Introduction to Phonology

MEETING 6:
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES, PHONOTACTIC RULES,
AND CONSONANT CLUSTERS

A. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this session, students are expected to able to:
1.1 describe the classification of distinctive features in consonants and vowels

1.2 describe the phonotactic rules in English

1.3 describe the consonant clusters

B. MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
In this meeting, we are focusing on three aspects, namely: distinctive
features, phonotactic rules, and consonant clusters. Each of these aspects then will
be discussed in turn in the following.
1) Distinctive features
Traditionally, a systematic description class, e.g. a vowel or consonant, is
described by an accurate measurement that belongs distinctively to the vowel or
consonant. Such an aspect is called a distinctive feature. The feature allows us to
get a more specific outlook of a sound. A sound then is illustrated by placing the
values of + or – ahead of the distinctive feature of corresponding sound. A list of
common distinctive features includes:
§
Labials: the class of consonants articulated with the involvement of the lips,
i.e. bilabial, labiodental, and labial-velar sounds
§
Coronals: the class of consonants produced by raising the tongue blade, e.g.
the alveolar, interdental, palatal sounds
§
Anteriors: the class of consonants articulated up to the alveolar ridge, i.e. the
labial, interdental, and alveolar sounds

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§
Sibilants: the class of consonants articulated by friction of air, e.g. the alveolar
and palatal fricatives and affricate sounds
§
Continuants: the class of sounds produced with continuous air stream through
the oral cavity, e.g. ALL consonants EXCEPT for the stop and nasal sounds,
and ALL vowels
§
Obstruents: the class of sounds produced with the airstream fully obstructed,
as in stops and affricates, or nearly fully obstructed, as in the production of
fricatives
§
Sonorants: the class of sounds articulated with continuous air flow through the
oral or nasal cavity (non-obstruents), such as nasals, liquids, glides, and all
vowels
§
Consonantals: the consonants produced with obstruction in the vocal tract, i.e.
all consonants EXCEPT for glides and glottal fricative

An example of a matrix of English distinctive features looks like the following

table:
Table 1. Matrix of English distinctive features

2) Phonotactics
Phonotactics are the constraints on positions and sequences of sounds in a
language. Phonotactics are always language-specific; that is, combinations of
certain sounds may be permitted in another language which is not permitted in
English, such as /pn/ beginning a word.

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When discussing the possible positions of sounds in a language, we need

to refer to word initial, medial, and final positions, as well as other positions, such
as syllable initial, or other factors, perhaps the occurrence of a sound in
monosyllabic or polysyllabic words.
In the previous, we considered some of the constraints on the positions of
sounds in English. Those constraints are as follows.
§
/ŋ/ is never word initial; it is word medial only after a stressed vowel as in
anger

§
/Ʒ/ is very restricted word initially (occurring only in French words such as
gendarme). It is common word medially (as in pleasure) and fairly rare word
finally (again in French words such as rouge)
§
/h/, /j/, and /w/ are always syllable initial before a stressed vowel, as in
hit, yes, and wet.

§
/ð/ is word initial only in pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, demonstratives, and
the definite article, never in nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Otherwise, it occurs
freely word medially and word finally;
Notice that certain consonants have a “syllabic” function; that is, they are
like a vowel in being able to stand alone in a syllable (without any other
vowel).These consonants include the liquids and the nasals. Then, the syllabic
nasal [n̩] and [m̩] and the syllabic liquids [l̩] and [r̩] are never word initial; and

unreleased stops only occur word finally, as in tap [p ̚], or before another stop, as

in apt [p ̚t].

3) Consonant clusters
When discussing the possible sequences or combinations of sounds in a
language, we are primarily concerned with the combinations of consonants, called
consonant clusters, which may begin or end a syllable. Careful production of

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consonant clusters is necessary to convey your message correctly and to sound

like a native speaker of English.
Consonant clusters are difficult for many international speakers of English
to pronounce. Often, English speakers pronounce groups of consonants and one
vowel as a single syllable. Because this is different from most other languages,
you might omit one of the consonant sounds in the cluster or insert a vowel sound
between two of the consonants in the cluster. This will confuse your listeners and
they may not understand you.
For examples:
You will not be saying your target word : asks will sound like ax.
fact will sound like fat.
Your speech or grammar will be
difficult to understand : asked will sound like ask it.
sport will sound like support.

Unlike many other languages of the world, English rather freely allows for
consonant clustering. In fact, it allows up to three consonants in an initial cluster
and up to four consonants in a final cluster configuration:
§
initial consonant clusters glow, spruce
§
final consonant clusters bird, ends, worlds

In English initial consonant clusters are much more restricted than final
consonant clusters. In initial position, the phonotactics of English do not allow the
following sequences:
§
stop + stop, such as /pt/
§
stop + nasal, such as /pn/

§
nasal + stop, such as /np/

§
stop + fricative, such as /ts/

§
fricative + stop, such as /ft/ (exception: it is where the fricative is /s/)

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The only permitted syllable initial sequences are the following:

§
voiced or voiceless stop + approximant: play, price, bleed, break, clean, creek
§
voiceless fricative + approximant: fly, sled, three, shrew

§
/s/ + voiceless stop: spend, sting, scare

§
/s/ + nasal: snail, sneak, small, smile
§
There is only one possible combination of three consonants occurring initially:

§
/s/ + voiceless stop + approximant strong, split, scrape, spry, sclerosis.

