Diffculties of hing school pupils in pronunciation of some english consonants

Do Mai Lien

Graduation paper

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION

I. RATIONALE
Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. In the first place, of all the teacher
and students have been asked, no one denied that pronunciation has a very important role.
This can be easily seen in teaching and learning English in Vietnam. Even though it is one
of the three language elements, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, the first two are
heavily focused on but the last one is left with very little concerned.

As the matter of fact that pronunciation is of little concern, materials on this issues,
therefore, are not always available in Vietnam. This has much hindered student's acquisition
of English pronunciation.

In addition, not many effective methods have been introduced to help teachers and learners
improve their teaching and learning pronunciation. These results in a very low quality of
sound production in many students.

Furthermore, that Vietnamese sound system is far different from that of English is
considered to be one of the barriers to the acquisition of English pronunciation. This can be
shown, for example, by the Vietnamese monosyllabic sound system which has caused
students a great deal of difficulties as they produce some final consonants and consonant
clusters.

Deriving from these above-mentioned reasons, the foreign learners need to be given some
strategies for improving their pronunciation out of respect for listeners' ears. Therefore, it is
necessary for a research study on difficulties of high-school pupils in pronunciation of

some English consonants to be made.

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II. AIMS OF THE SUDY
This research aims at finding out some difficulties in pronunciation of some English
consonants and giving some ways to overcome these difficulties for foreign language
learners, especially for high-school pupils.

III. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Within the limit of the study, the author will focus only on some theoretical matters related
to English consonants and consonant clusters and some of the most typical and problematic
consonants and consonant clusters made by the High School students in Haiduong
Province. They are the students of eleventh form in Chilinh High School. English is one of
their compulsory subjects; however, for the reason that is not their major, their level of
English is quite various. Nevertheless, the research is intended to be devoted to the
pronunciation practice at a high school. Also, non-professionals in general can benefit from
the study.

IV. TASKS OF THE STUDY
As specific in the research topic, the research work will fulfill a number of tasks:
1. To study the English sound, especially English consonants and

consonants

clusters.
2. To find pupils' errors when they produce consonants and consonant clusters.
3. On the basic of findings, possible solutions are given to reduce the pupils'
errors.

V. METHODS OF THE STUDY
In order to attain the primary aims, the researcher has consulted several ideas from the
Supervisor and people who fully master this topic. All the theories have been carefully
selected and gathered through reference books and documents in Internet websites as well.

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In addition, a survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection instrument
of the study. Collecting, analyzing and discussing have been used.

VI. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research studies the phonemes and some difficult consonants. By conducting a survey
questionnaire, it shows difficult consonants students always meet as well as the reason for
these difficulties. Based on the cause discovered in the survey, solutions to help students
overcome these difficulties as well as to improve their pronunciation correctly and
effectively are also made. Therefore, naturally the research has some significance to
students, teachers as well as anyone interested.

On the part of teachers, with the help of the study, they may find the most effective teaching

techniques to introduce English phonemes. By considering the difficult consonants students
always meet, they may have their way to help their students overcome these difficulties as
well as to improve their students' pronunciation.

On the part of students, they can refer to the study in order to improve as well as enrich
their knowledge of the English phonemes, English consonants and so on. Furthermore, they
can themselves overcome the difficulties they meet when pronouncing some English
consonants by applying some suggestion solutions mentioned in the thesis.

The study is practical by nature; therefore it is useful for everyone who is interested in the
phonemes and wants to improve pronunciation.

VII. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK
The thesis consists of three main parts: the introduction, the investigation, and conclusion.

Part one, "Introduction", introduces reason for choosing the topic, aims and scopes of the
research, the research methods as well as an overview of the thesis.

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Part two, "Investigation", consists of two chapters. Chapter 1 is entitled "Theoretical
Background", which has two sections, knows as "Literature Review in Brief", and "The
English sound and pronunciation". The chapter 2 is entitled "Methodology, results and
finding", which includes the procedures of conducting survey questionnaire. In this chapter,
the results are analyzed and the major findings are presented. Based on the major findings,

some solutions to the problem are also given.

Part three, "Conclusion and Recommendation", summarizes the keys points of the research,
points out some limitations as well as provides a few recommendation and suggestion for
further study

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PART TWO
INVESTIGATION

CHAPTER ONE
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I. 1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF
Every language has its own sound system on which people base on to produce sounds.
English therefore has its own sound system too. The system of English sounds can be
showed in the following chart:
English sounds

Consonants

Vowels

The term "vowel" and "consonant" have been in use for many centuries (Roach, 2000,p.31).

There are some definitions of vowels and consonants have been given.

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, vowel is a speech of sound
produced without occluding, diverting or obstruct the flow of air from the lungs.

