English Consonants Sound

Chapter

4

English Phonetics and Phonology

English Consonant Sounds

A Consonant Sounds
We can define speech sounds in two ways. The phonetic definition classifies speech sounds by
the way we produce them. The phonological definition considers their distribution, i.e. in what
positions in a word they can occur, and their context next to what other sounds they occur.
Consonants

Phonetic characteristics
Phonological characteristics
▪ Made with or without vocal fold ▪ Occur at the edge of a syllable
vibration
▪ Some obstruction or narrowing in
the vocal tract

B Consonant Classification

plosive
affricate
fricative
nasal
lateral
approximant or
semi-vowel

pb
m
w

fv

θð

td

sz
n
l

kg

ʧʤ
ʃʒ
r

Figure 13: Table of English consonants

ŋ

glottal

velar

palatal

palatoalveolar

postalveolar

alveolar

dental

labiodental

bilabial

Consonants are classified according to their manner and place of articulation and voicing

h

j

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1. Manner and place of articulation
a) Place of articulation: Which articulators are used? English consonants have the
following possible places of articulation:
Bilabial:
Labiodental:

Dental:

Alveolar:
Postalveolar:
Palatoalveolar:
Palatal:
Velar:
Glottal:

The lips are brought together: /p, b, m, w/
The lower lip touches the upper teeth: /f, v/

The tongue tip is put between the teeth or close to the upper teeth: /θ, ð/
The blade of the tongue touches (or is close to) the alveolar ridge: /t, d, s,
z, n, l/
The tongue tip is close to an area just behind the alveolar ridge: /r/

The blade of the tongue (and sometimes the tip) is close to the alveolar
ridge, and at the same time the front of the tongue is raised towards the
hard palate: /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/
The front of the tongue is raised close to the hard palate: /j/
The back of the tongue is raised against the velum: /k, g, ŋ/
The space between the vocal folds is used to make audible friction /h/or
a closure – glottal plosive [ʔ]

Figure 14: Places of articulation for English consonants

b) Manner of articulation: how much do the articulator obstruct the airflow? How the air
leaves the vocal tract? The movement of the articulators.

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▪

Total closure: the air is completely stopped at the place of articulation
Plosive:

▪

a complete closure is made at some place in the vocal tract; air
pressure builds up behind this closure and the air is released suddenly
and explosively: /p, t, k, b, d, g/
Nasal:
a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; the velum is
lowered so that the air escapes through the nose4: /m, n, ŋ/
Affricate: a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; air pressure
builds up behind the closure, which is then released relatively slowly:
/tʃ, dʒ/

Partial closure
Fricative:

two vocal organs come so close together that the movement of air
between them can be heard (i.e. there is audible friction): /s, z, ʃ,
ʒ, f, v, θ, ð, h)
Lateral:

a partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against the
alveolar ridge, in such a way that the air is able to flow around the
sides of the tongue: /l/
Approximant: one articulator approaches another but the degree of narrowing
is not enough to produce audible fiction: /w, j, r/

2. Voicing

Depending on the state of the vocal folds, we can classify consonants into two large classes: voiced
and voiceless5. Voiced consonants are made with vocal fold vibration, voiceless consonants are
made an open glottis. This distinction is not always clear-cut though, because some voiced
consonants can be devoiced (lose all or part of their voice) in certain contexts. Generally, voiced
plosives and fricatives are devoiced in initial and final position.

C The Plosive Consonants
voiceless
voiced

bilabial
/p/
/b/

alveolar
/t/
/d/

velar
/k/
/g/

for all other consonants, the velum is raised
Fortis and lenis are sometimes used to mean ‘voiceless’ and ‘voiced’. Some phoneticians think that the
real difference between for example /p/ and /b/ is not voicing. Instead they propose to call voiceless
consonants Fortis consonants and voiced ones lenis consonants because they think voiceless consonants
are pronounced with greater articulatory force than the lenis ones. One of the main reasons for this
proposal is that the so-called voiced consonants are often not (fully) voiced, depending on the context they
occur in.

