Lesson 3 – Classification of consonant sounds

The sounds of language can be grouped into classes, based on the phonetic properties that they share. The basic division of sounds is into two major classes: vowel sounds and consonant sounds. There is a third group of sounds that is called glides. Glides share properties of both vowels and consonants ( for example, /w/ and /y/).

A consonant is defined as a speech sound which is articulated with some kind of closure of the air stream. Consonants are classified according to the following characteristics:

    

Voicing:

This characteristic refers to the vibration or absence of vibration of the vocal cords when air passes between them. Sounds can be produced with or without these vibrations.

Ø Voiced sounds: Sounds produced with the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx. For example /z/, /g/, /d/, and any vowel sound.

Ø Voiceless sounds: Sounds produced without any vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx. For example /t/, /k/, /s/.

Place of articulation:

It refers to where the constriction occurs and what articulators are involved.

Ø Bilabial: The two lips are together, the tongue is not involved but remains in the rest position. For example, /b/, /p/.

Ø Labiodental: The lower lip is against the upper front teeth. The tongue is in rest position. For example, /f/ and /v/.

Ø Interdental: The tip of the tongue is positioned between the teeth or touches the back of the upper teeth. For example /q/ as in thanks.

Ø Dental: The tip of the tongue touches the back of the upper teeth. For example /d/ in Spanish as in día.

Ø Alveolar: The tip of the tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge. For example, the sound of /d/ in English.

Ø Palatal: The front of the tongue is positioned against the hard palate. For example, /∫/ as in shoe.

Ø Velar: The back of the tongue touches the velum. For example, the sound /g/ in English.

Ø Uvular: The back of the tongue touches the uvula. This sound does not occur in English.

Manners of articulation:

There are different manners of articulation that combine with the places of articulation just mentioned before to produce consonant sounds. These manners of articulation are:

Ø Stop: It occurs with a complete or momentary closure of the airflow through the oral cavity. For example, /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, etc.

Ø Nasal (nasal stop): It involves a complete closure of two articulators with the velum lowered. For example: the sound /n/ in English.

Ø Fricative: The air flow is partially obstructed at a certain point in the mouth and then, it is released producing a hissing sound. For example: the sound /s/ in English.

Ø Affricate: It consists of a stop that is released slowly producing a fricative sound at the end. For example, the sound of  /t∫ / in English (chair).

Ø Liquids: Liquids are continuant sounds. The vocal tract obstruction formed when producing liquids is not as great as it is for fricatives. The two liquid sounds that exist in any language are /l/ and /r/. There are three varieties of liquid sounds:

·         Laterals: Varieties of  /l/ are called laterals. As laterals are articulated, air escapes through the mouth along the lowered sides of the tongue. When the tongue tip is raised to the dental or alveolar position, the dental or alveolar laterals are produced. Laterals are generally voiced.

·         Retroflex r: There are many varieties of /r/ sounds in the world but the /r/ of English spoken in the United States and Canada is known as retroflex. It is produced by curling the tongue tip back into the mouth. For example, car and ride.

·         Flap r: The flap is produced when the tongue tip strikes the alveolar ridge as it passes across it. It is heard in the North American English pronunciation of bitter and butter. It is generally voiced.

·         Trill r: It is produced with a rapid vibration of the active articulator against the passive articulator. This sound is not common in English.

Ø Glides: These sounds are also known as semi-vowels because they are produced with almost no obstruction of the air flow in the mouth but they act as consonants to begin or end syllables. They are always voiced. For example, /w/ and /y/ in English.

Lesson 5 – Learning activity

F In pairs, make a list of 25 words and underline their consonant sounds. Then, indicate the place and manner of articulation of each consonant underlined.

F  Individually, investigate consonant sounds from other languages that are not present in English.

Lesson 2 – The Production of Speech Sounds

    

Articulators Above the Larynx

All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators, and the study of them is called articulatory phonetics.

 These are the articulators:

a)    The larynx is the sound source since the vocal cords are located there. The larynx is not an articulator but the vocal cords, that are found there, are very important organs for speech production.

b)    The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you look in your mirror with your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.

c)    The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth. Yours is probably in that position now, but often in speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. The other important thing about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds / K / and /g/ the tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum, and we call these velar consonants.

d)    The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth". You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.

e)    The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher than it feels, and is covered with little ridges. You can only see these if you have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth (such as those used by dentists). Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as  /t/  and  /d/) are called alveolar.

f)     The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no clear dividing lines within the tongue. Fig. 2 shows the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back and root. (This use of the word "front" often seems rather strange at first.)

g)    The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in diagrams like Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and you should remember that most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental.

h)   The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds  /p/ , /b/ ), brought into contact with the teeth (as in /f/ , /v/), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like  /uw/. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodentals.

The seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there are three other things to remember. Firstly, the larynx could also be described as an articulator - a very complex and independent one. Secondly, the jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. But the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others, because they cannot themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally, although there is practically nothing that we can do with the nose and the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our equipment for making sounds (what is sometimes called our vocal apparatus), particularly nasal consonants such as  /m/ ,/n/.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2 - ARTICULATORS

Using the link below, complete the exercises presented.

http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/PhoneticsandPhonology/ArticulatoryphoneticsQuiz

    Types of Articulators

As mentioned before, air passes from the larynx into the pharynx. After passing the pharynx, air moves into the vocal tract, which consists of the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. The oral cavity, that is the mouth, generates speech sounds with the different articulators described above.  Some articulators are active (moving) or passive (stationary). The active articulators include the following:

F The tongue that is divided into the tip, the blade, the front, the back, and the root.

F The lower lip.

The passive articulators include the following:

F The teeth: both upper and lower teeth.

F The roof of the mouth that is divided into the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the soft palate or velum, and the uvula.

F The pharynx or back of the throat, which is used by some languages (but not English) in producing speech sounds.

If air passes out of the nose exclusively, the sound is called nasal sound. However, if air passes out of both the nose and the mouth, the sound produced is nasalized. 

Learning activity 3 - Articulators

F In pairs, provide five different definitions of the term “articulatory phonetics”.

F In pairs, prepare a poster with the diagram of the articulators and the subdivision of the tongue.

F  Individually, prepare a chart to describe the different articulators and their functions.

Learning activity 4 - Articulators

Using the link below complete the exercise about articulators.

http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/PhoneticsandPhonology/Exercises