Vowels, as stated by Peter Roach(2000) " the most common view is that vowels are sounds
in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips".

Meanwhile, in wikipedia, they have defined" in phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken
language, such as English ah /a:/ or oh! /oU/, pronounced with an open vocal tract so that
there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.".

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Linguists and phoneticians have carried out many researches on English consonants. Each of
them has their own way to define, discuss and point out features of English consonants.
In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, consonant is a speech sound made by
partly or completely stopping the flow of air through mouth.

Roach(2000) in his book entitled English Phonetic and Phonology defined that "consonants
are speech sounds. When we pronounce them the organ of speech always form an
obstruction, the airstream is stopped before going out and the pronunciation is with or
without vibration of vocal cords".
In Better English Pronunciation, J.D. O‟Connor (1980) refers to the English consonants. He
claims that consonants contribute more to making English understood than vowels do.

Besides, consonants are generally made by a definite interference of the vocal organs with
the air stream, and so are easier to describe and understand.

P. Dale and L. Poms (2005) in English Pronunciation Made Simple does not mention to
definition of consonants. They just consider to pronouncing the consonant of American
English; therefore, they do not pay much attention to the theories of consonants.

From the practical phonetic standpoint, it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech
sounds, simply because the majority of sounds may be described and classified most
appropriately according to one of two techniques:

1. The types of sound which is most easily described in terms of articulation, since
we can generally feel the contacts and movements involved. Such sounds may be produced
with or without vocal cords vibration (voicing) and very often have a noise component in
the acoustic sense; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category of consonants.
2. The type of sound, depending largely on very light variation of tongue position,
which is most easily described in terms of auditory relationships, since there are not
contacts or strictures which we can feel with any precision. Such sounds are generally
voiced having no noise component; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category
of vowels and will be known as vowels.

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In short, the English consonants plays an important role in English pronunciation or English
sound system. Much research on English consonants and English pronunciation has been

carried out but they are not very clear and complete. They not mention much to difficulties
of learners in pronunciation of some English consonants. Therefore, it is necessary to have a
full and understandable description of pronunciation of English consonants.

I.1.1 English vowels classification

According to Roach, vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth-shape;
the differences in shape of the mouth are caused by different positions of the tongue and of
the lips. The quality of vowels is determined by the particular configuration of the vocal
tract. Different parts of the tongue may be raised or lowered. The lips may be spread or
pursed. The passage through which the air travels, however, is never so narrow as to
obstruct free flow of the airstreams. In the short way, Kelly (2000) described in his book
that vowels are produced when the airstream is voiced through the vibration of the vocal
cords in the larynx and then shaped using the tongue and the lips to modify the overall
shape of the mouth. The position of the tongue is a useful reference point for describing the
differences between vowel sounds. Thus vowels have been traditionally classified
according to the four questions:
- How high is the tongue? According to this criterion there are:


High vowels if they are made with either the front or the back of the tongue
is high in the mouth. It is raised above its rest position, such as /I:/,/u:/



Low vowels if they are made with the tongue below its rest position, such as
/A:/



Mid vowels if the vowels are made with the tongue neither high nor low in
the mouth, such as: /e/

- What part of the tongue is raised? Answering this question, we have:


Front vowels: are the vowels in the production of which the highest point of
the tongue is in front of the mouth: /I:/



Back vowels: are the vowels in the production of which the back of the
tongue is raised to the highest point: /O:/

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Central vowels are the vowels made with neither the back nor the front of the
tongue. The tongue is neither high or low in the mouth when central vowels
are produced, like /V/

- How long or short is the vowel? Long vowels tend to be longer than short vowels
in a similar context. They are different from the short one not only on length but
also in quality resulting from differences in tongue shape and lips position, for
examples: /I:/,/I/,/O:/,/Q/
- How is the shape of lips? Although the lips can have many different shapes and

positions, at this stage the researcher will consider only three possibilities( Roach.
P15). These are:


Rounded : where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and
the lips pushed forwards, like: /u/, /O:/, /U/



Spread: with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a
smile: /I/, /&/, /E/



Neutral, where the lips are not noticeable rounded or spread. The noise most
English people make when they are hesitating (written "er") has neutral lips
position: /J/, /V/,ect.

I.1.2 English consonants classification

Roach(2000) points out that consonants are the sounds of the production of which one
articulator moves towards another or two articulators come together obstructing the
airstreams and the airstreams cannot get out freely.

Consonants are classified according to criteria, place of articulation and manner of
articulation. Based on the first criterion people will know for sure if they put their speech
organ in the right place to produce correct sounds. As a listener, if one happens to listen to
English sound he will immediately know how well the speaker is making the sounds.
English consonants are classified according to three criteria ( Kelly.p47,48).