4
5

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Figure 15: Places of articulation for plosives. From left to right: bilabial, alveolar, velar

The Articulation of Plosive Consonants
A plosive consonant is made with the velum raised so that the airstream goes through the mouth.
The air passage through the mouth is completely obstructed at one point and the air is stopped.
This closure is then suddenly released and the air escapes with an explosive sound. There are
four phases in the production of plosives:
▪
▪
▪
▪

Closure phase: the articulator or articulators move to form a complete closure.
Hold phase: the air is stopped from escaping (it is help behind the closure) and air
pressure builds up behind the closure.
Release phase: the articulators used to form the obstruction are moved apart. The
compressed air escapes suddenly and with a burst of noise called plosion.
Post-release phase: this is what happened immediately after the release phase.
Aspiration happens at this phase.

Pronunciation Note
Some features that distinguish voiced from voiceless plosives are:
▪
▪
▪
▪

Voiced plosives are articulated with vocal fold vibration and voiceless ones are not.
Voiced plosives are never aspirated
Voiced plosives do not shorten the preceding vowel
Voiced plosives are made with less articulatory force: The plosion is stronger for voiceless
plosives than for voiced ones.

In reality, however, voiced plosives (and other voiced consonants) are often devoiced: in many
contexts, voiced plosives lose all or part of their voice (symbolize by a dot o under the devoiced
consonant)6. Consequently, the feature of voice often cannot be used to distinguish /p, t, k/ from
/b, d, g/. The last three differences, then, help us to recognize /b, d, g/ even if they are devoiced,
because devoiced plosives retain those three features.
Voiced consonants are more likely to retain their voice if they stand between two voiced sounds (e.g.
angry, ever)

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Aspiration
After /p, t, k/ but never after /b, d, g/ there is sometimes a very brief instant during which air
escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound like [h] this is call aspiration. Put more
accurately, there is a delay between the release of the closure for the plosive the beginning of the
sound that follows. During that delay, a brief [h] sound is made. For instance, in the word ‘pan’,
the voicing for does not begin immediately after the lips separate for the /p/, and you hear a brief
[h] sound. This is one of the clues for recognizing the sound /p/ rather than /b/. The symbol for
aspiration is a small raised h.
Voiceless plosives can be followed by a vowel or by the consonants /r/, /l/, /w/, or /j/. If a
consonant comes between the voiceless plosive and the vowel, the aspiration takes the form of
devoicing the following consonant.
Generally speaking, English /p, t, k/ are:
▪
▪

▪

aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable (e.g. pin, tail, come,
appeal, retain, occur, play, crew, pure)
unaspirated when:
- they follow /s/ at the beginning of a syllable (e.g. spin, stack, skill, scream)
- they are followed by a fricative (e.g. sets, depth)
- they are followed by another plosive (e.g. laptop, doctor)

unaspirated or slightly aspirated elsewhere (e.g. ripe, happy, resting, today, better, aching)

Vowel shortening

In English, a vowel is shortened when it is followed by a voiceless consonant which belongs to
the same syllable. As a result, the vowels before /p, t, k/ are shorter than those before /b, d, g/.
Thus, the short vowel in ‘crap’ is shorter than in ‘crab’; the diphthong is shorter in ‘fate’ than in
‘fade’ and the long vowel in ‘leak’ is shorter than in ‘league’. To indicate vowel shortening of long
vowels we add only one raised dot instead of two ([miˑt]); for short vowels and diphthongs we
use the symbol v ([stě p], [feɪ̌t])
▪
▪
▪
▪

Shortening only happens when the voiceless consonant is in the same syllable.
Shortening is most noticeable with long vowels and diphthongs when they are stressed,
but it also happens with short vowels and in unstressed syllables.
Shortening does not change vowel quality. Shortened /i:/ in ‘teach’ is not the same as /ɪ/
in for example ‘rich’.
Nasal (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/) or /l/ before the voiceless consonant are also shortened. (e.g. bump
[bʌ̌ m̌p], tent [tě ň t], bank [bæ̌ŋ̌ k], belt [bě t])

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Shortening

feet [fiˑt]
loose [luˑs]
rate [reɪ̌t]
seeking [ˈsiˑkɪŋ]
paper [ˈpeɪ̌pə]
total [ˈtəʊ̌ tl]
plating [ˈpleɪ̌tɪŋ]

No shortening
feed [fiːd]
lose [lu:z]
raid [reɪd]
intriguing [ɪnˈtriːgɪŋ]
labor [ˈleɪbə]
modal [ˈməʊdl̩]
playtime [ˈpleɪtaɪm]

Plosion

At the end of words, /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ are usually not (audibly) released. This means that no
audible burst of noise follows these plosives. As a result, they cannot be easily heard. However, it
is important to realize that the articulators do move to make the complete obstruction and the
air is held behind it, but it is not (audibly) released. For example, if you say ‘crap’, which ends in
a bilabial consonant, your lips should be closed for /p/. this can be the end of your articulation or
there can be a release phase when you move your lips apart again.

