ENGLISH CONSONANTS

We form consonants by controlling or impeding the egressive (outward) flow of air. We do this
with the articulators- from the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and the alveolar ridge
and the tongue, to the teeth and lips. The sound results of three things:

• Voicing- causing the vocal cords to vibrate.

• Where the articulation happens- place of articulation (POA)
• How the articulation happens; how the airflow is controlled- manner of articulation.

The distinction between manner of articulation and place of articulation (POA) is particular
important for the classification of consonants.

The place of articulation (POA) is the point where the airstream is obstructed. In general, the
place of articulation is simply that point on the palate where the tongue is placed to block the
stream of air.

Articulation described by place/ region:

• Glottal articulation- articulation by the glottis. We use this for one consonant in
English. This is /h/ in initial position in “house” or “hope”.
• Velar articulation- we do this with the back of the tongue against the velum. We use it
in initial hard / / (as in “golf”) and for final / / (as in gong).
• Palatal articulation- we do this with the front of the tongue on the hard palate. We use
it for /d / ( as in “jam”) and in / / (as in “sugar” or “sheep”).
• Alveolar articulation- we do this with the tongue blade on the alveolar ridge. We use it
for /t/ (as in “teeth”), /d/ (as in “dodo”), /z/ (as in “zebra”) /n/ (as in “no”) and /l/ (as
in “light”)
• Dental articulation- we do this with the tip of the tongue on the back of the upper
front teeth. We use it for / / (as in “think”) and in / / (as in “that”). This is one form of
articulation that we can observe and feel ourselves doing.
• Labio-dental articulation- we do this with the lower lip and upper front teeth. We use
it for /v/ (as in “vampire”).
• Labial articulation- we do this with lips for /b/ as in “boat”) and /m/ (as in “most”).
Where we use two lips (as in “English”) this is bilabial articulation.

The manner of articulation is defined by a number of factors:

• Whether there is vibration of the vocal cords (voiced vs. voiceless);

• Whether there is obstruction of the airstream at any point above the glottis
(consonant vs. vowel);
• Whether the airstream passes through the nasal cavity in addition to the oral cavity
(nasal vs. oral);
 • Whether the airstream passes through the middle of the oral cavity or along the
side(s) (non-lateral vs. lateral).

Articulation described by manner:

This scheme gives us a different arrangement into plosive (or stop) consonants, affricates,
fricatives, nasal consonants, laterals and approximants.

• Plosive (Stop) consonants: so-called because the airflow is stop, that is, there is a
complete closure at some point in the mouth, behind which air pressure builds up; or
plosive consonants, because it is subsequently released, causing an outrush of air and
a burst of sound or explosion. They are:
• Voiceless Bilabial Plosive /p/( as in “post”) and Voiced Bilabial Plosive /b/(as in
“boat”).
• Voiceless Alveolar Plosive /t / (as in “tap”) and Voiced Alveolar Plosive /d / (as
in “dad”).
• Voiceless Velar Plosive / k/ ( as in “cow”) and Voiced Velar Plosive / / ( as in
“golf”).
• Affricates are a kind of stop consonant, where the expelled air causes friction rather
than plosion (because the separation of the organs involved in the closure is slow,
compared with that of the plosive). They are Voiceless Palato-Alveolar Affricate /t /
(as in “cheat”) and Voiced Palato-Alveolar Affricate /d / (as in “jam”).

• Fricatives come from restricting, but not completely stopping the airflow. The air
passes through a narrow space with friction. They come in voiced and unvoiced pairs

• Voiceless Labio-dental fricative /f / (as in “foal”) and Voiced Labio-dental

fricative /v / (as in “vole”).

• Voiceless Dental fricative / / (as in “thick”) and Voiced Dental fricative / / (as
in “those”).

• Voiceless Alveolar Fricative /s / (as in “sent”) and Voiced Alveolar Fricative /z /

(as in “zest”).

• Voiceless Palatal Fricative / /(as at the end of “trash”) and Voiced Palatal
Fricative / / (as in the middle of “leisure”).

• Nasal consonants involve closing the articulators but lowering the uvula, which
normally closes off the route to the nose, through which the air escapes. There are
three nasal consonants in English
• Bilabial Nasal /m / as in “mine”.
 • Alveolar Nasal /n / as in “nine”.
• Velar Nasal / / as at the end of “gong”; it never occurs at the beginning of a
syllable.

• Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is
only one such sound, which is alveolar /l/ (as at the start of “lamp”).

• Approximants do not impede the flow of air. They are all voiced but are counted as
consonants chiefly because of how they function in syllables. They are

• Labial- Velar Approximant /w/ as in “water”

• Post- Alveolar Approximant /r / as in “road”

• Palatal Approximant /j / as in “yet”.

 Voicing

All vowels must be voiced- they are caused by vibration in the vocal cords. But consonants may
be voiced or not. Some of the consonant sounds of English come in pairs that differ in being
voiced or not- in which case they are described as voiceless or unvoiced. So /b/ is voiced and
/p/ is the unvoiced consonant in one pair while voiced / / and voiceless /k/ form another pair.

Fortis and Lenis

Fortis sounds are said to be made with a relatively high degree of effort or muscular energy.
There are pairs of consonants whose members can be distinguished from each other in terms
of whether they are “strong” (Fortis) or “weak” (Lenis). A lenis sound is weakly articulated (the
word comes from Latin, where it means “smooth, gentle”). In general, the term lenis is used of
voiced consonants ( which are supposed to be less strongly articulated that their
corresponding voiceless ones).

These terms refer to the amount of energy used in their production, and are similar to the
terms TENSE and LAX more usually used in relation to vowels.

/k / and / / are one of the pairs of consonants said to be distinguished from each other by
being FORTIS or LENIS rather than “voiced or voiceless”.

Syllables

When you think of individual sounds, you may think of them in terms of syllables. These are
units of phonological organization and smaller than words. Alternatively, think of them as units
of rhythm. Although they may contain several sounds, they combined them in ways that
created the effect of unity.

Thus splash is a single syllable but it combines three consonants, a vowel, and a final
consonant /spl+ æ + /

Some words have a single syllable- so they are monosyllables or monosyllabic. Other have
more than one syllable and are polysyllables or polysyllabic.

Sometimes you may see a word divided into its syllables, but these may be an artificial
exercise, since in real speech the sounds are continuous. In some cases it will be impossible to
tell whether a given consonant was ending on one syllable or beginning another. It is possible,
for example, to pronounce “lamppost” so that there are two /p / sounds in succession with
some intervals between them. But many native English speakers will render this as /læm-
p st/.
Syllabic Consonants.

The syllabic sound of a syllable is generally a vowel but consonants may also be syllabic, i.e.
they may from a syllable without an accompanying vowel.

Examples:

The final nasals and lateral in the following

<pattern> /’pæt. n/ /’pæ. tn/

<bottom> /’b t. m/ /’b .tm/

<bottle> /’b t. l/ /’b .tl/

If you look up the pronunciation of words like “button” and “bottle” in a pronunciation
dictionary you will come across a small rise schwa

/’b t n /, /’b t. l/ the raised schwa indicates a choice of pronunciation: the schwa may be
omitted. A weak unstressed syllable often has a schwa in it, but if the schwa is omitted, we are
left with a syllabic consonant—a syllable where the vowel and the consonant have merged
into one- pronounced with the rhythmical value of a syllable.

The syllabic consonants in English are /n /l /r / and sometimes /m/ and / /