English Consonants Sound

Tài liệu khái quát một cách chi tiết về CONSONANTS ( hay còn gọi là phụ âm ) về định nghĩa, cách phát âm, phân loại các phụ âm, ví dụ chi tiết từng âm riêng lẻ. Có hình ảnh minh họa để người xem hiểu được cách phát âm của mỗi âm tiết được cụ thể như thế nào.

English Consonant Sounds

A Consonant Sounds

We can define speech sounds in two ways.The phonetic definitionclassifies speech sounds by

the way we produce them.The phonological definitionconsiders their distribution, i.e in what positions in a word they can occur, and their context next to what other sounds they occur

Phonetic characteristics Phonological characteristics Consonants ▪ Made with or without vocal fold

vibration

▪ Some obstruction or narrowing in the vocal tract

▪ Occur at the edge of a syllable

B Consonant Classification

Consonants are classified according to their manner and place of articulation and voicing

approximant or

Figure 13:Table of English consonants

4

1 Manner and place of articulation

a) Place of articulation: Which articulators are used? English consonants have the

following possible places of articulation:

Bilabial: The lips are brought together: /p, b, m, w/

Labio-dental: The lower lip touches the upper teeth: /f, v/

Dental: The tongue tip is put between the teeth or close to the upper teeth: /θ, ð/ Alveolar: The blade of the tongue touches (or is close to) the alveolar ridge: /t, d, s,

z, n, l/

Post-alveolar: The tongue tip is close to an area just behind the alveolar ridge: /r/

Palato-alveolar:

The blade of the tongue (and sometimes the tip) is close to the alveolar ridge, and at the same time the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate: /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/

Palatal: The front of the tongue is raised close to the hard palate: /j/

Velar: The back of the tongue is raised against the velum: /k, g, ŋ/

Glottal: The space between the vocal folds is used to make audible friction /h/or

a closure – glottal plosive [ʔ]

Figure 14:Places of articulation for English consonants b) Manner of articulation:how much do the articulator obstruct the airflow? How the air

leaves the vocal tract? The movement of the articulators

▪ Total closure: the air is completely stopped at the place of articulation

Plosive: a complete closure is made at some place in the vocal tract; air

pressure builds up behind this closure and the air is released suddenly and explosively: /p, t, k, b, d, g/

Nasal: a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; the velum is

lowered so that the air escapes through the nose4: /m, n, ŋ/

Affricate: a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; air pressure

builds up behind the closure, which is then released relatively slowly: /tʃ, dʒ/

▪ Partial closure

Fricative: two vocal organs come so close together that the movement of air

between them can be heard (i.e there is audible friction): /s, z, ʃ,

ʒ, f, v, θ, ð, h) Lateral: a partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against the

alveolar ridge, in such a way that the air is able to flow around the sides of the tongue: /l/

Approximant: one articulator approaches another but the degree of narrowing

is not enough to produce audible fiction: /w, j, r/

2 Voicing

Depending on the state of the vocal folds, we can classify consonants into two large classes: voiced and voiceless5 Voiced consonants are made with vocal fold vibration, voiceless consonants are made an open glottis This distinction is not always clear-cut though, because some voiced consonants can be devoiced (lose all or part of their voice) in certain contexts Generally, voiced plosives and fricatives are devoiced in initial and final position

C The Plosive Consonants

4 for all other consonants, the velum is raised

5 Fortis and lenis are sometimes used to mean ‘voiceless’ and ‘voiced’ Some phoneticians think that the real difference between for example /p/ and /b/ is not voicing Instead they propose to call voiceless consonants Fortis consonants and voiced ones lenis consonants because they think voiceless consonants are pronounced with greater articulatory force than the lenis ones One of the main reasons for this proposal is that the so-called voiced consonants are often not (fully) voiced, depending on the context they occur in.

Figure 15:Places of articulation for plosives From left to right: bilabial, alveolar, velar

A plosive consonant is made with the velum raised so that the airstream goes through the mouth The air passage through the mouth is completely obstructed at one point and the air is stopped This closure is then suddenly released and the air escapes with an explosive sound There are four phases in the production of plosives:

▪ Closure phase:the articulator or articulators move to form a complete closure

▪ Hold phase: the air is stopped from escaping (it is help behind the closure) and air

pressure builds up behind the closure

▪ Release phase: the articulators used to form the obstruction are moved apart The

compressed air escapes suddenly and with a burst of noise called plosion

▪ Post-release phase: this is what happened immediately after the release phase.