D The Fricative Consonants
voiceless
voiced

labiodental
f
v

dental
θ
ð

alveolar
s
z

Palato-alveolar
ʃ

glottal

ʒ

h

Figure 16: Places of articulation for some fricatives.
From left to right: labiodental, dental, palato-alveolar

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English Phonetics and Phonology

The Articulation of Fricative Consonants
The velum is raised so that the air escapes through the oral cavity. At some point in the oral cavity
the air passage is narrowed so that air passing there produces audible friction.

Figure 17: Articulation of the alveolar fricative /s/

Pronunciation Note
The voiced fricatives are normally devoiced in initial and final positions but may be voiced when
they occur between two voiced sounds.

Voiceless fricatives in final position have a shortening effect on the preceding vowel. Compare,
for example, ice – eyes; leaf – leave.
/f/ and /v/
e.g. fan – van, safer – saver, half – have
▪ The lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth.
▪ The fricative noise is never strong and is barely audible for /v/

/θ/ and /ð/
e.g. thumb, thus, ether, father, breath, breathe
The tongue tip touches the inside of the lower teeth and the blade touches
the inside of the upper teeth. The air escapes through the gaps between
tongue and teeth. The fricative noise for these two consonants is weak.
/s/ and /z/
e.g. sip – zip, facing – phasing, rice – rise
The air escapes through a narrow passage along the center of the tongue,
and the sound that is produced is comparatively loud.

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English Phonetics and Phonology
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/
e.g. ship, genre, Russia, measure, Irish, garage)
The place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar. The three main
articulation differences between /s, z/ on the one hand, and /ʃ, ʒ/ on the
other are:
▪ For /ʃ, ʒ/, the tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than
that for /s, z/
▪ For /ʃ, ʒ/, the air escapes through a passage that is a bit wider than for
/s, z/
▪ /ʃ, ʒ/ are pronounced with rounded lips whereas /s, z/ are not. This is
an important difference.
/h/
e.g. head, ahead, playhouse
The narrowing that produces the friction noise happens between the vocal
folds. /h/ is neither classified as voiceless nor as voiced and the exact quality
of /h/ depends very much on the following vowel. This is because the
tongue, jaw and lip positions for the next vowel are all produced at the same
time as your articulate /h/. If, for instance, the following vowel is /æ/ as in
hat, the /h/ has an /æ/ quality. Phonetically, /h/ is a voiceless vowel with
the quality of the vowel that follows it; while phonologically, /h/ is a
consonant because you find it before vowels.

E The Affricative Consonants
/tʃ, dʒ/: voiceless / voiced palate – alveolar affricates (e.g. church – judge, cheap, jeep)
▪

▪
▪
▪
▪

These consonants are made by a complete closure (as for plosives) followed immediately
by a slow release of the closure (whereas the air is suddenly and quickly released for
single plosives).
The plosives in affricates have a place of articulation further back than for /t, d/ on their
own.
Both affricates often have lip-rounding.
/tʃ/ is slightly aspirated in the positions where /p, t, k/ are.
Voiceless affricates shorten preceding vowels.

F The Nasal Consonants
voiced

bilabial
/m/

alveolar
/n/

velar
/ŋ/

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The mouth is completely closed at some point, but the velum is lowered so that the air escapes
through the nose.
▪
▪
▪

/n/ the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge.
/m/ is pronounced with both lips pressed against each other.
/ŋ/ the back of the tongue is in contact with the velum.

Figure 18: Voiced bilabial nasal /m/; voiced alveolar nasal /n/; voiced velar nasal /ŋ/

Distribution of /ŋ/
Initial position

Final position

Medial position

<ng> is /ŋ/

never

sing /sɪŋ/
hang /hæŋ/

<nk> is always /ŋk/ (banker)
<ng> is sometimes /ŋg/

morpheme7
<ng> = /ŋg/

<ng> = /ŋ/

morpheme - <ng> - morpheme

singer (= sing + -er) /ˈsɪŋə/
hanger (= hang + -er) /ˈhæŋə/
longish (= long + -ish) /ˈlɒŋɪʃ/

zero morpheme - <ng> - morpheme
finger /ˈfɪŋgə/
anger /ˈæŋgə/

Exception: <ng> is comparative and superlative forms of adjectives is /ŋg/ although it occurs at
the end of a morpheme. E.g. younger /ˈjʌŋgə/, longest /ˈlɒŋgɪst/
Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of words. In singer there are 2 morphemes: sing (which
stands for an action) and -er (which has a grammatical meaning showing that the word is a noun coming
from the verb sing)

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G The Lateral Consonant /l/
/l/ is a voiced alveolar lateral consonant. /l/ is formed laterally: there is a complete closure at
the center of the tongue and the alveolar ridge and the air escapes laterally, i.e. along the sides of
the tongue.

