1. The Consonants of English
Phonetics COMD Taylor
The Consonants of English

2. BUT FIRST. . .

3. Describe the following:
voiced bilabial stop
/p/
voiceless bilabial stop
/d/
voiced alveolar stop

4. /t/
voiceless alveolar stop
/k/
voiceless velar stop
/ŋ/
(voiced) velar nasal (stop)

5. /r/
(voiced) alveolar (central) approximant
/l/
(voiced) alveolar lateral (approximant)
/f/
voiceless labiodental fricative

6. /z/
voiced alveolar fricative
/ʃ/
voiceless alveopalatal fricative
/dʒ/
voiced alveopalatal affricate

7. Give the IPA for the following:
voiceless labiodental fricative
[f]
voiced alveolar fricative
[z]
voiced alveolar nasal
[n]
voiced velar nasal
[ŋ]
voiceless alveopalatal fricative
[ʃ]

8. voiced alveolar (central) approximant
voiced alveopalatal fricative
[ʒ]
voiceless alveopalatal affricate
[tʃ]
voiced velar stop/plosive
[g]
(voiceless) glottal stop
[ʔ]

9. What’s wrong with these?
‘shut’ [shut]
[ʃʌt]
‘swift’ [swift]
[swɪft]
‘follow’ [falo]
[faloʊ]
‘frog’ [frog]
[frag]

10. What’s wrong with these?
‘left’ [left]
[lɛft]
‘child’ [tʃild]
[tʃaɪld]
‘theme’ [ðim]
[θim]
‘voice’ [vois]
[vɔɪs]
‘rang’ [raŋ]
[reŋ]
‘health’ [helθ]
[hɛlθ]

11. Postvocalic Cs How can we tell whether final C is voiced?
Often no final release
Duration is often too short to tell whether cords are vibrating during
Length of preceding vowel is key
bead vs beat, bid vs bit, fade vs fate, said vs set, sad vs sat, bug vs buck, lewd vs loot, code vs coat, (hog vs hawk)
Example

12. Homorganic Cs Two sounds with the same place of articulation
e.g., [d] and [n]

13. Nasal plosion Stop followed by a homorganic nasal
‘sudden’ [sʌdn̩]
‘kitten’ Q: [kɪtn] but not [kɪʔn]
Occurs only if there is no glottal stop or if the glottal stop is released after the alveolar closure has been made and before the velum is lowered

14. Lateral plosion Alveolar stop before the lateral [l]
air pressure built up during the stop can be released by lowering the sides of the tongue ‘middle’ [mɪdl̩]

15. Tap/flap
In American English, the alveolar C between Vs is not really a stop, but a quick tap of the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge
Q: how can we tell what the speaker has said?
‘latter’ vs ‘ladder’

16. Fricatives Partial obstruction of airflow
Fricatives + Stops form a natural class called ‘obstruents’

17. Post-vocalic +/- voice info carried on preceding vowel
long vowel = voiced post-vocalic fricative
short vowel = voiceless post-vocalic fricative
Point: voicing info carried on the longest, most salient segments
Fortis (-voice) held longer than lenis
Lenis (+voice) are not actually voiced throughout

18. Fricatives: articulatory gestures
Primary gestures: close approximation of articulators
Secondary: lip rounding (labialization), if applicable, e.g., ‘same’ vs ‘shame’
changes shape, length of the chamber, creates room in front of the teeth–dramatic acoustic effect
‘strong’: [stɹɔŋ] or [ʃtɹɔŋ]
rounding due to anticipation of upcoming [ɹ]

19. Affricates More than just a stop + a homorganic fricative
Issue of timing between the stop and succeeding vowel
different kind of (gradual) release

20. Other (non-affricate) combos
[ps] and [ks]: why aren’t they affricates?
not homorganic
[tθ] and [ts]
cannot occur everywhere
[tʃ] and [dʒ] are the only two that can occur anywhere and are homorganic (very close), so they get special phonological status in English

21. Nasals Velar opening is key Timing: N + V Timing: V + N
allows air into the nasal cavity
Timing: N + V
velum lowered
occlusion
vocal cord vibration
Timing: V + N
[ãn] (Engl.) occlusion vs [ã] (French) no occlusion
voicing for vowel

22. N + Fricative
Move from occlusion to non-occlusion, often causes insertion of stop in between
[sʌ̃mθɪŋ][sʌmpθɪŋ]
[sɪ̃ns][sɪ̃nts]

23. Final N can be syllabic Like [r, l]
Marked with vertical line under the N
[sʌdn̩]
Syllabicity can be in phrase:
‘milk and cookies’ [mɪlkŋ̩kʊkiz]

24. The velar nasal Cannot occur word-initially Usually not syllabic
Can only be preceded by [ɪ,ɛ,æ,ʌ,ɑ]

25. Approximants Glides, lateral and rhotic Vowel-like [j], [w], [l], [r]
no occlusion,
active articulator approaches passive articulator
approach changes the shape of the chamber
can occur in consonant clusters with stops

26. Rhotic [r] Hardest category to define
Number of different types of sounds are included

27. Lateral [l] [l] and [r] can be curled or bunched light or dark
light: pre-vocalic: ‘light’, ‘right’
dark: post-vocalic: ‘pull’ ‘for’
no contact with alveolar ridge
patterns like a diphthong: ‘feel’–velarized
voiceless when they follow a voiceless stop
‘clear’ and ‘creep’ [kl̥iɚ] and [kɹ̥i:p]

28. Glides: [j] and [w] [j]: place of articulation?
hard palate: voiced palatal glide
[w]: place of articulation?
lips and velum: voiced labio-velar glide
Shortened versions of vowels
[j] corresponds to [i]
[w] corresponds to [u]

29. Voiceless glottal fricative: [h]
Open vocal tract
Set up for the vowel that follows
compare ‘has’ ‘hut’ and ‘heat’
Has the same status in all languages
Should it be categorized as a glide?
No, because it’s voiceless (can’t be a semi-V)
L: voiceless counterpart of surrounding sounds
Turbulence comes from entire vocal tract, with most turbulence coming from point of articulation of following vowel

30. More on [h] Usually occurs at the beginning of words in English
seldom between Vs within a word (mostly with prefixed words)
never at the end of words
never in clusters
If [h] occurs between vowels in an utterance, articulatory movement is continuous
[h] is realized as a weakening (not necessarily complete devoicing): ‘the head’ vs ‘at home’
Some dialects distinguish between ‘witch’ [wɪtʃ] and ‘which’ [hwɪtʃ], but that distinction appears to be disappearing

31. Overlapping gestures Anticipatory coarticulation
stops are slightly rounded when they occur in clusters with [w] and [ɹ]
‘kick’ ‘quick’; ‘tea’ ‘tree’
[s] can become [ʃ] when followed by [tɹ]: why?
Movement towards a target
series of movements towards targets
Certain aspects of active articulator movement or placement are crucial (‘specified’)

32. Allophones and articulatory gestures
No simple relationship between a languages phonemes and description of articulatory gestures
Allophones arise from coarticulation effects
can result in completely different places or manners of articulation
almost all neighboring sounds overlap