-According to the place of articulation: the place of articulation is the location of the
obstruction of air stream in the articulation of the consonants. It describes the point at which

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the articulation actually touches or it is at its closest. Describing the consonant sounds this
way gives more information about what the various articulators actually do.


Bilabials: are the sounds made with the two lips pressing together or coming
together: /p, b, m ,w/



Labio-dentals: are the sounds which are produced with the lower lip touching the
upper front teeth: /f, v/



Dentals: are the sounds produced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper front
teeth, such as /T, D/



Alveolar: are the sounds produced with the tip of the blade of the tongue touching or

approaching the alveolar ridge, for example : /t, d, s, z, n, l/.



Palato alveolar : are the sounds produced with the tongue tip or blade coming close
to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate,
such as in /S, Z, tS, dZ/



Post alveolar: is the sound produced with the front of the tongue towards the roof of
mouth, but do not let the tip touch: /r/



Palatal: is the sound produced with the front of the tongue coming close to the hard
palate, the consonant: /j/



Velars: are the sounds produced with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate
/k, g, N/



Glottal: are the sounds produced without the active use of the tongue and other part
of the mouth /h/.

- According to the manner of articulation: manner of articulation is the way in which the
airstreams are obstructed and so altered the production of speech sound. It describes the

time of obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of articulators.


Plosives (stops): are the sounds in the production of which there is a complete
closure of the articulators involved so that the airstreams cannot escape through the
mouth. Plosives sounds are also sometimes referred to as stops. There are two kinds
of plosives:
1. Oral plosives: are the sounds which are produced with the airstreams being
stopped in the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasal
cavity. Then the two articulators come apart quickly and the air escapes
through the mouth.

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2. Nasal plosives: are the sounds produced with the airstreams being stopped in
the oral cavity but the soft palate is lowered so the air can go out through the
nose.


Fricatives: are the sounds produced by letting articulators come close together but
there is still a small opening between them so the airstreams is partially abstracted
and an audible friction noise is produced. Fricatives are continuant consonants,
which means that speakers can continue making them as long as they have enough
air in their lungs.



Affricates: they occurs when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth,
and the soft palate is raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and then is
released more slowly than in plosives.



Lateral: is the sound made with an obstruction of the airstream at a point along the
centre of the oral tract with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the
tongue and the roof of the tongue.



Nasals: are the sounds made when a complete closure is made somewhere in the
mouth, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nasal cavity.



Approximants: are the sounds in the production of which two articulator come close
together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a friction
noise is produced.

- Acceding to the voicing: with regard to this, the following terms are used: fortis and lenis.
A voiceless/ voiced pair such as [s, z] are distinguished not only by the presence or absence
of voice but also by the degree of breath and muscular effort involved in the articulation.
We shall see that on the linguistic level, in certain situation, the voice opposition may be
lost, so that the energy of articulation becomes a significant factor. Those English
consonants which are usually tend to be articulated with relatively weak energy, whereas
those which are always voiceless are relatively strong. Thus, it maybe important to define

[s], for instance, as strong or fortis and [z] as weak or lenis. Fortis consonants normally
shorten the preceding vowels, while lenis consonants often lengthen the preceding vowels(
Tam, p15-16). In spoken English, fortis happens to equate with unvoiced sounds, which in
English happens to be voiced. As far as English consonants are concerned, the distinction is
most useful when it comes to distinguishing between sounds that are articulated in
essentially the same way one using the voice, the others not.

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I.2 PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Place of articulation

Manner of articulation

Bilabial Labio

Dentals Alveolar Palato

dentals

Alveolar

pb

Plosive

Palatal Velar

TD

sz

Glottal

alveolar

td
fv

Fricative

Post

kg
SZ

h

tS dZ

Affricate
m

Nasal

n

N

l

Lateral
w

Approxi-

r

j

mant

Table 1 Chart of English consonant phonemes

I.2.1 Plosives consonants (stop consonants)

A plosive is a consonant articulation with these following features:
1. The closing stage, during which the articulating organs move together in order to
form the obstruction; in this stage, there is often an on-glide or transition audible in
a preceding sound segment and visible in an acoustic analysis as characteristic curve
of formants of preceding sound.
2. The hold or compression stage, during which lung action compresses the air behind
the closure; this stage may or may not be accompanied by voice, i.e. vibration of the
vocal cords.

