Instituto Superior “Josefina Contte”

Carreras: Profesorado en Inglés - Tecnicatura Superior en Traducción en Inglés

Unidad Curricular: Fonética y Fonología I

Curso y División: 1° Turno: Mañana - Tarde

Profesora: Lic. Mariana Sottile

The following theoretical framework is built from extracts from:

Kelly, G. (2000). Chapter 4. “Consonants”. How to teach pronunciation. Essex: Pearson

Education Limited.

Underhill, A. (2005). Part 1: “Sounds in Isolation”. Sound Foundations. Learning and

Teaching Pronunciation. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Publishers.

Consonants

Manner of articulation

As we have previously stated, consonants are formed by interrupting, restricting or diverting

the airflow in a variety of ways.

The manner of articulation refers to the interaction between the various articulators and the
airstream; i.e. how the characteristic component sounds of a consonant are initiated.

In English there are six different manners of articulation:

- Plosive
- Affricate
- Fricative
- Nasal
- Lateral
- Approximant

Discovery activity – The plosive consonants

1. Take each of the consonants in the first row, and choose a vowel to follow it.
 You could use these words:

pie /p/ by /b/

too /t/ do /d/

cheer /tʃ/ jeer /dʒ/

course /k/ gorse /g/

Say each one aloud slowly, and try to notice the first audible signal of each of the
consonants. What are you doing in your mouth at that point? What internal movement
coincides with the very beginning of the consonant sound? Try this several times until
you can focus on the precise point. You need to ignore the following vowel, perhaps
even omit it, in order to focus on the consonant.

2. Do the same again but this time whisper and notice two things: what happens in your
mouth immediately prior to the onset of the consonant, and what happens
immediately at the onset of the audible consonant?

Commentary

You probably notice that there is a build-up of air just before the sound starts, and that there is
a sort of pop as the air is released and the consonant sound too is released. Sounds made by
such a build-up and release, like a mini-explosion, are called plosives. For plosives, the air
stream is completely blocked by the tongue or lips, held momentarily, then the pressure is
released explosively.

All of the eight consonants you tried in the first row are produced in this way, with a slight
variation on the fifth and sixth sounds /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. These two sounds also begin with a build-
up of pressure, but the release stage is a little slower, producing a more fricative noise. Hence
these two sounds are termed affricates. Try the next activity to clarify this difference.

Discovery activity – Contrasting plosive and affricate consonants

On the left are words beginning with plosive sounds and on the right words beginning with the
two affricate sounds.

tease cheese

pin chin

boy joy

dump jump

1. Say each of the pairs aloud and slowly, savouring the first sound of each word. Notice
the build-up of air pressure before the sound is released, which is the same for both
plosives and affricates, and also the release itself. Immediately after the release,
however, the plosive sound is finished, while the affricate sound still has a short
audible friction to follow.
2. Try whispering the pairs. What other contrast can you notice?
 3. Try miming the words. If you exaggerate slightly, is there a purely visual difference?

Commentary

You can see from the phonemic symbols of the affricates that they are composed of two
consonants merged together, /tʃ/ = /t/ + /ʃ/ and /dʒ/ = /d/ + /ʒ/. However, these are not glides
between two sounds, but mergers of two sounds so that they happen almost at the same time.
In each case the first symbol represents the plosive part and the second the fricative part.

Place of articulation

The place in the vocal tract where the physical restriction or block to the airflow takes place is
referred to as place of articulation, i.e. where the characteristic component sounds of that
consonant are initiated.

In the previous discovery activities we found how the consonants in the first row are produced.
The next question is where exactly in the mouth the build-up and release of air occurs.

In English there are eight different places of articulation:

- Bilabial
- Labiodental
- Dental
- Alveolar
- Palato (or post) alveolar
- Palatal
- Velar
- Glottal

Places of articulation
Going back to the first row of consonants, although there are eight phonemes in this row,
there are only four places in the mouth where the air block is made. These four places give
four different and characteristic sound qualities, and the voiced/unvoiced contrast in each
place gives a total of eight sounds. The next activity will help you to experience this.

Discovery activity – Where the plosives and affricates are produced

1. /p/ and /b/. Say the words pie and by. Where in your mouth do you block and release
the air flow? You’ll find that your two lips come together to block the air stream, hence
the technical term bilabial (bi + labial = two + lips) to describe this place of articulation.

