1.0 INTRODUCTION
In the last module, you were introduced to the phonetic description of English; this module introduces you to the phonological description of English sounds. This first unit brings to your attention the sound patterning: grouping and organization of English sounds. In this unit, you are going to study the patterning of sounds in English, with particular focus on consonants. The issues concerned relate to manner/place of articulation as well as the state of the glottis at the time of production.
3.1 Consonants
The previous module introduced you to consonants and vowels as the basic sounds of English. However, there are many more features of consonants which we need to be familiar with if our mastery of this set of basic sounds is to be adequate.
In their production, consonants show greater constriction of the vocal tract and are less sonorous, less prominent than their counterpart – the vowels. In a majority of the world’s languages, a vowel can serve as a syllable or a word, but a consonant cannot, except it is accompanied with a vowel. Although we can produce certain sequences like mm, mmn, sh, shr, zsr, etc. (all made up of consonants), such sequences cannot rightly be claimed to belong to any particular language, they are simply identifiable human sounds which may express some kinds of emotion in certain situations. In a majority of the world languages also, the consonants are marginal or peripheral in the structure of words while the vowels are central in such structural patterning.
In the production of sounds generally, there are three operative terms which all students of the subject should be firmly knowledgeable about. These are the terms plosive, fricative and nasal. Practically all natural languages have plosive consonants, fricative consonants and nasal consonants, in varying numbers and in varying distributional patterns.
In the realization of a plosive consonant, four stages described here in sporting terms are notable:
(i) Two articulators come together – the articulators maybe the lips coming
together; the tongue moving up to be in contact with the teeth ridge (alveolar ridge) or the back part of the tongue being in contact with the soft palate. We may refer to this as the preparatory or the “on-your-marks” phase.
(ii) The air from the lungs is now held completely in check; the united organs prevent it from escaping. We can call this the ‘get -set’ phase.
(iii) There follows a sudden parting of the organs, a process which allows the imprisoned air to escape. This is the ‘go’ or the ‘ plosion’ phase.
(iv) What follows immediately in the wake of the plosion may be voicing or voicelessness depending on the action of the vocal chords: vibration or absence of it. We may call this the post-plosion (the “pp” stage).
These four stages are applicable to the articulation of plosive consonants in practically all natural languages. From these four stages we can also appreciate why plosive consonants are sometimes referred to as stop consonants.
With respect to English, six consonant sounds /p, b, t, d, k, g/ are often realized following the four stages outlined above. Of these six, /b,d,g/ are generally said to be voiced (even if they are not equally vigorously voiced in all word positions), while /p, t, k/ are generally said to be voiceless. It has also generally been claimed that the voiceless plosives are produced with a great exertion of energy and so the consonants are said to be strong or fortis.
On the other hand, it is generally claimed that the realization of the voiced plosives /b,d,g/ takes a comparatively less exertion of energy in their realization and so the plosives are said to be weak or lenis. The terms fortis and lenis are however not restricted to English alone. Indeed, any language in which the dichotomy of energy exertion is observable may employ the terms for the description of plosive or any other consonant sounds for that matter.
The next term in our preliminary discussion of consonant is fricative. Fricative consonants are realized when articulating organs get near to each other, leaving a small space between them. Because of the narrowed space, the air that passes through makes some kind of hissing sound. Such consonants are often said to be continuant consonants, and this is because of the fact that the fricative sounds can be continued almost indefinitely so long as the speaker has enough air to continue the pronunciation at any given time.
The last of our operative terms is nasal. Nasal consonants are those which are realized through the nose. For this to happen, the soft palate must be lowered to cover the mouth cavity and this allows the nasal cavity free for the air to pass through. In all natural languages, consonants of this class exist and are explicable in terms of this kind of lowering of the soft palate. This possibility of lowering the soft palate during sound production presupposes that even oral sounds can be nasalized, (for illustration or for any other reasons).
