CONSONANTS
A speech sound produced with air stream impeded or obstructed is called a consonant.
Classification system for vowels:
tongue height, advancement, and lip rounding
Classification system for consonants:
place, manner, and voicing
lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, velum, …
B. Manner: How is the breath stream impeded, constricted, diverted, or obstructed? For example:
1. stop or plosive: complete obstruction of air stream
[b], [d], [g], [p], [t], [k] [/] (glottal stop, as in “uh-oh”)
2. fricative: air passed thru a narrow channel, creating turbulence.
[s], [S] (as in “shoe”), [f], [T] (as in “theory”) [h],
[z], [Z] (as in “Zsa Zsa”), [v], [D] (as in “this”).
3. nasal: air stream redirected through the nasal cavity.
[m], [n], [N] (as in “sing”)
Manner categories (continued)
4. affricate: complete obstruction of air stream followed by fricative release.
[tʃ] (as in “choke”), [dʒ] (as in “joke”)
5. approximants: consonants that are almost like vowels
[r] [l] [w] [j] (as in “yellow”)
Here breath stream is fairly unimpeded. But, these sounds “pattern” like consonants; i.e., speakers treat them like consonants not vowels.
a rat or an rat? a lake or an lake ?
a walk or an walk? a yak or an yak ?
Manner categories (continued)
Two Types of Approximants
Liquids Glides (also called semivowels)
[r] [l] [w] [j]
6. flap: Like a stop, but closure is very brief
[ɾ] (as in “kitty,” “butter,” “Betty,” “later”)
C. Voicing
Are the vocal folds vibrating?
Yes No
Voiced Unvoiced/Voiceless
English has many pairs of consonants that are identical in all other ways except for voicing. Some examples:
[b]-[p], [d]-[t], [g]-[k], [z]-[s], [ʒ]-[ʃ], [v]-[f], [ð]-[θ]
These are called voiced-voiceless cognates.
Summary of IPA Consonant Symbols
(excluding the obvious ones – b,d,g,p,t,k,l,w,r, etc.)
[θ] thin
[ð] then
[j] yellow
Aspiration
Voiced stops (in English) are never aspirated.
Voiceless stops are sometimes aspirated and sometimes not.
These voiceless stops will be aspirated:
a. Word-initial, regardless of stress:
tap, cat, Topeka (stop precedes an unstressed vowel), command (ditto)
[thæp] [khæt] [thəpʰikə] [khəmænd]
b. Intervocalic (between 2 vowels) but only when preceding a stressed vowel.
meticulous, repair, recalcitrant, return
Fricatives
Mechanism of sound production is simple: Air is passed through a narrow channel, creating turbulence. Turbulence = noise.
English fricatives:
Voiceless: [f] [θ] (“theory”) [s] [ʃ] (“shoe”) [h]
Voiced: [θ] [ð] (“this”) [z] [ʒ] (“Zsa Zsa”)
All English fricatives except (maybe) [h] form voiced-voiceless cognates:
[v]-[f] [ð]-[θ] [z]-[s] [ʒ]-[ʃ]
For each pair: Same place, same manner, different voicing.
[f]-[v]:
Place = Labiodental (lips-teeth)
Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise.
No resonator in front of the constriction; spectrum has a pretty flat shape (no well-defined resonant peaks)
[θ]-[ð]:
Place = Linguadental (tongue-teeth) or interdental (linguadental & interdental are synonyms)
Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise
[s]-[z]:
Place = alveolar
Round-ish, grooved constriction; these produce a strong noise
Short resonator in front of the constriction formed by the lips; spectrum has a strong high-frequency peak.
[h]:
Place = Glottal (whisper)
Tongue, lips & jaw don’t have anything in particular to do in the production of [h] since it is a glottal articulation.
Since the vocal tract can do whatever it pleases during [h], the tongue, lips & jaw will take the position of the following vowel.
[h], then, is simply a whispered vowel:
he [hi]: [h] = whispered [i]
who [hu]: [h] = whispered [u]
hoe [ho]: [h] = whispered [o] . .
. .
. .
Nasals
Vocal tract is closed (at the lips, alveolar ridge, or velum); velum is lowered; acoustic energy flows through the nose rather than mouth.
[m]: bilabial
[n]: alveolar
[ŋ]: velar
Spelling convention: ng = [ŋ], but there is no [g] and no [n] in sing, singer, song, hanger, stirring, bang, etc.��A [g] may follow the [ŋ], though:
strangle [streŋgəl]
Bangor [beŋg�ɔɚ]
languid [leŋgwɪd]
mangle [meŋgəl]
jungle [dʒʌŋgəl]
[k] following [ŋ] is also common:
sinker [sɪŋkɚ]
lanky [leŋki]
blank [bleŋk]
clunker [klʌŋkɚ]
Affricates
There are only 2 on these in English:
[tʃ] & [dʒ]
church [tʃɚtʃ]
judge [dʒʌdʒ]
The mechanism of sound production: (1) the vocal tract is completely occluded (with the velum up); the occlusion is released into a short fricative: [ʃ] or [ʒ]. Affricates are stops followed by short fricatives.
Approximants
Two Types of Approximants
Liquids Glides (also called semivowels)
[r] [l] [w] [j]
red [rɛd] led [lɛd] wed [wɛd] yet [jɛt]
These sounds are vowel-ish consonants, though they are definitely consonants. For [r w j] (i.e., all but [l]), there is a vowel with the same sound quality:
[r] : [ɚ] [w] : [u] [j] : [i]
[r] is the consonant version of [ɚ]
[w] is the consonant version of [u]
[j] is the consonant version of [i]
[l] is called a lateral: the tongue is on the alveolar ridge, and acoustic energy flows along the two sides (lateral margins) of the tongue. This is how [l] gets the name lateral. It’s all by itself; i.e., [l] is the only lateral consonant in English.
[r w j]: these are produced in the same way as [ɚ u i]
[r]: retroflex or bunched, somewhat rounded (like [ɚ])
[w]: high, back, rounded (like [u])
[j]: high, front, retracted lips (like [i])
[r] = alveolar (sometimes palatal); [w] = bilabial and velar; [j] = palatal