Plantilla resumenes.

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SUMMARY

ENGLISH

TOPIC 8: PHONOLOGIAL
SYSTEM OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGEII:CONSONANTS.
PHONETIC SYMBOLS. STRONG
AND WEAK FORM.
COMPARISON WITH THE
DOCUMENTO3

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF
THE CORRESPONDING
AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY
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INDEX

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................... 3

1. THE NATURE OF SPEECH ............................................................. 4

1.1 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY ................................................... 4
1.2 PHONEMES............................................................................... 5
2. THE CONSONANTAL SYSTEM OF ENGLISH ................................ 6
2.1 THE CONSONANTAL SYSTEM OF ENGLISH .................................. 7
2.2 THE FRICATIVE CONSONANT .................................................... 10
2.3 THE AFFRICATE CONSONANTS .................................................. 13
2.4 THE NASAL CONSONANT ......................................................... 15
2.5 APPROXIMANTS...................................................................... 16
3. ENGLISH AND SPANISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS................................................21
CONCLUSIONES ..............................................................................24

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INTRODUCTION

Teaching pronunciation is a fundamental feature of successful communication

(Eva Roid, 2016). When we study English is important to study its vocalic system

in order to understand the differences between English and Spanish as well as

the organ involved in its production, in order to facilitate its realization. In fact,

the Common European Framework recommends teaching pronunciation from

the very beginning.

For that purpose, a revision of concepts such as phonetics and phonology will

be carried out. After that we will focus on the consonantal sounds taking into

account its description, together with its allophones (or different realization of

the sound) and their spelling.

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1. THE NATURE OF SPEECH

Speech is the ability of expressing thoughts, perceptions and feelings by artic-

ulating word through oral and nasal sounds (Webster’s College Dictionary).

Speech sounds can be classified into: individual sounds, glides (incidental tran-

sitory sounds) and prosodies (suprasegmental features).

The notion of speech involves not just individual sounds (phones, lineal fea-

tures…) but also connected sounds, whose variations go from ellipsis (/r/ in

hose) to a long degree. Semantically, length is a distinctive feature.

1.1 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Phonetics is the study of sounds and their production transmission and recep-

tion, their analysis and classification and transcription (The Dictionary.com).

Phonetics studies speech sounds according to their production in the vocal

organs, their physical properties or their effect on the ear (auditory phonetics).

Phonetics deals with phonemes as semantic entities, the evolution of sounds

and the range of ways to articulate sound.

Phonology focuses on the study of the distribution and patterning of speech

sounds in a language and the rules governing language pronunciation (The

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Dictionary.com). It attempts to account for how speech sounds are combined

and organised to convey meaning. It deals with physiology of sounds, the

speaking and the selection and patterns of sounds.

1.2 PHONEMES
Phonemes are units of significant sound in a given language (The Oxford Eng-

lish Dictionary). The phoneme is a part of a morpheme where it has a distinctive

function when occurs in a strong position and a contrastive function when in a

weak position. In weak position, where sound variations do not indicate a

change in meaning, they are called allophones

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2. THE CONSONANTAL SYSTEM OF

ENGLISH

A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial clo-

sure of the upper vocal tract. These phonemes can be classified attending to

the following criteria: place of articulation, state or the air-passage, position of

the palate and vibration of the vocal cords.

a) Attending to the place of articulation, phonemes are classified into:

- Bilabial: both lips

- Dental: tongue tip against teeth.

- Labio-dental: lower lip against upper teeth.

- Alveolar: tongue tip against the gum ridge.

- Post-alveolar: tongue blade against gum ridge.

- Palato-alveolar: tongue tip and blade against hard palate.

- Palatal: tongue blade against soft palate.

- Velar: tongue back against soft palate.

- Glottal: glottis.

b) Attending to how sound is produced they can be divided into: plosive, fric-

ative, affricate, nasal, lateral, rolled, fritionless-continuant and semi-vowel,

c) Attending to the position of the palate they can be: raised or lowered.

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d) Attending to the vibration of the vocal cords they can be: voiced (vibration)

or voiceless (no vibration).