Pronunciation Note
After /p, k/ at the beginning of a stressed syllable, /l/ is devoiced (play [pl̥eɪ], clay [kl̥eɪ]

/l/ is pronounced slightly differently according to its context. There are two main variants, or
‘allophones’ of /l/:
▪

▪

Dark /l/ (velarized/hard): This allophone of /l/ has a quality similar to [u] because the
back of the tongue is raised towards the velum. The context of dark /l/:
- At the end of words: e.g. eel, special, bottle, peel
- Before a consonant: e.g. eels, bottles, called
Clear /l/ (palatalized/soft): This allophone of /l/ has a quality similar [i] because the
front of the tongue is raised towards the front palate. The context of clear /l/: before
vowels: e.g. lea, loiter, luck

Figure 19: Clear /l/ (left) and dark /l/ (right)

H The approximant consonants
For approximant consonants, the articulators approach each other but do not get sufficiently
close to produce a plosive, fricative or nasal.
voiced

bilabial
/w/

post-alveolar
/r/

palatal
/j/

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English Phonetics and Phonology

The articulation of /r/
▪
▪

▪
▪

The tongue tip approaches the alveolar area in approximately the same way as it does for
/t, d/, but it does not touch any part of the roof of the mouth.
The tongue is slightly curled backwards, and the tip is raised. Because of this, the tongue
tip is further back than for alveolar consonants such as /t, d/. This is why /r/ is classified
as a post-alveolar consonant.
The lips are slightly rounded.
/r/ is devoiced when it stands at the beginning of a syllable and is preceded by /p, t, k/:

press [pr̥ es], stress [tr̥ es], cress [kr̥ es]

Figure 20: Articulation of /r/

The distribution of /r/
With regard to the distribution of /r/ in words, we distinguish two main accents: rhotic accents
and non-rhotic accents.
▪

▪

In rhotic accents, like General American (Gen. Am), /r/ is pronounced in all contexts. If it
is there in spelling, it is pronounced. Thus:
red /red/
car /kɑːr/
hard /hɑːrd/
arrive /əˈraɪv/
ever /ˈevər/
verse /vɜːrs/
hearing /ˈhɪərɪŋ/
here /hɪər/
cares /keərz/
In non-rhotic accents, like Received Pronunciation (RP), /r/ is only
vowels. Thus:
red /red/
car /kɑː/
arrive /əˈraɪv/
ever /ˈevə/
hearing /ˈhɪərɪŋ/
here /hɪə/

pronounced before
hard /hɑːd/
verse /vɜːs/
cares /keəz/

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English Phonetics and Phonology

/j/ and /w/
/j/: voiced palatal approximant consonant
How to make:

▪ The blade of the tongue is raised toward the hard
palate in a position almost identical to that for /i:/.
▪ The tongue then moves rapidly to make the following
vowel.

/w/: voiced bilabial approximant consonant
How to make:

▪ /w/ is made by both raising the back of the tongue
toward the velum and simultaneously rounding the
lips.
▪ The position of the tongue and lips for /w/ is similar
to that for /u:/.

▪ After making /w/, the tongue moves rapidly to the
following vowel.

Phonetically, /j/ and /w/ are like vowels because:
▪
▪

They are made with little or no obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, which is a
feature of all vowels.
Their articulation is practically the same as that of /i:/ and /u:/, only shorter.

Phonologically, they behave like consonants because /j/ and /w/ occur at the edges of a syllable
and not at the center.
➔ Because of these characteristics, /j/ and /w/ are also called semi-vowels.

Both /j/ and /w/ are devoiced when they stand after /p, t, k/ at the beginning of a stressed
syllable: pure [pj̥ʊə], tune [tj̥uːn], twin [tw̥ɪn], queue [kj̥uː], queen [kw̥iːn]

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