Aspiration happens at this phase

Some features that distinguishvoicedfrom voiceless plosives are:

▪ Voiced plosives are articulated withvocal fold vibrationand voiceless ones are not

▪ Voiced plosives arenever aspirated

▪ Voiced plosives donot shorten the preceding vowel

▪ Voiced plosives are made withless articulatory force: The plosion is stronger for voiceless plosives than for voiced ones

In reality, however, voiced plosives (and other voiced consonants) are often devoiced: in many contexts, voiced plosives lose all or part of their voice (symbolize by a dotounder the devoiced consonant)6 Consequently, the feature of voice often cannot be used to distinguish /p, t, k/ from /b, d, g/ The last three differences, then, help us to recognize /b, d, g/ even if they are devoiced, because devoiced plosives retain those three features

6 Voiced consonants are more likely to retain their voice if they stand between two voiced sounds (e.g angry, ever)

The Articulation of Plosive Consonants

Pronunciation Note

After /p, t, k/ but never after /b, d, g/ there is sometimes a very brief instant during which air escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound like [h] this is call aspiration Put more accurately, there is a delay between the release of the closure for the plosive the beginning of the sound that follows During that delay, a brief [h] sound is made For instance, in the word ‘pan’, the voicing for does not begin immediately after the lips separate for the /p/, and you hear a brief [h] sound This is one of the clues for recognizing the sound /p/ rather than /b/ The symbol for aspiration is a small raisedh

Voiceless plosives can be followed by a vowel or by the consonants /r/, /l/, /w/, or /j/ If a consonant comes between the voiceless plosive and the vowel, the aspiration takes the form of devoicing the following consonant

Generally speaking, English /p, t, k/ are:

▪ aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable(e.g pin, tail, come, appeal, retain, occur, play, crew, pure)

▪ unaspiratedwhen:

- they follow /s/ at the beginning of a syllable (e.g spin, stack, skill, scream)

- they are followed by a fricative (e.g sets, depth)

- they are followed by another plosive (e.g laptop, doctor)

▪ unaspirated or slightly aspirated elsewhere (e.g ripe, happy, resting, today, better, aching) Vowel shortening

In English,a vowel is shortened when it is followed by a voiceless consonantwhich belongs to the same syllable As a result, the vowels before /p, t, k/ are shorter than those before /b, d, g/ Thus, the short vowel in ‘crap’ is shorter than in ‘crab’; the diphthong is shorter in ‘fate’ than in

‘fade’ and the long vowel in ‘leak’ is shorter than in ‘league’ To indicate vowel shortening of long vowels we add only one raised dot instead of two ([miˑt]); for short vowels and diphthongs we use the symbolv([stěp], [feɪ̌t])

▪ Shorteningonly happens when the voiceless consonant isin the same syllable

▪ Shortening is most noticeablewith long vowels and diphthongs when they are stressed, but it also happens with short vowels andin unstressed syllables

▪ Shortening does not change vowel quality Shortened /i:/ in ‘teach’ is not the same as /ɪ/

in for example ‘rich’

▪ Nasal(/m/, /n/, /ŋ/) or /l/ before the voiceless consonantare alsoshortened (e.g bump [bʌ̌m̌p], tent [těňt], bank [bæ̌ŋ̌k], belt [bě t])

Shortening No shortening

feet [fiˑt]

loose [luˑs]

rate [reɪ̌t]

seeking [ˈsiˑkɪŋ]

paper [ˈpeɪ̌pə]

total [ˈtəʊ̌tl]

plating [ˈpleɪ̌tɪŋ]

feed [fiːd]

lose [lu:z]

raid [reɪd]

intriguing [ɪnˈtriːgɪŋ]

labor [ˈleɪbə]

modal [ˈməʊdl̩]

playtime [ˈpleɪtaɪm]

Plosion

At the end of words, /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ are usuallynot (audibly) released This means that no audible burst of noise follows these plosives As a result, they cannot be easily heard However, it

is important to realize that the articulators do move to make the complete obstruction and the air is held behind it, but it is not (audibly) released For example, if you say ‘crap’, which ends in

a bilabial consonant, your lips should be closed for /p/ this can be the end of your articulation or there can be a release phase when you move your lips apart again

D The Fricative Consonants

labiodental dental alveolar Palato-alveolar glottal

h

Figure 16:Places of articulation for some fricatives

From left to right: labiodental, dental, palato-alveolar

The velum is raised so that the air escapes through the oral cavity At some point in the oral cavity the air passage is narrowed so that air passing there produces audible friction

Figure 17:Articulation of the alveolar fricative /s/

The voiced fricatives are normally devoiced in initial and final positions but may be voiced when they occur between two voiced sounds

Voiceless fricatives in final position have a shortening effect on the preceding vowel Compare, for example, ice – eyes; leaf – leave

/f/ and /v/

e.g fan – van, safer – saver, half – have

▪ The lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth

▪ The fricative noise is never strong and is barely audible for /v/

/θ/ and /ð/

e.g thumb, thus, ether, father, breath, breathe The tongue tip touches the inside of the lower teeth and the blade touches the inside of the upper teeth The air escapes through the gaps between tongue and teeth The fricative noise for these two consonants is weak

/s/ and /z/

e.g sip – zip, facing – phasing, rice – rise The air escapes through a narrow passage along the center of the tongue, and the sound that is produced is comparatively loud

The Articulation of Fricative Consonants

Pronunciation Note

/ʃ/ and /ʒ/

e.g ship, genre, Russia, measure, Irish, garage) The place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar The three main articulation differences between /s, z/ on the one hand, and /ʃ, ʒ/ on the other are:

▪ For /ʃ, ʒ/, the tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than that for /s, z/

▪ For /ʃ, ʒ/, the air escapes through a passage that is a bit wider than for /s, z/