The results of these restrictions are summarized as follows.

Table 2. Consonant clusters in English

The gaps in Table 2 can be seen as either systematic or accidental:

§
Systematic gaps are those that can be explained by phonotactics, such as the
restriction against two labials occurring together.

This rules out the consonant clusters */pw/, */bw/, and */spw/ since all

these consonants are classified as labials. Similarly, the restriction against two
alveolars/dentals occurring together rules out the clusters */tl/, */dl/, */θl/,

and */stl/.

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§
Accidental gaps, on the other hand, include those sequences which do not
violate any general principle but which simply do not occur in contemporary
English, such as /stw/, /hl/, or /hr/.

You might have noticed that the approximant /j/ has been omitted from the

discussion. The reason for this is that it occurs following a consonant only in
combination with the vowel /u/ and is therefore not considered to participate in

consonant clusters.
The following permissible sequences of consonant + /j/ are NOT considered

consonant clusters:
pj: pew tj: tune kj: cute

bj: beauty dj: duty gj: gules

mj: music nj : news *ŋj

fj: few θj: thew sj: sue *∫j

vj: view *ðj *zj *ʒj

There are some dialectal restrictions regarding the above consonant + /j/

sequences. For example, in some dialects /j/ is lost following alveolars. Thus in

many if not most dialects of North American English the word „news‟ is
pronounced /nuz/ rather than /njuz/. The same is true for the pronunciations

of tune, duty, and sue in North American English, causing these words to be
pronounced differently than in British English.
Final consonant clusters are freer and more complex than initial clusters,
containing up to four consonants. Some possible combinations of two final
consonants are the following:
§
liquid + consonant: harp, harm, horse, hurl, help, helm, else
§
nasal + obstruent : bend, bent, pins, tenth, lamp, rink
§
obstruent + obstruent, e.g.

o fricative + stop: lift, paved, disk, roast, bathed

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o stop + fricative : mats, lapse, grabs, cheeks

o fricative + fricative : leaves, reefs, sheaths,
o stop + stop : apt, ached, bobbed

Sequences of three consonants include:

§
three obstruents (stop + fricative + stop):
e.g. /dst/ in midst; /kst/ in boxed
§
nasal + two obstruents, e.g.
o nasal + fricative + stop: /nst/ in rinsed; /mft/ in triumphed

o nasal + stop + fricative: /mps/ in glimpse; /nts/ in dents

o nasal + stop + stop: /mpt/ in prompt; /mbd/ in thumbed

§
liquid + two obstruents, e.g.
o liquid + stop + fricative: /rps/ in corpse; /lps/ in gulps

o liquid + stop + stop : /lpt/ in helped; /rpt/ in warped

o liquid + fricative + fricative : /lvz/ in shelves; /rfs/ in dwarfs

o liquid + fricative + stop: /rst/ in first; /rvd/ in starved

o liquid + nasal + fricative: /lnz/ in kilns; /rmz/ in terms

Sequences of four consonants occur, although more rarely:

/mpst/ : glimpsed /ndθs/ : thousandths

/ksθs/ : sixths /ksts/ : texts

/rlds/ : worlds /mpts/ : tempts

/lfθs/ : twelfths /ŋkst/ : jinxed

As we can see, the forth consonant is always an inflectional ending added

to a word ending in three consonants. Words ending in four consonants without an
inflectional ending are rare, if not impossible. In cases where the medial

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consonant in a cluster is a voiceless stop or /θ/, native speakers tend to simplify

the cluster by omitting this consonant, saying [glimst] instead of [glimpst],

[twεlfs] instead of [twεlfθs], etc. Importantly, the inflectional ending cannot be

omitted in the process of consonant cluster simplification because of the
grammatical information it carries.

Practice 1.
Carefully pronounce all the consonant clusters and consonant + vowel
combinations in the boldfaced words.

C. MATERIAL COMPREHENSION TEST

1. Write down all the segments of your nick name in the matrix below.
Supply at least 3 additional distinctive features to complete the
matrix, and determine the features of each segment by providing the
values + and - .
Distinctive Segments
features […..] […..] […..] […..] […..] […..] […..] […..]
Anterior
Sibilant
Continuant

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Consonantal
……………
……………
……………
……………
……………

2. Look at the scrambled words. Write the correct word in the blank.
Use the clues below each word to help you figure out the scrambled
word.

3. Think of ten words that contain with two/three-member consonant

clusters. Then try to use as many of those words as you can in the

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same sentence. Practice saying your original sentences with a

partner.
Examples : split pants started scream
When I split my pants, I started to scream.

D. REFERENCES
Books
Brinton, L. J. 2000. The structure of modern English: A linguistic
introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Carr, P. 1999. English phonetics and phonology: An introduction. USA:
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Dale, P. & Poms, L. 2005. English pronunciation made simple. New York:
Pearson Education Inc.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. 2014. An introduction of

language (10th edition). New York, USA: Wadsworth Cengage
Learning.
Sari, F. 2011. A practical guide to understanding English phonetics &
phonology. Jakarta: Native Indonesia.

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