3. The release or explosion stage, during which the organs forming the obstruction part
rapidly, allowing the compressed air to escape abruptly; if stage (2) is voiced, the
vocal cord vibration may continue in stage (3); if stage (2) is voiceless, stage (3)
may also be voiceless (aspiration) before silence or before the onset of voice.
English has six plosive consonants /p, t, k, b, d, g/. These plosives have different places of
articulation:


Bilabial plosives /p, b/

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The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary
obstacle to the air stream is provided by the closure of the lips. Lung air is
compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are held
wide apart for /p/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for
/b/ according to its situation in the utterance. Then the closure is released
suddenly for the air to escape with kind of explosion.
In short, /p/ and /b/ are bilabial; total closure is made by using both lips. The
soft palate is raised. /p/ is unvoiced and fortis. /b/ is voiced and lenis, and /b/ is
devoiced at the end of a word.


Alveolar plosive /t, d/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary
obstacles to the airstreams is formed by a closure made between the tip and rims
of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth. Lung air is
compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide
apart for /t/, but may vibrate for all or part of compression stage for /d/
according to its sudden separation of the alveolar closure.
In short word, /t/ and /d/ are alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the
alveolar ridge, the soft palate is raised. Normally the tongue does not touch the
front teeth as it does in dental plosive found in many languages. /t/ is unvoiced
and fortis while /d/ is voiced and lenis, and /d/ is devoiced at the end of a word.


Velar plosives /k, g/

The back of the tongue is in firm contact with the soft palate, and the soft palate
is raised, so that the breath is trapped for a short time. When the tongue is
lowered suddenly from the soft palate, the breath rushes out the mouth with a
slight explosion or popping noise. Lung air is compressed behind the "trap" ( a
closure made between the back of the tongue and the soft palate), during which
stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /k/, but may vibrate for all or part of the
compression stage for /g/ acceding to its situation in the utterance. These escape
with noise upon the sudden separation of the velar closure.
To sum up, /k/ and /g/ are velar; the back of the tongue is pressed against the
area where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins.
All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position) between
other sounds (media position) and at the end of a word (final position).

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Examples:
pin happen cap

glass bigger dog

bin

two water hot

cabbage cab

class lacking lack

down wedding led

I.2.2 Fricatives

Fricative are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced air escapes
through a small passage and makes a hissing sound sometimes called "friction". Fricatives
are continuant consonants, which means that speakers can continue making these
consonants without interruption as long as they have enough air in their lungs. In the
articulation consonant, two organs are brought and held sufficiently close together or the
escaping airstreams to produce strong friction, fricatives are, therefore, like plosives and
affricates, characterized by a noise component. This friction may or may not be
accompanied by voice.


Labio-dental Fricatives /f, v/

The soft palate begin raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the inner surface of
the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of the upper teeth, so that the
escaping air produces friction. For /f/, the friction is voiceless, whereas they may
become vocal cord vibration accompanying /v/, according to its situation.
In short, /f/ and /v/ are labiodentals, that is, the lower lip is in contact with the
upper teeth. The fricative noise is never strong and is scarcely audible in the case
of /v/.


Dental Fricatives /T, D/ (example words: thumb, thus, either, father,
breath...)

The soft palate is raised so that all the breath is forced to go through the mouth,
the tip and rims of the tongue make alight contact with the edge and inner
surface of the upper incisors and firmer contacts with the upper teeth, so that the
air escaping between the forward surface of the tongue and the incisors cause
friction. For /T/ the friction is voiceless, whereas for /D/ there may become vocal
cord vibration. In other words, in the articulation of these sounds the air escapes
through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth. As with /f/ and /v/, the
friction noise is weak.


Alveolar fricatives /s, z/

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The soft palate is beginning raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip and
blade of the tongue make a high contact with the upper alveolar ridge, and side
rims of the tongue a close contact with the upper side teeth. The airstream
escapes through the narrow groove in the centre of the tongue and causes
friction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. In other words, in the
articulation of these sounds the air escapes through a narrow passage along the
centre of the tongue, and the sounds produce a comparatively intense. /z/ is the
weak sound, so when speaker is satisfied with the strong friction for /s/, he/ she
will push air through more slowly so that the friction is weaker.


Palato-alveolar fricatives / S, Z /

The fricatives are so called palato-alveolar, which can be taken to mean that
their place of articulation is palatal, partly alveolar. The tongue is in contact with
an area slightly further back than that for /s/ and /z/. If speakers make /s/ then /S/,
they should be able to feel their tongue move backward the air escapes through a
passage along the centre of the tongue, as in /s/ and /z/, but the passage is a little
wider. Most speakers of BBC have rounded lips for /s/ and /Z/, and this is an
important difference between these consonants /s/ and /z/. In addition, the escape
of air is diffuse (compared with that of /s z/ ) the friction occurring between a
more extensive area of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. In the case of /S/,
the friction is voiceless, whereas for /Z/ there may be some vocal cord vibration
according to its situation.
All the fricatives described so far can be found in initial, medial an final
positions. In the case of /Z/, however, the distribution is much more limited.
Very few English words begin with /Z/ (most of them have come into the

language comparatively recently from French) and not many end with this
consonant. Only medially, in words such „measure‟, „usually‟ is founded at all
commonly.


