Meeting 3

Consonant
10 March 2018
Do you still remember?

•
 Thinking about sounds
• Say ‘mmmm’ – where is the ‘m’ sound produced?
It’s a bilabial consonant (this is the place of
articulation)
• Pinch your nose – what happens?
It stops: it’s a nasal (not an oral) consonant
• Put your fingers in your ears – what do you hear?
The vibrations of the vocal cords: it’s a voiced
consonant
consonant

Three classifications of consonantal

sounds:
1.Voice
2.Place of articulation
3.Manner of articulation
1. voicing

• Voice = require the use of the vocal cords to produce their

signature sounds
• Voiceless = do not require the use of the vocal cords to
produce their signature sounds
• An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced
or not is to place a finger on your throat. As you
pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal cords.
If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one.
Examples

• Traveled
• gloves
• shells
• started
• changed
• wheels
• lived
Examples of voice

• dreams
• exchanged
• globes
• phones
• listened
• organized
Examples of voiceless

• washed
• coats
• watched
• books
• seats
• dropped
• carts
Exercises:
similar or different?
• word-initial word-final
1. bear/pear 1. tap/tab
2. ban/ban 2. cap/cab
3. park/bark 3. lab/lap
4. pen/pen 4. crab/crab
5. big/pig 5. slap/slap
 2. places of articulation:
bilabial consonants

lips

p pie b buy m mute w wood

 Labiodental consonants

upper teeth

lower lip

f fine v vine
 Dental consonants

upper teeth

tip of tongue

θ thin ð this
 Alveolar consonants

alveolar ridge

tip/blade of tongue

t tie d die s Sue z zoo

n night l light
Post-alveolar / palato-alveolar
consonants

ʃ shoe, pressure Ʒ pleasure

ʧ cheap ʤ jeep r
rack
Palatal consonants

j yes
 Velar consonants
velum

back of tongue

k curl g girl ŋ rang

 3. manners of articulation:
plosives (think explosion) or stops

Bilabial: p b Alveolar: t d Velar: k g

 Fricatives (think friction)

Palato-alveolar or
Labiodental: f v Alveolar: s z
post-alveolar: ʃ Ʒ
Oral Nasal

(Velum is lowered, allowing air

to enter the nasal cavity)
Nasals

Bilabial: m Alveolar: n Velar: ŋ

 Summary of manners of articulation
• Plosive / Stop pbtdkg
• Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
• Affricate (stop + fricative) ʧ ʤ
• Nasal m n ŋ
• Approximants w r j (central) l (lateral)
 Classifying consonants

• Voiced or voiceless
• Place of articulation
• (Central or lateral)
• (Oral or nasal)
• Manner of articulation
Example 1 : s (sing):
- A voiceless, alveolar, (central), (oral) fricative
- A voiceless, alveolar plosive/stop = ?
/t/ What is /k/?
- A voiceless, velar plosive/stop
The International Phonetic Alphabet: the English consonants

Full IPA with audio illustrations:

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm
And finally…an x-ray (not x-rated) movie:

http://www.practicalphonetics.com/seeing%20through%20speech
.htm

Review activities

• Complete the “Classifying Consonants” chart

• Labels practice:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/phonflashrp.htm

• Symbols practice:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/findrp.htm