If we include manner of articulation, then the pair are called bilabial plosives, and to
distinguish between them we have to use the full description:

Unvoiced fortis bilabial plosive = /p/

Voiced lenis bilabial plosive = /b/

Both /p/ and /b/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“pin” /pɪn/, “happen” /ˈhæpən/, “stop” /stɒp/

“bin” /bɪn/, “cabbage” /ˈkæbɪdʒ/ “lab” /læb/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- total closure is made using both lips;
- air pressure increases behind the
closure;
- the lips come apart suddenly;
- the airflow is released causing
audible plosion;
- /p/ is unvoiced and fortis;
- /b/ is voiced and lenis.
Bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/

2. /t/ and /d/. Say the words too and do. Where in your mouth do you block and release
the air flow? Contrast this place with /p/ and /b/ as in pie and by. Notice that /t/
and /d/ are formed a little further back, when the front part of your tongue (the “tip”
 and “blade”) makes contact with the bony ridge immediately behind your upper front
teeth.

At this point the block to the air stream is both made and released. The technical term
to describe this place of articulation is alveolar (alveolum being the Latin name for this
ridge). If we include manner of articulation then this pair are called alveolar plosives,
and to distinguish between them we should use the full description:

Unvoiced fortis alveolar plosive = /t/

Voiced lenis alveolar plosive = /d/

Both /t/ and /d/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“team” /ti:m/, “actor” /ˈæktə/, “cat” /kæt/

“dear” /dɪə/ “harder” /ˈhɑːdə/, “and” /ænd/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- total closure is made by the tongue
tip and blade against the alveolar
ridge;
- air pressure increases behind the
closure;
- the tip and blade of the tongue
come apart from the alveolar ridge
suddenly;
- the airflow is released causing
audible plosion;
Alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- /t/ is unvoiced and fortis;
- /d/ is voiced and lenis.

3. /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. Say the words cheer and jeer. Where in your mouth do you block and
release the air flow? Contrast this position with the position for /p/ and /b/ and /t/ and
/d/. Notice that /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are formed a little further back, when the blade of your
tongue makes contact with the junction between the alveolar ridge and the hard
palate, and the body of the tongue is slightly raised towards the hard palate.

The technical term for this place of articulation is palato-alveolar. If we include the
manner of articulation then this pair are called palato-alveolar affricates, and to
distinguish between them we need to use the full description:
 Unvoiced fortis palato-alveolar affricate = /tʃ/

Voiced lenis palato-alveolar affricate = /dʒ/

Both /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“chain” /tʃeɪn/, “catching” /ˈkætʃɪŋ/, “much” /mʌtʃ/

“Jane” /dʒeɪn/, “larger” /ˈlɑːdʒə/, “page” /peɪdʒ/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- total closure is made by the tongue
tip, blade and rims against the back
part of the alveolar ridge;
- air pressure increases behind the
closure;
- the tip, blade and rims of the tongue
come apart from the back part of
the alveolar ridge slowly;
- the airflow is released causing
audible friction;
Palato-alveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/
- / tʃ/ is unvoiced and fortis;
- /dʒ/ is voiced and lenis.

4. /k/ and /g/. Say the words course and gorse. Where exactly do you block and release
the air flow? Contrast this position with the position for /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, and
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/. Notice that /k/ and /g/ are formed still further back. The air stream is
blocked when the back of your tongue is in contact with the soft palate.

The technical term for this place of articulation is velar (velum = veil; i.e. the soft tissue
hanging at the back of the palate, also called soft palate). So we can call this pair velar
plosives, and we can distinguish between them by including voice and force of
articulation:

Unvoiced fortis velar plosive = /k/

Voiced lenis velar plosive = /g/

Both can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“cup” /kʌp/, “became” /biˈkeɪm/, “back” /bæk/

“go” /gəʊ/, “ago” /əˈgəʊ/, “tag” /tæg/

 Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- total closure is made by the back of
the tongue against the soft palate;
- air pressure increases behind the
closure;
- the back of the tongue comes apart
from the soft palate suddenly;
- the airflow is released causing
audible plosion;
- /k/ is unvoiced and fortis;
Velar plosives /k/ and /g/ - /g/ is voiced and lenis.