2.1 THE CONSONANTAL SYSTEM OF

ENGLISH
2.1.1. Voiceless bilabial plosive /p/

a) Description: closure of the lips and raising the soft palate. The air is com-

pressed. When the lips open the air goes out and make an explosion.

b) Allophones: when it is followed by a stressed vowel. It is aspirated: pay,

part…

c) Spelling: letter p. Sometimes it is silent as in psychology or raspberry.

2.1.2 Voiced bilabial plosive /b/

a) Description: it is formed like /p/ but the rush is less strong. The vocal cord

vibrates.

b) Allophones: when it is followed by /m/ or /n/, nasal explosion is used: submit.

c) Spelling: it corresponds to the letter b. It is silent before t (debt) and following

m (lamb).

2.1.3 Voiceless alveolar plosive /t/

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a) Description: it is formed by closing the lips and raising the soft palate; the

tip of the tongue pressed against the teeth ridge. When the tongue is lowered

the air rushes out and makes an explosion.

b) Allophones: it is aspirated when it is followed by a stressed vowel: take,

tea…a dental /t/ is used before dental fricatives /Ө/ and /δ/: eight.

c) Spelling: some names with th (Thames) and past tense of regular verbs

(worked). Sometimes letter t is silent between s and l (castle) and word ending

in –sten (fasten); French origin ending (ballet); also Christmas.

2.1.4. Voiced dental plosive /d/

a) Description: like consonant /t/ with weaker air. The vocal cord vibrates.

b) Allophones: a dental /d/ is used before dental fricatives /Ө/ and / δ/: width…

when it is followed by /m/ or /n/, nasal plosion is used: sadness. Post alveolar

/d/ is used before /r/. dry…

c) Spelling: it corresponds to letter d. Also the past tense of some regular verbs:

climbed, planned, plunged…

Sometimes letter d is silent: between n and another consonant: handsome.

2.1.5 Voiceless velar plosive /k/

a) Description: the back of the tongue is pressed against the soft palate which

is raised blocking the nose passage; the air is compressed; when the tongue is

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lowered the air suddenly rushes out and makes an explosive sound. There is no

vibration.

b) Allophones: when it is followed by a stressed vowel, it is aspirated: key,

come…A lip rounding /k/ is used before semi-vowel /w/: queer… it is pro-

nounced nasal plosion before nasal: bacon…

c) Spelling: it corresponds to letters k, c, ch, qu and x: king, call, queen, box..

Letter k is silent in initial position and followed by n: knew.

2.1.6 Voiced velar plosive /g/

a) Description: it is formed like /k/ but with weaker rush of air. There is vibration.

b) Allophones: further forward or backward according to adjacent vowel /i/ or

/o/: guitar, got…A lip rounding /g/ is used before semi-vowel /w/: language.

There is nasal plosion before nasal consonant: pregnant.

c) Spelling: it corresponds to letter g when followed by a, o, u, a consonant or

whn it is final: gate, goal… Sometimes followed by e, i: get, give…Sometimes it

is silent in initial and final position before n (gnaw, sign).

2.1.7 The glottal stop /?/

a) Description: it is formed by closing the glottis and by contact with the vocal

cords; when the glottis opens and the cords separate, air rushes out. There is

no vibration.

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b) Use: an initial stressed vowel (it, ate); it may substitute unstressed /t/ (bottle,

butter); it may be used to separate words (some mice/ some ice); it separates

vowels when there is not natural glide (Maria asked); often used with d, t, k, g,

b or p at the end of a word or syllable (light, flight). Also in words that end in

t + vowel + n: button, cotton…

2.2 THE FRICATIVE CONSONANT

They are formed by a narrowing of the air-passage so that the air is expelled

from the lungs rubs out of the mouth producing an audible friction. There are

10 fricatives.

2.2.1. Voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/

a) Description: the lower lip against the upper teeth. The soft palate is raised

and the glottis is open. There is no vibration.

b) Spelling: usually f, ff . ph and sometimes gh (laugh).

2.2.2. Voiced labio-dental fricative /v/

a) Description: It is pronounced like /f/ but with vibration.

b) Spelling: v (van, vet) and ph (Stephen).

2.2.3. Voiceless dental fricative /Ө/

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a) Description: the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth; the soft palate is

raised and there is no vibration.

b) Spelling: usually spelt th in initial position (theme); at the end (mouth), in

the middle of non-Germanic words (healthy) and plurals preceded by a short

vowel (moth).

