Consonant

Description stop-plosive consonant, unvoiced stop-plosive consonant, voiced stop-plosive consonant, unvoiced stop-plosive consonant, voiced stop-plosive consonant, unvoiced stop-plosive consonant, voiced nasal consonant nasal consonant nasal consonant (eng) fricative consonant, unvoiced fricative consonant, voiced fricative consonant, unvoiced fricative consonant, voiced fricative consonant, unvoiced fricative consonant, voiced fricative consonant, unvoiced (esh) fricative consonant, voiced fricative consonant, unvoiced lateral consonant glide glide (yot) glide, voiced glide, unvoiced combination consonant, unvoiced

Example as in pet as in bet as in ten as in den as in kit as in give as in me as in neat as in hung as in feet as in vain as in think as in then as in sea as in zip as in she as in azure as in heat as in lift as in rose as in yes as in were as in when as in chill

combination consonant, voiced

as in jet

Vowel

Description forward vowel forward vowel forward vowel diphthong forward vowel diphthong forward vowel diphthong diphthong back vowel diphthong back vowel back vowel diphthong back vowel diphthong back vowel central vowel, stressed central vowel, unstressed (schwa) central vowel with r, stressed central vowel with r, unstressed (hooked schwa) central vowel, r-less

Example as in beet as in bit as in chaotic as in bait as in bet as in bat as in Boston as in by as in house as in boot as in abuse as in book as in pillow as in boat as in awe as in boy as in father as in bud as in appeal as in burr as in butter as in bird

Voiced and voiceless phones During normal speech, in particular when one is not whispering, the vocal cords are vibrating part, but not all, of the time. Phones which are pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating are called voiced, and the others are called voiceless. This is illustrated by the difference between the English words view *vju:+ and few [fju:]: the initial segment (a labiodental fricative) is voiced in the former and voiceless in the latter. This should be perfectly clear if you put your hand to your throat: you should feel your vocal cords vibrating when saying view whereas when saying few they start vibrating only after the f. Or, to say things differently: voiced segments are pronounced with a simultaneous humming sound (vibration of the cords) whereas voiceless segments are pronounced without it. Kinds of consonants Plosives (also called occlusives or stops) are consonants which are produced by completely interrupting the flow of air by obstructing it in some way. For example, the two consonants in the English word copy are (voiceless) plosives. A plosive consists of three parts: first, the flow is interrupted (this is the attack), then for some time there is no flow (and thus no sound if the plosive is voiceless), and finally comes the release which terminates the plosive. Nasals are very much like plosives, except that the air is allowed to escape through the nose: the attack diverts the flow of air through the nose rather than interrupting it. The sound commonly represented by the letter n in English is a nasal consonant. Trills (or rolled consonants) are produced by repeatedly interrupting the airstream. The rolled r of various languages are trills; but in practice, trills, being rather hard to produce, are often simplified to flaps or approximants. Flaps (or taps) are obtained by shortening trills to a single interruption, which therefore comes very close to a light plosive (but it is much shorter, and the interruption is usually not complete). Some British speakers will pronounce intervocalic r (of such words as very) as a flap; Americans, on the other hand, will pronounce some intervocalic t's (such as that of butter) as a kind of (voiced) flap. Fricatives (also called spirants or constrictives) are probably the most important kind of consonants, in that it permits the greatest number of easily producible and distinguishable places of articulation. A fricative is obtained by narrowing the airstream so as to make the flow turbulent and produce a kind of hissing sound (frication). A fricative does not usually have a clear attack and release; it can be arbitrarily prolonged. The two consonants in the English word fuss are fricatives. Places of articulation Bilabials refer to consonants that are produced using the lips, by narrowing or closing them. For example, the sounds usually represented in English by the letters p, b and m are bilabials (the first two are plosives, voiceless and voiced respectively, and the third is a nasal). Labiodentals are consonants which are formed with the upper teeth against the lower lip. English has two such consonants, [f] and [v], both being fricatives; since it knows no bilabial fricatives and the only labiodentals are fricatives, we can say that English does not distinguish bilabials and labiodentals. Dentals, alveolars and postalveolars are all made with the tongue in the front of the mouth: dentals use the tip of the tongue against the teeth, alveolars are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (that is, the ridge of the gums of the upper teeth), and postalveolars are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue a little behind the ridge.

Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tongue's tip curled back against the soft palate. Retroflex sounds are not found in English as such, but some postalveolar consonants tend to have a certain retroflex quality about them, for example the r. Lateral consonants are pronounced with the air escaping on the side of the tongue rather than on the front. The lateral quality is not really a place of articulation and can be combined with other properties of the consonants: for example, [l] is a (laminal or apical) alveolar lateral approximant Palatals are articulated by bringing together the front of the tongue and the hard palate (i.e. the front part of the palate). The sound [j] found at the start of the English word yet is a palatal approximant; the soft ch in German (found in such words as ich) is a (voiceless) palatal fricative; the sound represented in Italian by gli (for example in the word figlio) is a palatal lateral approximant; the sound represented in French by gn (such as in mignon) is a palatal nasal. Velars are articulated further back than palatals: this time, the back of the tongue approaches the soft palate (i.e. the back of the palate, sometimes called its veil, or velum, hence the name). The term guttural is also sometimes found. The letters k, g and ng in the English words key, get and ring represent respectively a voiceless velar plosive, a voiced velar plosive and a velar nasal. Uvulars are articulated even further back, with the very back of the tongue coming up to the uvula (the uvula is that thing which hangs down at the back of our throats). There are no uvular sounds in English, but the French r sound is uvular (generally it is a voiced fricative, but it can be an approximant in certain contexts, and a trill if spoken carefully). Pharyngeals are produced by constricting the pharynx, which is the region extending from the uvula down to the larynx (where the vocal cords are found). A strictly pharyngeal sound is produced with the root of the tongue, whereas an epiglottal is made with the epiglottis, i.e. that cartilage which prevents food from entering the trachea when one swallows. Finally, glottals or laryngeals are made at the level of the glottis. There are no pharyngeals (let alone epiglottals) in English, but there are some glottal sounds: the normal h sound is a voiceless glottal fricative, and, although it is not really part of the English phonemic system, one finds some glottal stops (plosives) in certain circumstances in many varieties of English.