Glottal fricatives /h/

The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal. This means that the
narrowing that produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds. When we
produce /h/ in speaking English, many different things happen in different
contexts. In the word „hat‟, the /h/ must be followed by an /&/ vowel. The

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tongue jaw and lip positions for the vowel are all produced simultaneously with
the /h/ consonant, so that the glottal fricative has an /&/ quality. The same is
found for all vowels following /h/.
Phonologically, /h/ is a consonant. It is usually found before vowels. As well as
being found in initial position it is found medially in words such as „ahead‟ ,
„greenhouse‟. It is noticeable when /h/ occurs between voiced sounds, it is
pronounced with voicing-not the normal voicing of vowels but a weak, slightly
fricative sound called breathy voice. It is not necessary for foreign learners to
attempt to copy this voicing, though it is important to pronounce /h/ where it
should occur in RP. Many English speakers are sensitive about this consonant;
however, they often omit the /h/ in unstressed pronunciations of the words „her‟,

„he‟, „him‟, „his‟ and auxiliary „have‟ ,„has‟, „had‟.
I.2.3 Affricates / tS dZ/

The term „affricatives‟ denotes a concept which is primarily of phonetic importance. Any
plosive, whose release stage is performed in such a way that considerable friction occurs
approximately at the point where the plosive stop is made, may be called „affricative‟. The
friction present in an affricate is of shorter duration than that which characterizes the
fricatives properly. In the articulation of /tS dZ/ the soft palate being raised and the nasal
resonator shut off, the obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the
tip, blade and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and rise teeth. At the same
time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate in readiness for the fricative
release. The closure is released slowly, the air escaping in a diffuse manner over the whole
of the central surface of the tongue and the alveolar/ front palatal section of the roof of the
mouth. During both stop and fricative stages, the vocal cords are wide apart for /S/, but may
be vibrating for all or part of /j/ according to the situation in the utterance.

I.2.4 Nasals

The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose. For
this to happen, the soft palate must be lowered; in the case of all the other consonants and
vowels, the soft palate is raised and air cannot pass through the nose. In nasal consonants,

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however, air passes through the nose. The three types of closure are: bilabial (lips),

alveolar(tongue blade against alveolar ridge) and velar (back of tongue against the palate)


Bilabial nasal: /m/

The lips form a closure as for /p, b/; the soft palate as lowered, adding the
resonance of the nasal cavity to those of those of the pharynx and the mouth
chamber closed by the lips; the tongue will generally anticipate or retain the
position of the adjacent vowel.


Alveolar nasal: /n/

The tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge and upper side as for /t, d/; the
soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to those of the
pharynx and of that part of the mouth chamber behind the alveolar closure; the
lip position will depend upon that adjacent vowels.


Velar Nasal /N/

A closure is formed in the mouth between the back of the tongue and the velum
as for / k, g/(the point of closure will depend on the type of vowel preceding) the
soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to that of the
pharynx and the small part of the mouth chamber behind the velar closure.
The velar nasal consonant /N/ is, in summary, phonetically simple(it is no more
difficult to produce than /m/ or /n/) but phonologically complex (it is, as we
have shown, not easy to describe the context in which it occurs).

I.2.5 Approximants

This consonants is important in that considerable differences in its articulation and its
distribution are found in different accents of English. As far as articulation of sound is
concerned, there is really only one pronunciation that can be recommended to the foreign
learner, and that is what called a post-alveolar approximant.
An approximant, as a type of consonant, is rather difficult to describe; informally, it can be
said it is an articulation in which the articulators approach, each other but do not get
sufficiently close to each other to produce a „complete‟ consonant such as a plosive, nasal
or fricative.


Alveolar approximant /r/

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The most common allophone of Received Pronunciation (RP for short) /r/ is a
voiced post – alveolar frictionless approximant. The important thing about the
articulation of /r/ is that the tip of the tongue approaches the alveolar area
approximately in the way it would for /t/ or /d/, but never actually makes contact
with any part of the root of the mouth; the central part of the tongue is lowered
with a general contraction of the tongue. The air- stream is thus allowed to
escape freely, without friction, over the centre part of the tongue.


Palatal approximant: / j /

The vocalic allophones of RP / j / are articulated by the tongue assuming the
position for front half-close to close vowel and moving away immediately to the
position of the following sound; the lips are generally neutral or spread. From the
phonetic point of view the articulation of /j/ is practically the same as that of a front
close vowel such as /i:/, but is very short. When /j/ follows a fortis consonant such as
/p/, /k/, devoicing takes place (that is, become voiceless).


