HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT



CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu

Student: Pham Thi Song Thuyet

HCM, December 30, 2009

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 1

ABSTRACT

Language is obviously a vital tool. Not only is it a means of communicating thoughts and ideas,

perceptions, sentiments, and values characteristic of a community, but it forges friendships,

cultural ties, and economic relationships (david-kilgour, par.2). Language is one of the most

important areas of human development. However, to be honest, language is something very

vague, abstract and unspecific. No one is confident enough to say that he or she understands

some language deeply or speak fluently, even that is mother tongue. When we speak to someone

by foreign language, to be easy for them to understand, you know not only grammar,

vocabularies, function but pronunciation. In fact, only when do you pronounce exactly, it is not

difficult for listener to understand. Unclear pronouncing may lead to misunderstand between

speakers. Therefore, when learning any language, besides focusing on learning skills: speaking,

writing, reading, and listening we should pay more attention to areas such grammar,

pronunciation. As a Vietnamese student, a learner of English and a teacher-to-be of English, I

find that phonetics is a useful and necessary subject, any teacher knows clearly about it,

especially, we pay more attention to sounds. Based on the phonetic properties, the sounds of

language can be divided into two major classes, vowels and consonants. Sounds in English and

Vietnamese have some similarities and differences. In learning process, most learners have

difficulty in pronouncing consonants more than vowels. Hence, this paper aims at exploring

consonants in English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view. Then, some implications for

language teaching are discussed. Correspondingly, I do this research and I hope that it will make

my readers clear about all the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese

consonants so that they can avoid making mistakes in their interruption between these

two languages and help learner be easy to communicate.

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Benjawan Becker said, "Since it is one of the critical factors in determining a syllable's

tone, you must know the consonant class in order to correctly pronounce what you have read

(par.1)”. In reality, at all school or center when teaching a foreign language, people usually focus

on skills such as listening, reading, writing, and speaking. They require learners to speak exactly

and fluently but they ignore the way to pronounce sounds. Pronunciation is also as important as

other skills. To speak correctly and fluently, we pay attention to how a sound is pronounced.

What is consonant? a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial

closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of

the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], which

are noisy (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals) (Wikipedia,

par.1).

How is consonants produced? To know this, we need know the Vocal Organs (“are any

of the organs involved in speech production (thefreedictionary, par.1)”) places; because how

consonant sound is pronounced depending on how the vocal organs work. The following figure

shows us the vocal organs.

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 3

Source: Ngo thi Thanh Van, p.3

When analyzing, contrasting and classifying consonants, we base on the two main phonetic

features: places of articulations and manners of articulations.

Manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved

in making a sound make contact (Wikipedia, par.1). For example, nasal (through the nose), plosive

(complete obstruction of air), fricative (a continuous airflow through the mouth), affricate (a

slow release of the closure), lateral (the air escape laterally over the sides of the tongue), or

approximant (vowel like) in English and stop, fricative in Vietnamese.

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 4

The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant

occurs, and which speech organs are involved (Wikipedia, par.2). Places include bilabial (both

lips), labiodentals( the upper teeth and inner lower lip), dental( tongue tip) alveolar (tongue

against the gum ridge), alveopalatal ( the tongue blade ), palatal (the tongue) and velar (tongue

against soft palate) in English and “môi”, “đầu lưỡi”, “mặt lưỡi”, “góc lưỡi”, “thanh hầu” in

Vietnamese.

Consonants in English

According to Peter Roach, there are 24 consonants in English. Those are p, b, n m, f, v, t,

d, k, g, T, w, s, z, l, j, h, n, n, r, j, w, f, g S.

Those consonants are classified based on the two above features:

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 5

Source: Le Quang Thiem, 107 .

The above table show 24 Consonants in English and equivalent writings.

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 6

Consonants in Vietnamese

According to Doan Thien Thuat, meanwhile, there are 22 initial consonants (at initial position of

syllable) in Vietnamese consonants. Those are b, m, f, v, t’, t, d, n, s, z, l, ţ, ʂ, ʐ, c, ɲ, k, n, x, γ,

ʔ,h which are classified based on the two above features:

Source: Le Quang Thiem, p.100

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 7

The following table shows 22 Vietnamese initial consonants and equivalent writings.

Le Quang Thiem, p. 105

Apart from 22 initial consonants and zero ending consonants (endure and preserve the

timbre of the main phoneme: for example: má, cho, đi ), in Vietnamese, there are 8 ending

consonants (end by changing timbre at the last phoneme due to closing of the articulators):

- 6 consonants : p, t, k, m, n, n . For example: /n/ chân, /k/ khóc, /t/ suốt.

- 2 semi-consonants: i̭̯, u̯ (which have both feature of not only vowels but consonants).