2.2.4. Voiced Dental Fricative / δ/

a) Description: like phoneme /Ө/ but with vibration.

b) Spelling: th in pronouns (this, they), in the middle of Germanic words (father),

final position and followed by a mute (bathe); plural of nouns ending in th not

preceded by r (path).

2.2.5. Voiceless blade-alveolar fricative /s/

a) Description: the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge; the front of the

tongue is raised towards the hard palate; the teeth are closed together and the

soft palate is raised.

b) Allophones: the tip of the tongue is lower. There are different qualities of

the hiss.

c) Spelling: s in final position when following a voiceless sound (books), in

medial position s may be pronounced /s/ or /z/. it may also be ss (pass), c or

sc before e, i, y (cell).

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2.2.6. Voiced blade-alveolar fricative /z/

a) Description: it is pronounced like /s/ but with vibration.

b) Spelling: - (zeal); -s in medial position (easy) or final position (gives), also -

ss (possess).

2.2.7. Voiceless palate-alveolar fricative /ᶴ/

a) Description: the tip and blade of the tongue against the hinder part of the

teeth ridge; the blade of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate and the

soft palate is raised. There is no vibration.

b) Allophones: the tip of the tongue lowered.

c) Spelling: -sh; si-, sci-, ci-, ti- by unstressed vowel or syllabic consonant (pen-
sion); s (sugar), ch in French words (machine) and –ssion (mission).

2.2.8. Voiced palate-alveolar fricative /ᶾ/

a) Description: like phoneme /ᶴ/ but with vibration.

b) Spelling: s (pleasure); z (seizure); g in French words (beige).

2.2.9. Breathed glottal fricative /h/

a) Description: the air passes through the glottis; the mouth is held in vowel-

position. There is no vibration.

b) Allophones: voiced /h/ occurs when other sounds precede and follow.

c) Spelling: h; wh (who); silent h in unstressed syllables (him); -ham (Wykeham);

also in hour, honest…

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2.3 THE AFFRICATE CONSONANTS

An affricate is produced as a plosive but exploding the compressed air through

a fricative continuant.

2.3.1 Voiceless palate-alveolar fricative /tᶴ/

a) Description: the air is blocked by pressing the tip and the blade of

the tongue against the soft palate; the tongue is taken away from the

teeth ridge to release the pressure and let the air rub out of the mouth.

Lips may be protruded or spread. There is no vibration.

b) Spelling: ch, tch; t in unstressed syllables (picture) and Italian words

(cello).

2.3.2. Voiced palate-alveolar affricate /dᶾ/

a) Description: like consonant /tᶴ/ but with vibration.

b) Allophones: partially voiced when initial/ final position or preceded

by voiceless sound.

c) Spelling: j and g before e, i and y (judge, gypsy); dg (bridge); -age

(village) and final –ich (Norwich).

2.3.3. Voiceless blade-alveolar affricate /ts/

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a) Description: the tongues are place in /s/ position with the blade

touching the teethc ridge; after the initial pressure the air escapes as the

tongue is removed from the teeth ridge. There is no vibration.

b) Spelling: in loan words and ts in initial position (tsetse).

2.3.4. Voiced blade-alveolar affricate /dz/

a) Description: like /ts/ but with vibration.

b) Spelling: in loan words; dz in initial position (Dzungaria) and final dz

(reads).

2.3.5. Voiceless post-alveolar affricate /tr/

a) Description: the tongue is placed as for /r/ with the tip against the

back part of the teeth ridge; after the initial pressure the air escapes as

the tongue is removed from the teeth ridge. There is no vibration.

b) Spelling: tr (tree).

2.3.6. Voiced post-alveolar affricate /dr/

a) Description: like /tr/ buth with vibration.

b) Spelling: dr (dress).

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2.4 THE NASAL CONSONANT

They are formed by lowering the soft palate and closing the mouth so the air
escapes through the nose. They may be short (after a long vowel) and long
(after a short vowel: sin).

