Unit 7- Lesson 1:

Consonant Sounds

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Place - Manner - Voicing

How can we define English consonant sounds?

When you produce a sound by completely or partially blocking the flow of air through the vocal tract, you produce a consonant. For example, if you block and then release air through pressing your lips together, you will produce the sound /p/. If you block the back of your mouth by raising your tongue, you will produce /k/.
Here's the list with examples. There are 21 consonant letters in English but 24 basic consonant sounds (excluding any allophones):

Source: https://www.eltconcourse.com/training/inservice/pronunciation/consonants.html#consonant1

How consonant sounds sound

Only 7 of the 24 sounds need a special symbol to represent them. It is quite a simple matter to learn how to read and write the phonemic script for consonant sounds. The only ones which differ from the letters of the Latin alphabet are:

/ʃ/ which is represented by the letters sh in, e.g., show (/ʃəʊ/)
/tʃ/ also appears in the transcription of the letters ch in, e.g., chuck (/tʃʌk/), i.e. /t/ combined with /ʃ/
/ʒ/ which is represented by the letter s in, e.g., measure (/ˈme.ʒə/)
/dʒ/ also appears in the transcription of the letters dg in, e.g., badger (/ˈbæ.dʒə/), i.e. /d/ combined with /ʒ/
/θ/ which is represented by the letters th in, e.g., thank (/θæŋk/)
/ð/ which is represented by the letters th in, e.g., this (/ðɪs/)
/ŋ/ which is represented by the letters ng in, e.g., sang (/sæŋ/)

Source: https://www.eltconcourse.com/training/inservice/pronunciation/consonants.html#consonant1

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS: PLACE OF ARTICULATION

AUDITORY PHONETICS: MANNER OF ARTICULATION

lt has been stated that consonant sounds can be described and classified according to both articulatory and auditory criteria. An auditory description makes use of labels which describe the kind of auditory impression perceived by the hearer.

Terms such as 'plosive', 'fricative', 'sibilant', etc. refer to sounds as they are heard, rather than as they are produced. Sometimes, though, auditory terms such as these are, used to classify sounds articulatorily, as will be seen later.

A fairly complete articulatory description of the consonant sounds of English and Spanish would have to refer to the various stages of their production, some of which have already been stated: all normal English and Spanish sounds are produced with an outgoing stream of air coming from the lungs; therefore, the label pulmonic egressive will not be included in our classification. There remain, though, a number of points to be answered.

(i) Are the vocal folds in action or not?

(ii) How strong are the breath force and muscular effort involved in the articulation?

(iii) Is the velum up or down?

(iv) Where does the interference of the air-flow occur?

(v) What kind of interference is it?

When we have provided answers for these questions we shall be able to · describe all English and Spanish consonant sounds.

(i) Vocal fold activity determines whether consonant sounds are voiced or voiceless. Voiced consonant sounds are produced with the vocal folds in light contact, vibrating, and voiceless ones with vocal folds wide apart, so that only breath goes through. We can actually feel the vibrations of voice by either placing our fingers on our larynx, or by covering our ears with our hands while producing voiced sounds. For example, all the sounds in the names Uruguay and Alabama are normally voiced no matter whether pronounced by an English or a Spanish speaker; in Texas all the consonant sounds are voiceless.

(ii) Vibration of the vocal folds may not, however, be the only difference between voiced and voiceless consonant sounds, The latter are generally produced with more breath force and muscular effort than voiced consonant sounds.

FORTIS & LENIS SOUNDS

Consonant sounds produced with greater force are called fortis, and those produced with less force are called lenis. This opposition has proved useful for classification purposes because it refers to constant features. The opposition voiced/voiceless, on the contrary, is variable, since the so-called voiced consonant sounds may lose their voice either partially or completely, thus becoming devoiced. To sum up, both voiced and devoiced consonant sounds are lenis; voiceless ones are fortis.

PLACE OF ARTICULATION

(iii) The position of the velum causes consonant sounds to be mainly oral (when it is raised) or nasal (when it is lowered.) For example; all the consonant sounds in Eng. naming and Sp. mañana are nasal.

(iv) We explained in the previous chapter that the articulators were called active if they were capable of movement, and passive if they were incapable of it. If we locate each active articulator in combination with its corresponding passive one, and see where the stricture is produced, we shall obtain a classification according to 'place of articulation'.

Labial

Velar

1- Plosive Consonant sound [p] and [b]

Labiodental

Plosive Consonant voicelss [t]

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