealth, will they, and
sometimes when preceded by a dental consonant, e.g. month late, with love; post-alveolar,
before /r/ or /tr dr/, e.g.
already, ultra, all dry.
POST-ALVEOLAR approximant- The English /r/ is most often realized as a voiced post-alveolar
approximant [ɹ ]. The tip

of the tongue is in position near to the back part of the upper alveolar ridge. The airstream is
allowed to escape freely
over the central part of the tongue, thus this is a vowel-like articulation. /r/ has a limited
distribution in the non-rhotic
accents of English, in SSB it only occurs only before a vowel(e.g. read, write), or following a
voiced consonant (except for
/d/). When /d/ precedes, the allophone of /r/ is fricative, e.g. drive, bedroom. Phoneme /r/
voice-ed, place-
post-alveolar, manner- approximant//vocalic allophone: central, retroflex, when word-initial,
intervocalic, or when a
voiced consonant precedes(other than /d/), e.g. reader, hurry, brain// voicing- consonantal
allophone:voiced post-
alveolar approximant, may be: somewhat devoiced, after a voiceless consonant, e.g. afraid,
spray AND fully devoiced,
when preceded by accented /ptk/, e.g. price, train, Christ. The approximant [ɹ ] may be
replaced by an alveolar tap
[ɾ] in intervocalic positions, as in very, sorry, and when/θ ð/ precede (and sometimes /bg/),
e.g.three, with respect,
bright.
A semi-vowel is a rapid vocalic glide onto a syllabic sound of greater steady duration. In english
the semi-vowels /j/ and /w/ glide from positions of approximately /u:/ and /i:/ to a closer
position. Despite the fact that semi-vowels are generally vocalic, they are treated within the
consonant class because their function is consonantal rather than vowel-like.
The english palatal approximant- the vocalic allophones of /j/ are articulated by the tongue
assuming the position for a close-mid to close front vowel and moving away immediately to the
position of the following vowel sound. The lips are generally neutral or spread (yellow, beyond)
The english labial-velar approximant- the labial-velar approximant that has both, an
approximation of the lips and approximation of the tongue and the soft palate. Being a semi-
vowel, /w/ may have both vocalic and consonantal allophones. The vocalic allophone of [w] is
articulated by the tongue assuming the position for a close-mid to close back vowel and moving
away immediately to the position of the following sound. The lips are rounded, the soft palate
is raised and the vocal folds vibrate.