The process of “nasalized’’ is a very crucial one in sound production because it makes the important difference between two sets of sounds – oral and nasal. Ordinarily, all vowels and all consonants produced without a lowering of the soft palate belong to one class – oral sounds. All other sounds which pass through the nose cavity are nasal sounds. In a majority of the world’s languages, all nasals are voiced. So, in a detailed description of a nasal, it is superfluous to say something like. Voiced velar nasal for /Ν/. It is enough to say: velar nasal. It’s here and now you can do away with voiced N
3.1 A Summary of Consonant Patterning
Consonants in English may be patterned according to place of articulation. Here, from the view point of:
(i) place of articulation, English has four bilabial consonants – those sounds realized between the two lips: /p,b,m,w/
(ii) two labio-dental consonants – those sounds realized with the lower lip and
the upper front teeth: /f,v/
(i) two interdental (or dental) consonants – those sounds realized with the tip of the tongue between the two rows of teeth: /θ,ð/
(ii) seven alveolar consonants – those sounds realized with the tip of the tongue
at the teeth ridge (alveolar ridge): /t,d,l,n,r,s,z/
(iii) Four palato-alveolar consonants – those sounds realized with the tip of the
tongue simultaneously against the hard palate and the teeth ridge: /ɔ,ɔ ,ɔ,ɔ/
(iv) one palatal consonant – the sound realized with the tongue touching the hard palate /j/
(v) three velar consonants – those sounds realized with the tongue touching the soft palate: /k,g,ŋ/
(vi) one glottal consonant – the sound realized in the g lottis: /h/
This grouping of consonants according to place of articulation can be brought together thus:
⇒ Bilabial: /p,b,m,w/
⇒ Labio-dental: /f,v/
⇒ Dental or interdental: /θ,ð/
⇒ Alveolar: /t, d, s, z, l, n, r/
⇒ Palato-alveolar: /ɔ,ɔ,ɔ ,ɔ/
⇒ Velar: /k,g,ŋ/
⇒ Glottal: /h/
From the viewpoint of manner of articulation, English has the following consonants:
(i) six plosive (stop) consonants – those sounds realized through the bringing together of the articulating organs and a sudden release of the sounds (or a sudden parting of the organs): /p,b,t,d,k,g/
(ii) nine fricative consonants – those sounds realized through a narrowing of the
space between the articulating organs and a filtering through of the sound, resulting in some kind of hissing: /t,v,θ,ð,s,z, ɔ,ɔ,h/
(iii) two affricate consonants – those sounds realized through the bringing
together of the articulating organs – similar to the plosives, the difference being a gradual release of the sounds afterwards: / ɔ,ɔ/
(iv) three nasals /m,n,ŋ/ - those with air passing through the nose at the time of production, following a lowering of the velum;
(v) two liquids /l,r/ - the various kinds of /l/ and /r/ sounds in various environments. During the production of the liquid lateral /l/ in particular, one or both sides of the tongue are lowered while the middle is raised, causing the air to flow out from the sides of the mouth as against the centre of the oral cavity.
(vi) two semi-vowels /j,w/ - realized sometimes like vowels, sometimes like consonants.
Information on this grouping may be seen at a glance thus:
⇒ Plosives: /p,b,t,d,k,g/
⇒ Fricatives: /f,v,θ,ð,s,z, ɔ,ɔ,h/
⇒ Affricates: / ɔ,ɔ /
⇒ Nasals:/m,n,ŋ/
⇒ Liquids:/l,r/
⇒ Semi-vowels: /j,w/
3.2 Consonants may be grouped from the viewpoint of observed state of the glottis – whether there is or there is no vibration of the vocal chords at the time of production of the sound. As already known, vibration of the vocal chords leads to the production of voiced consonants; absence of vibration of the vocal chords leads to voicelessness. The voiced consonants from the broad indications are:
/b,d,g,v,z,ð, ɔ,ɔ,m,n,ŋ,l,r,j,w/ the voiceless consonants are: /p,t,k,f,θ,s,ɔ,h, ɔ/
Self-Assessment Exercise
Distinguish between plosives and fricatives
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit we have used our exposure to the concept of phonemes and sounds to group the consonants of English. We have done so according to manner of articulation, place of articulation and state of the glottis at the time of speech production.
5.0 SUMMARY
You have in this unit, specified the grouping (patterning) of the consonant sounds according to the following criteria.
(i) voicing and vibration of the vocal folds/cords; (ii) the manner of articulation;
(iii) the place of articulation
We are now ready to go on to the patterning/grouping of the vowel/phonemes.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Mention the criteria and then group the consonants of English.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Abercrombie, D. (1975). Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Eka, D. (1996). Phonological Foundations 1: English: Uyo: Scholars Press.
Clark, J & C. Yallop (1990): An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology; Oxford; Basil Blackwell.
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