2.4.1. Voiced bi-labial nasal consonant /m/

a) Description: the moth passage is blocked with the lips and the soft

palate lowered so that the air can leave through the nose. Neutral

tongue. There is no vibration.

b) Allophones: syllabic m in final position and preceded by /s/ or /z/.

c) Spelling: m; mm (summer) and silent m in initial position (mnemonic).

2.4.2. Voiced alveolar nasal consonant /n/

a) Description: the mouth passage is blocked by the tip for the tongue against

the teeth ridge, the soft palate is lowered and the air can leave through the

mouth. There is vibration.

b) Allophones: syllabic (nation)

c) Spelling: n, nn (dinner) and silent in final position (autumn).

2.4.3. Voiced velar nasal consonant /ᶮ/

a) Description: the mouth passage is blocked by the back of the tongue against

the soft palate which is lowered so that the air can leave through the nose.

There is vibration.

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b) Allophones: syllabic when near /k/ or /g/ (bacon).

c) Spelling: ng (listening) and nk (ink).

2.5 APPROXIMANTS
An approximant is a speech sound formed by the passage of air between two

articulators (lips or tongue) which are close but not touching and that is usually

classified as consonant (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

They produce less turbulence than fricatives when they are articulated. They

also differ from them in the precision required. They may be lateral or central,

being these last ones divided into: frictionless continuants and semi-vowels.

2.5.1. The lateral consonants

a) Description: the tip of the tongue against the teeth ridge and letting

the air escape along both sides of the tongue. The soft palate is raised.

b) Allophones: there are two varieties:

- Clear /l/: before vowels and /j/ (love). The front of the tongue

is raised towards the hard palate.

- Dark /l/: before consonants and final position (told, bottle). The

back of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate. It is often

syllabic –in final unstressed syllable: people, table…

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c) Spelling: l or ll and silent before f, k, m (calf, talk, palm).

2.5.2 The frictionless continuant

They are formed like voiced fricative consonant passage so that the air expelled

from the lungs rubs out of the mouth producing a friction, which is almost

imperceptible. This is because there is less exhaling force and the aperture is

wider. The alveolar approximant is //. Voiced post-alveolar fricative /r/.

a) Description: it is formed by placing the tip of the tongue against the

teeth ridge. When the front part of the tongue approaches the upper

gum the air escapes along both sides of the tongue. The soft palate is

raised. The vocal cords vibrate. No or little friction can be heard and

there is no momentary closure of the vocal cord. The post-alveolar and

alveolar sounds are the most common realization of the phoneme in Rp

English., general American English and more dialects. When it is pre-

ceded by a voiceless dental fricative the alveolar approximant suffers a

process of assimilation and becomes voiceless and dental: threat.

b) Allophones:

- Retroflex approximant: it is produced when the tip of the tongue

sis curved towards the roof of the mouth. There is a distinction be-

tween an unrounded retroflex English where it is spelled r for the

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unrounded version and usually wr for the rounded version: right and

write.

- Labiodental approximant: the sound is pronounced with the teeth

and lips held in the position used to articulate the phoneme /V/. R-

labialisation occurs in South England and some London accents

(Cockney).

- Trill r. The airstream is interrupted several times as one of the organs

of speech vibrates and taps against the upper gum, closing and

opening the air passage. The apical alveolar trill occurs in some dia-

lects of Scotland and the North of England.

- Tap or flap r. The sound is produced similar to a tril but involving

just one single tap briefly interrupting the airflow. Alveolar flap occurs

in Scottish and South Affrican dialects and also in some conservative

dialects in England and Ireland. It is in RP in unstressed position: very.

In Australian and some American dialects flaps do not function as

rhotics but they are realization of intevocalic apical.

- Voiced uvular fricative. The sound was typically pronounced as a

voiced uvular fricative often with accompanying lip-rounding. It oc-

curred in northern Northumbria and Tyneside.

c) Spelling: letter r can appear in initial position: raw.

d) In medial position: miracle.

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e) And in final position: better…where it is not pronounced in in Standard

British English: far /fa:/.

f)

This sound may appear when it does not exist: this is called intrusive r. It spe-

cially occurs between final swa and a new word beginning with a vowel: Lisa_Ed-

wards.

2.5.3. Semi vowels

Independent vowel glides in which the speech organs start by forming a weakly

articulated close or fairly close vowel and immediately move to another sound

of equal or greater prominence (Jones 1972).