Labio-velar approximant /w/

The vocalic allophones of RP /w/ are articulated by the tongue assuming the
position for a back half-close to close vowel and moving away immediately to the
position of the following sound, the lips are rounded. The soft palate is raised and
the vocal cords vibrate. When /w/ follows a consonant, it closes the voice which it
usually has, but the lips are rounded ready for /w/ before the previous consonant is
finished.
To sum up, the most important thing to remember about /j/ and /w/ is that they are
phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants (in earlier works on
phonology they were known as „semi-vowels‟).

I.2.6 Lateral

A lateral consonant is one in which the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the
usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead there is complete closure between the
centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where contact is to be made (the
alveolar ridge in the case of /l/ ). Because of this complete closure along the centre, the only
way for the air to escape is along the side of the tongue.

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Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no opposition between
fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-fricative. /l/ is formed laterally,
that is, instead of the breath passing down the centre of the mouth, it passes round the sides
of an obstruction set up in the centre. Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:
- clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/.
- voiceless [lo], following aspirated /p, k/
- dark [l], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a
consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant
The soft palate is being in its raised position, shutting off the nasal resonator, the tip of the
tongue is in contact with the upper teeth ridge, allowing the air to escape on both sides of
the tongue on the upper side teeth.

For clear [l], the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same
time as the tip contact is made. For dark [l], the tip contact is again made on the teeth ridge,
the front of the tongue being some what depressed and the back raised in the direction of
the soft palate, giving a back vowel resonance.

Both clear [l] and dark [l] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place when a
preceding consonants is fortis. The actual point of contact of the tongue for /l/ is
conditioned by the place of articulation of the following consonant; thus, in the word health,
will they, the /l/ has a dental contact, but in „already, ultra, all dry’ the contact for /l/ is
likely to be post-alveolar.

I.2.7 Variants of the plosives

As has been mentioned, all plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position),
between other sounds (medial position), and at the end of a word (final position).
a. Initial position : the closure phase for /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ takes place silently.
During the whole phase there is no voicing in /p, t, k/; in /b, d, g/ there is normally
very little voicing.
The release of /p, t, k/ followed by audible plosion, that is a burst of noise. There is then,
in the post-release phase, a period during which air escapes through the vocal folds,
marking a sound like /h/. this is called aspiration. The most noticeable and important

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difference, then, between initial /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is the aspiration of the voiceless
plosives /p, t, k/
Initial position /b, d, g/ cannot be preceded be any consonant, but /p, t, k/ may be
preceded by /s/. When one of /p, t, k/ is preceded by /s/ it is not aspirated. From what
was said above it should be clear that the unaspirated /p, t, k/ of the initial combinations
/sp, st, sk/ have the sound quality that makes English speakers perceive a plosive as one
of /b, d, g/.
b. Media position: depending on whether the syllable preceding and following the
plosives are stressed or not, the medial plosives may have the characteristics either
of final or of initial plosives.
c. Final position: the final /b, d, g/ normally have little voicing: if there is voicing, it is
at the beginning of the phase. /p, t, k/ are, of course, voiceless. The plosion following
the release of /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is very weak and often not audible. The difference

between /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is primarily the fact that vowels preceding /p, t, k/ are
much shorter.


Incomplete plosive : stop +stop

When one stop consonant is immediately followed by another, as in /kept/ and /akt/ or
at word boundaries such as white post (/t/ +/p/), top boy (/t/+ /b/) the closure of the
speech oranges for the second consonant is made whilst the closure for the first
consonant is still in position. In the sequence of /pt/ this is what happens: the lips are
closed for /p/ and air is compressed as usual by pressure from the lungs; then, with the
lips still closed, the tongue-tip is placed on the alveolar ridge ready for /t/, so that there
are two closures.

Then, and only then, the lips are opened, but there is no explosion of air because the
tongue closure prevents the compressed air from bursting out of the mouth; finally, the
tongue-tip leaves the alveolar ridge and air explodes out of the mouth. So there is only
explosion for the two stops, the first stop is incomplete. However, note that when two
stops follow each other, there is only one explosion, but the closure is held for double
the usual time, if three stop consonants come together as in /strikt ΄pE:sn/, there is still
only one explosion that of the third consonant. What happens is that the first consonant

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is formed and held for longer than usual, the second consonant disappears altogether,

and the third is formed and exploded normally.


