Phonetic peculiarities of Consonants

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The Articulatory Classification of English Consonants

The Acoustic Classification of English Consonants

General Principles of Consonant Formation

Consonant Phonemes and its
Articulatory Correlates

Dichotomic Classification of the Acoustic Distinctive Features of English

Allophonic Variations of English
Consonant Phonemes

The old term, “consonants” precludes the idea that consonants cannot be pronounced without vowels

Acoustically, vowels are musical sounds

This is correct in most cases, but some consonants, especially sonorants, are very sonorous
(for example, l,/m/n/ŋ ).

relative sonority or carrying power of the various sounds.

The muscular tension is spread over all the speech organs

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Vowels are based on voice which is modified in the supralaryngeal cavities

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All other sounds (in normal speech) are called consonants

I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay has discovered a physiological distinction between vowels and consonants :

according to his theory the main principle of their articulation is different: in consonant articulation the muscular tension is concentrated at one point which is the place of articulation in vowel articulation the muscular tension is spread over all the speech organs

the shape and size of the chamber can be made to vary, depending upon the different positions that the tongue occupies in the mouth cavity

depending on any slight alterations in the position of the back wall of the pharynx, the position of the soft palate and of the lips which form the outlet of the resonance chamber

The lips may be neutral or rounded, protruded or not protruded, forming a small or a large aperture, or they may be spread, forming a narrow slit-like opening

When the lips are protruded, the resonance chamber is lengthened; when the lips are spread or neutral, the resonance chamber is shortened, its front boundary being formed practically by the teeth

If the muscular tension is stronger, the vowel has a well defined quality

The degree of tenseness may be ascertained chiefly by comparison, while the result of comparison depends largely upon the articulation basis of the mother-tongue of the person who makes the comparison. To a Russian, for instance, all vowels seem tense, because Russian vowels are lax.

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The air-stream passes through the supra-laryngeal cavities freely, no narrowings being expressly formed on its way

The breath force is rather weak for, it is
expended when the air stream passes through the larynx
and causes the vocal cords to vibrate

The noise produced by the removal of a closure is that of a plosion, the noise resulting from the movement of the air stream in the narrowing is that of friction

There are the following types of obstruction in the production of consonant: 1) complete occlusion (closure), 2) constriction (narrowing) and 3) occlusion-constriction (closure immediately followed by a constriction)

Obstructions may be formed either by two active speech organs or by one active speech organ (articulator) and a passive organ of speech (point or place of articulation)

According to the place of obstruction consonants are classified into dental , alveolar /t, d, n, l, s, z/, post-alveolar /r/, palatal /j/, palate-alveolar , ʒ, t, ʤ/, velar /ŋ/.

According to the presence or absence of voice, English consonants are divided into voiced /b, d, g, v, z, ð, ʒ, ʤ/ and voiceless /p, t, k, f, s, t/

According to the force of articulation, English consonants are classified as lenis and fortis.

According to the position of the soft palate English consonants are divided into oral /p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, , ʒ, h, t, ʤ, w, l, r, j/ and nasal /m, n, ŋ /.

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Voiceless consonants (fortis) are characterized acoustically as tense and voiced (lenis) as lax, since the burst of noise in voiced plosives and the formant of noise in voiced fricatives are less strong than those in voiceless plosives and fricatives

This means that in the spectra of /t, d, s, z, n, l, , ð/ high frequencies are predominant and in the spectra of /p, b, m, f, v / the formant of noise is lower.

The fricatives (alveolar and dental) /s, z, , ð/ have the highest frequencies of noise in the spectrum-up to 8000 cps

The consonants /s, z/ having a round narrowing are opposed to /, ð/ having a flat narrowing and the affricates /t, ʤ/ are opposed to the plosives /t, d/ as strident to mellow

The first attempt to classify speech sounds on the basis of their acoustic distinctions was made by a group of phoneticians and linguists Jacobson, Fant and Halle, in their work “Preliminaries to Speech Analysis”

For the English language, according to the authors, 9 binary oppositions are sufficient: 1) vocalic –non-vocalic; 2) consonantal – non-consonantal; 3) compact – diffuse; 4) grave –
acute; 5) flat – plain;6) nasal – oral; 7) tense – tax; 8) discontinuous – continuant; 9) strident – mellow.

Vowels are vocalic and non-consonantal; consonants are consonantal and non-vocalic. The sonants /l, r/ are vocalic and consonantal /w, j/ are non-vocalic and non-consonantal

The traditional vowel /consonant opposition is divided
into two oppositions to define the sounds /r, l, w, j/.

The theory of distinctive features, which was suggested by Jakobson-Fant-Halle, is known as the acoustic classification. In fact, this theory represents the act of communication and shows the steps involved in inducing the hearer to select the same phonological element the speaker has selected

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Speaker Phonological element

Hearer Phonological element

Acoustic feature

Articulation

Perception

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This theory is based on the results of the spectrographic (acoustic) and X-ray (articulatory) investigation. Each feature is described in articulatory and acoustic levels (including perception)

The acoustic representation of a distinctive feature corresponds to more than one articulatory feature

In such cases as distinguishing the dental /n/ as in tenth /ten/ from the alveolar /n/ no acoustic or perceptual feature can be used

The dichotomic (or binary-meaning to choose two elements or a pair of elements in logic sense) theory has many other shortcomings. Each of the distinctive features involves a choice between two terms of opposition. The mark (+) means “yes”, (-) - “no”, (0) - both distinctive features are possible.

According to this theory 12-15 distinctive features are possible both for vowels and consonants in all languages. The starting point of this classification shows that two binary features define four major classes of segments (minimal segments of sound, which can be distinguished by their contrast within words are called phonemes).

It is useful to use the binary classification of the acoustic distinctive features after instrumental investigations, as the latter is helpful in making a correct classification

The articulatory correlates of the twelve pairs of acoustic features may correspond to more than twenty features, thanks to the division of the consonant classes. This correlation has its own difficulties which require experimental investigation as well. The articulatory classification is more useful in language teaching practice than the acoustic one.

G.P. Torsuyev distinguishes two types of variations of the English phonemes: a) diaphonic variation which does not depend on the position, i.e. the consonant quality and quantity of the phonemes; b) allophonic variation which depends on the position and changes its quality and quantity. He also gives a complete description of these variations is English.

The allophonic variations of the English and Uzbek consonant phonemes depend on their distribution in words, syllables and junctures and also on the phonotactic rules (combinations of sounds or sound sequences). The allophones of a phoneme may be established on the basis of the complementary distribution.

The pronunciation of the allophones may vary in different positions i.e. in initial, medial, final positions of words, syllables and also in neighbourhood positions, in stressed and unstressed positions

The way three phases of articulation act to combine the sounds in the structure of words and syllables is also essential

The phonemes /t, d, n, l/ have post alveolar allophones before /r/: true, drink, country, hungry, children, etc. The lateral sonant /r/ has rather striking allophones and regional diaphones, when /r/ follows / / or /ð/ it has an alveolar allophone, for example – through, the right hand.

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