They behave like consonants because they take the form an of the indefinite

article (a wish), they take the weak form of the indefinite article (the wish) and

they use the weak form of the to-infinitive (to wish).

A) Labio-velar semivowel /w/

a) Description: the starting point of this sound is the same as phoneme

/u:/.

- Lips are rounded. Back of the tongue towards the soft palate which

is raised and vocal cord vibrate.

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- Allophones: in initial position in words such as what or where. A

voiceless variety is used instead: /hw/. It occurs especially in the

North of England, Ireland and Scotland, and in some parts of Amer-

ica.

- Spelling: w in initial position and preceded by consonant (twelve).

It is silent in the cluster sw (sword), the ending (wich/wick), the

group wh (who) and also wreck or wring. It is spelt u in the group

qu (queen), in the group gu (language) and also o in (one).

B) Unrounded palatal semivowel /j/ (yot)

a) Description: the starting point of this sound is the same as phoneme

/i:/. Lips are spread, the front of the tongue towards the hard palate, the

soft palate is raised and the vocal cords vibrate. Then it glides to another

vowel position. It may be inserted before the phoneme /u:/, as it is the

case with tune, duty…. But it is not inserted before the following conso-

nants: /tᶴ/ (chew), /dᶾ/ (June), /r/ (rude) or l preceded by consonant

(blue).

b) Allophones: there is a voiceless variant specially found in words begin-

ning with hu-: human.

c) Spelling: represented by y in initial position (yes), it is often represented

by I in medial position (behaviour) and also eo (simultaneous).

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3. ENGLISH AND SPANISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

In Spanish there are 19 consonantal phonemes. When compared with English

the main features are:

a) Stops instead of plosives: no aspiration; /t/ and /d/ are dental; /p/ does

not occur in final position and /b/, /d/ and /g/ have fricative allophones.

b) There is a voiceless velar fricative /X/ that does not occur in English:

jarra, jaque…

c) Only one palatal and voiceless affricate /tᶴ/.

d) There is also a voiced palatal lateral consonant /l/ that does not exist in

English: llorar, lluvia…

e) Nasals: there is a nasal /n/ that can be alveolar, dental or velar according

to adjacent sounds: enredo, contigo… and there is a voiced palatal con-

sonant /ᶮ/ which does not exist in English.

f) There are two allophones for the alveolar frictionless continuant r:

- A voiced alveolar vibrating consonant roll /r/: claro…

- A voiced alveolar multiple vibrating consonant (trill) /R/: rosa…

There are 24 consonants in English. When comparing with Spanish:

a) Plosives: they may be aspirated or unaspirated; plosives /t/ and /d/ are

alveolar and glottal stops have allophones such as cotton, mutton…

b) Some fricatives do not exist in Spanish:

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- A voiced labio-dental /v/: vase, very…

- A voiced dental /δ/: the, that…

- A voiced blade-alveolar /z/: those, does…

- A voiceless palate-alveolar /ᶴ/: she, ship…

- A breathed glottal /h/: ham, history…

- Also a voiced post-alveolar / inverted r/ which is not vibrating in

English: hero, harmony…

c) Affricates:

- A voiced palate-alveolar affricate /dᶾ/ which does not exist in Span-

ish: jam…

- A voiceless blade-alveolar affricate /ts/ occurs in some foreign words:

tsetse.

- A voiceless and a voiced post-alveolar /tr/ and /dr/ that can be

closed as affricate.

d) Two laterals variants: clear /l/ and dark /l/ which are not differentiated

in Spanish.

e) Nasals:

- Voiced alveolar nasal consonant /n/.

- Voiced velar nasal consonant /ᶮ/which does not exist in Spanish.

f) Semi-vowels do not exist in Spanish:

- Labio-velar /w/.

- Unrounded palatal /j/.

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CONCLUSIONES

As seen English phonological systems differs pretty much from the Spanish

one so that make it accessible to our learners is the main issue. For that purpose,

we should offer opportunities and exposure to the English language whereby

receiving input and producing output. We have to design contextualize activities

and tasks which permit out students to become as closer as native-speakers

are. We should encourage our student to speak since the lowest level and

courses so that fear vanishes and avoid English language acquisition and pro-

duction.

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