Nasal plosion : (stop + nasal)

When /t/ or /d/ are followed by a syllabic /n/ as in /'bIJtn/ and /'ga:dn/ the explosion if
the stop takes place through the nose. This nasal explosion of plosion happens in this
way: the vocal organs form /t/ or /d/ in the usual way, with the soft palate raises to shut
off the nasal cavity and the tongue-tip on the alveolar-ridge to give the explosion we
have leaved it in the same position and lower the soft palate, so that the breath explodes
out of the nose rather than out of the mouth.

When the stop consonant /t/ or /d/ is followed by lateral /l/ the /t/ and /d/ are made with
the tongue-tip firmly touching the alveolar ridge, but the sides of the tongue are away
from the sides of the palate so that the breath passes out laterally. The simplest way to
go front /t/ or /d/ to /l/ is to leave the tongue-tip on the alveolar ridge and only lower the
sides, and that is what speakers do. It is called lateral explosion.

I.3 CONSONANT CLUSTERS

A survey of the literature of English phonology makes it clear that different authors brought out
different syllable structures. According to Celce-Murcice, et.al (1996:175), he holds that the
shape of the possible English may include up to 3 consonants in the onset (e.g. spring) and four
in the coda (e.g. text )

I.3.1 The onset
ONSET

Initial Consonant
(1 consonant)

Initial Consonant Cluster
(> 1 consonant)

Initial 2-cosonant cluster

Initial 3-consonant cluster

I.3.2 The Termination / coda

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Termination/ coda

Final consonant

Final consonant cluster

(1 consonant)

Final 2-consonant

(> 1 consonant)

Final 3-consonant

Final 4-consonant

cluster

cluster

cluster

Consonant clusters definitions:
In Introducing English Pronunciation, A Teacher’s guide to Tree or Three and Ship or Sheep,
Baker (1982) defines that „In linguistic, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which
have no intervening vowel‟.

However, the research concentrates on analyzing the definition given by Well consonant
clusters are a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a
vowel between them (Well, p.834).

Consonant clusters may occur at the beginning of a word (an initial cluster), at the end of a
word (a final cluster) or within a word (a medial cluster) (Dictionary of Language Teaching and
Applied Linguistic, Longman 1992). Gimson (1980, p.238) declares that many more consonant
clusters will naturally occur medially at syllable boundaries in polysyllabic words, but a
knowledge of the tolerated word initial and final sequence will usually give a guide to the point
of phonological syllable boundary where onset of accent or other phonetic features not supply
the solution. Thus in the pronunciation /"n&tSJli/ (naturally), it is reasonable to assume that the
syllable boundary fall-s between /tS/ and /r/, since /-&tS/ and /rJ-/ are possible word final and
initial sequences, whereas word final /-&/ and initial /tSrJ-/ do not occur. Therefore, within the
limit of the paper, the author will focus only on initial and final consonant clusters.

a. Initial consonant clusters

According to Gimson (1980) and O‟Connor (1967), there are two main kinds of initial
consonants:

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- /s/ followed by one of /p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w, j/
- One of /p, t, k, b, d, g, f, v, m, n, h/ followed by one of /l, r, w, r/.
But not all of these sequences are found (e.g. /pw/, /d/ do not occur). From above, it can be
shown in these list:
/p/ followed by /l, r, j/ play, pray, pure
/t/ followed by /r, w, j/ tray, twenty, tune
/k/ followed by /l, r, w, j/ climb, crew, quite, cure
/b/ followed by /l, r, j/ blow, bread, beauty
/d/ followed by /r, w, j/ drew, dwell, duty
/g/ followed by /l, r/ glass, grey
/f/ followed by /l, r, j/ fly, fry, few
/T/ followed by /r, w/ throw, thwart
/S/ followed by /r/ shriek
/v/ followed by /j/ view
/m/ followed by /j/ music
/n/ followed by /j/ new
/h/ followed by /j/ huge
It can be seen from the list above /Cj/ (C. is the short from of consonant) occurs only before
/u:/ or /uJ/. Initial /fw, dw, gw/ occur before only a restricted set of vowels, only /sp/ occurs
before all vowels. With CCCV-, /s/ is the essential first element of CCC clusters, the second

element is a fortis stop, the third element must be one of /l, r, j, w/; of the twelve potential
CCC sequences, /spw-, stl-, stw-/ do not occur . /CCj/ occurs only before /u:/ or /uJ/; /skl-/
occurs only before /IJ/
b. Final consonants at the end of words are more varied than at the beginning mainly
because /s/ or /z/ have to be added to most nouns to give their plural forms and also be
added to most verbs to form their past tense.