▪ /ʃ, ʒ/ are pronounced with rounded lips whereas /s, z/ are not This is

an important difference

/h/

e.g head, ahead, playhouse The narrowing that produces the friction noise happens between the vocal folds /h/ is neither classified as voiceless nor as voiced and the exact quality

of /h/ depends very much on the following vowel This is because the tongue, jaw and lip positions for the next vowel are all produced at the same time as your articulate /h/ If, for instance, the following vowel is /æ/ as in hat, the /h/ has an /æ/ quality Phonetically, /h/ is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the vowel that follows it; while phonologically, /h/ is a consonant because you find it before vowels

E The Affricative Consonants

/tʃ, dʒ/:voiceless / voiced palate – alveolar affricates (e.g church – judge, cheap, jeep)

▪ These consonants are made by a complete closure (as for plosives) followed immediately

by a slow release of the closure (whereas the air is suddenly and quickly released for single plosives)

▪ The plosives in affricates have a place of articulation further back than for /t, d/ on their own

▪ Both affricates often have lip-rounding

▪ /tʃ/ is slightly aspirated in the positions where /p, t, k/ are

▪ Voiceless affricates shorten preceding vowels

F The Nasal Consonants

The mouth is completely closed at some point, but the velum is lowered so that the air escapes through the nose

▪ /n/ the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge

▪ /m/ is pronounced with both lips pressed against each other

▪ /ŋ/ the back of the tongue is in contact with the velum

Figure 18:Voiced bilabial nasal /m/; voiced alveolar nasal /n/; voiced velar nasal /ŋ/

morpheme7

Exception: <ng> is comparative and superlative forms of adjectives is /ŋg/ although it occurs at the end of a morpheme E.g younger /ˈjʌŋgə/, longest /ˈlɒŋgɪst/

7 Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of words In singer there are 2 morphemes: sing (which stands for an action) and -er (which has a grammatical meaning showing that the word is a noun coming from the verb sing)

Distribution of /ŋ/

morpheme -<ng>- morpheme

singer (= sing + -er) /ˈsɪŋə/

hanger (= hang + -er) /ˈhæŋə/

longish (= long + -ish) /ˈlɒŋɪʃ/

<ng> =/ŋ/ <ng> =/ŋg/

zero morpheme -<ng>- morpheme

finger /ˈfɪŋgə/

anger /ˈæŋgə/

Initial position

never

Final position

<ng> is /ŋ/

sing /sɪŋ/

hang /hæŋ/

Medial position

<nk> is always/ŋk/(banker)

<ng> is sometimes/ŋg/

G The Lateral Consonant /l/

/l/ is a voiced alveolar lateral consonant /l/ is formed laterally: there is a complete closure at the center of the tongue and the alveolar ridge and the air escapes laterally, i.e along the sides of the tongue

After /p, k/ at the beginning of a stressed syllable, /l/ is devoiced (play [pl̥eɪ], clay [kl̥eɪ]

/l/ is pronounced slightly differently according to its context There are two main variants, or

‘allophones’ of /l/:

▪ Dark /l/(velarized/hard): This allophone of /l/ has a quality similar to [u] because the

back of the tongue is raised towards the velum The context of dark /l/:

- At the end of words: e.g eel, special, bottle, peel

- Before a consonant: e.g eels, bottles, called

▪ Clear /l/(palatalized/soft): This allophone of /l/ has a quality similar [i] because the front of the tongue is raised towards the front palate The context of clear /l/: before vowels: e.g lea, loiter, luck

Figure 19:Clear /l/ (left) and dark /l/ (right)

H The approximant consonants

For approximant consonants, the articulators approach each other but do not get sufficiently close to produce a plosive, fricative or nasal

Pronunciation Note

▪ The tongue tip approaches the alveolar area in approximately the same way as it does for /t, d/, but it does not touch any part of the roof of the mouth

▪ The tongue is slightly curled backwards, and the tip is raised Because of this, the tongue tip is further back than for alveolar consonants such as /t, d/ This is why /r/ is classified

as a post-alveolar consonant

▪ The lips are slightly rounded

▪ /r/ is devoiced when it stands at the beginning of a syllable and is preceded by /p, t, k/: press [pr̥es], stress [tr̥es], cress [kr̥es]

Figure 20: Articulation of /r/

With regard to the distribution of /r/ in words, we distinguish two main accents: rhotic accents and non-rhotic accents

▪ Inrhotic accents, like General American (Gen Am), /r/ is pronounced in all contexts If it

is there in spelling, it is pronounced Thus:

red /red/

arrive /əˈraɪv/

hearing /ˈhɪərɪŋ/

car /kɑːr/

ever /ˈevər/

here /hɪər/

hard /hɑːrd/ verse /vɜːrs/ cares /keərz/

▪ Innon-rhotic accents, like Received Pronunciation (RP), /r/ is only pronounced before vowels Thus:

red /red/

arrive /əˈraɪv/

hearing /ˈhɪərɪŋ/

car /kɑː/

ever /ˈevə/

here /hɪə/

hard /hɑːd/

verse /vɜːs/

cares /keəz/

The articulation of /r/

The distribution of /r/