In English, there are up to four consonant clusters at the end of a word. If there is no final
consonant we say that there is a zero termination. When there is one consonant only, this is
called the final consonant. Any consonant may be a final consonant except /h, r, w,j/.
* Two-consonant clusters

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There are two sorts of two-consonant final clusters, one being a final consonant followed by
a post-final consonant. The pre-final consonants form a small set /m, n, N, l, s/. We can see
these in:
bump /bVmp/

belt /belt/

bent /bent/

ask /a;sk/

The post-final consonants also form a small set ://; example words are:
bets /bets/

beds /bedz/

backed /b&kt/

bagged /b&gd/

eighth /eifT/

* Three- consonant clusters
There are two types of final three clusters; the first is pre-final plus final plus post-final.
helped /helpt/

bonds /bOndz/

The second type is one of post-final consonants can occur in a final cluster: final plus-final
1 plus post-final 2 (post-final two is one of /s, z, t, d, T/):
fifths /fifTs/

lapsed /l&pst/

next /nekst/
* Four-consonant clusters
Most four-consonant clusters can be analyzed as consisting of a final consonant preceded
by a pre-final and followed by post-final 1 and post final 2
twelfths /twelfTs/

prompts /prOmpts/

A small number of cases seem to require difference analysis, as consisting of a final
consonant with no pre-final but three post-finals:
Sixths /siksTs/

texts /teksts/

As we communicate we never utter words in isolation. Instead, we connect words together
to make a chain of connected sounds. Considering pronunciation of consonant must,
therefore, be put in combination with the pronunciation of connected speech.

I.4 CONNECTED SPEECH OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

I.4.1 Rhythm

It has often been claimed that English speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in
the regular occurrence of stressed syllable. The theory that English has stress-timed rhythm
implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals whether they are

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separated by unstressed syllable or not. The stress-timed rhythm theory state that the times from
each stresses syllable to the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of
intervening unstressed syllables (Roach.2000, p.134-138). Example is given below. In this
sentence, the stress syllables are given number: syllable 1 and 2 are not separated by any

unstressed syllable, 2 and 3 ones are separated by one unstressed syllable, 3 and 4 ones by two
and 4 and 5 by three.

Example:
1

2

3

4

5

´Walk ´down the ´path to the ´end of the ca´nal.
1

2

´Walk

3

4

5

´down the ´path to the ´end of the ca ´nal.

In English there‟s a very important differences between strong and weak syllables. Some

language do not have such a noticeable difference (which may, perhaps, explain the subjective
impression of „syllable – timing‟), and for native speakers of such languages who are learning
English it can be helpful to practice repeating strongly rhythm utterances since this forces the
speaker to concentrate on making unstressed syllables weak.

I.4.2 Assimilation

A significant difference in natural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one
word can cause changes in sounds belonging to neighboring words. Assuming that we know
how the phonemes of particular word would be realized when the word was pronounced in
isolation when we find a phoneme realized differently as a result of being near some other
phonemes belonging to a neighboring word we call this an instance of assimilation. Thus,
assimilation is the influence of one sound upon another neighboring sound so that they become
more alike. Assimilation is something which varies in extend according to speaking rate and
style: it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful
speech. Sometimes the difference caused by assimilation is very noticeable, and sometimes it is
very slight. Generally speaking, the cases that have most often been described are assimilation
affecting consonants (Roach, p139).
Assimilation may occur
 Across word boundary : meat pie /mI:p paI/

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 Within a morpheme or a word :
Tenth /tenT/

bank /b&Nk/

bump /bVmp/

 Across morpheme boundary
Cats /k&ts/

begged /b&gd/

dogs /dOgz/

a, In term of the direction of change:
 Regressive assimilation:
+ Definition : regressive assimilation is assimilation in which the following sound
assimilates the preceding sound and the direction of assimilation is backward.
Final consonant (Cf) changes to become more similar to initial consonant (Ci)
Example :

good girl /gUg g3:l/
Cf Ci

 Progressive assimilation:
* Definition: Progressive assimilation is a assimilation in which the preceding sound
assimilates the following sound and the direction of assimilation is forward. In progressive
assimilation: Ci changes to become like Ct in some ways:
Example: would you /wUd É ju/
↓
dZ
b, In term of the way in which phonemes change:

 Assimilation of place: is most clearly observable in some cases where a Ct with alveolar
place of articulation is followed by an Ci with a place of articulation that is not alveolar:
Example: that person →/D&p 'pJ:sn/
Light blue → /laip blu:/
Or before a dental consonant, /t/ will be change to a dental plosive, for which the symbol is
t:
get them →/get DJm/ → /get tJm/
Get those →/get DJUz/ → /get tJUz/
 Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable, and only found in the most rapid and
casual speech; generally speaking, the tendency is for regressive assimilation and the
change in manner is most likely to be forwards an “ easier” consonant one which makes
less obstruction to the airflow. It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive
becomes a fricative or nasal:
Example: That side →/D&s said/

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