For instance: /u̯/ (đau), / i̭̯/ mai

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 8

We localize ending consonants in criterions in the flowing table:

Le Quang Thiem, p. 101

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 9

Because there are ending consonants in Vietnamese, we also have writings are equivalent

to them

Source: Le Quang Thiem, p.106

Contrastive Analysis of some consonants in English and Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, distinguishing between initial consonants and ending consonants, which

make consonants increased in quantity. In contrast, there are no this situation in English.
 English and Vietnamese Consonants 10

Consonants can be at initial position, medial position and final position in English. English have

no discrimination between initial consonants and ending consonants, however, it distinguishes

between fortis (voiceless) and lenis (voiced). For example: plosive consonants: /b, d, g / at final

position called lenis-meaning (weak) and /p, t, k /called fortis-meaning (strong)

According to Peter Roach, all consonants, except for /h/, are distinguished fortis – lenis.

Articulation of final consonants is fortis or lenis, which depends on prior vowel is short, long or

diphthongs:

- If it is long vowel, final consonant is weak (lenis). For example: heard /hd d/, her /h d z/

rye /rai/ , rise / raiz/

- If it is short vowel, final consonant is strong (fortis). For example : hurt /hd t/ , right /rait/,

hearse /h d s/, rice /rais/

Contrasting the two English consonant and Vietnamese consonant charts, we see that

there are more detailed and more categorizing criteria for manner of articulation in Vietnamese.

For example, manner of the articulation is divided into two manner of articulation for stop and

fricative, and then stop and fricative are divided into nasal stop and oral stop (plosive), finally,

nasal stop and oral stop are divided into unaspirated, aspirated, voiced (lenis) and voiceless(

fortis). However, there are less categorizing criteria for place of articulation in Vietnamese than

in English, for example, places of articulation in English are divided nine criteria such as

bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal, velar, glottal, labiovelar . In addition,

In Vietnamese consonants chart, there is more pay attention to tongue position (flat, retroflex,
 English and Vietnamese Consonants 11

dorsal) whereas there is more pay attention to other articulators such as dental, alveolar, palatal

alveolar in English consonants chart.

Moreover, in the manner of articulation for stop, there is oral stop /t’/, oral voiceless stop

/ ţ , t, c, k / ,oral voiced stop /b, d/ , nasal stop / m, n , ɲ, n / in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, English

plosive consonants combine between oral stop and / p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n,/ and affricate /, f, g/. In

these sounds, /g/ (English) belongs to plosive, /γ/ (Vietnamese) belongs to fricative.

Furthermore, in the manner of articulation for fricative, English consonants alveolar

lateral /l/ and glottal fricative /h/ are the same as Vietnam consonants. English consonants are

different from Vietnamese consonants such as T, w, s, z, l, j, f, g S.

There are some English consonants that have no in Vietnamese such as bilabial

approximant /w/ , palatoalveolar approximant / r/ and palatal approximant /j/. Furthermore,

Vietnamese does not have consonant clusters (is a group of consonants which have no

intervening vowel). In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the

word splits. (wikipedia, par.1)

Finally, I find out that there are some initial consonants in English and Vietnamese are

similar.

Vietnamese English

/m/ (m) /m/ (m)

/b/ (b) /b/ (b)

/v/ (v) /v/ (v)

/f/ (ph) /f/ (f, ph)

 English and Vietnamese Consonants 12

/d/ (đ đ) /d/ (d)

/s/ (x) /s/ (s, c)

/z/ (d) /z/ (z, s,)

/l/ (l) /l/ (l)

/n/ (n) /n/ (n)

/k/ (c, k, qu) /k/ (c, k, qu)

/h/ (h) /h/ (h)

Source: Harvard. edu, p.7

Through a contrastive view into Vietnamese and English consonants, I find out

differences and similarities between them as mention above, I would like to discuss some

implications for English and Vietnamese teaching at high school in our country.

Firstly, it is fact that most high school students have difficulty in pronouncing. High

school teacher only focus on grammar, because teacher want to student get good mark in English

exam. Although aims of studying English are make student confident to apply in future, it means

they can communicate to foreigner. Therefore, I think in each lesson there should be a period to

teach pronunciation for students at high school.

Secondly, it is not easy for learners to articulate correctly and speak English fluently.

This require learners must study and practice at the beginning. In reality, pronunciation part is

concluded in high school textbook. I think that it should be added in secondary textbook. When

teach someone to speak, we should teach when they were a child. When we was young If we

pronounce wrongly it will form a habit. As a result, we are not easy to correct them. Therefore,

we are not afraid that it should have pronunciation part in secondary textbook, or even primary
 English and Vietnamese Consonants 13

textbook. I think that we should teach students how to pronounce a sound, but is not teach

students read aloud mechanically.

Thirdly, some consonants have no in Vietnamese, so it is difficult for students to

pronounce. For example, some sounds such as / T, j, j, w, f, g S/. I think when teaching,

teacher should compare 2 sounds (Vietnamese sound and English sound). This helps students to

be easy to imagine how a sound is articulated. For example, s “sing” in English is pronounced as

similarly as x “xinh” in Vietnamese. /w/ “what” in English is pronounced as similarly as qu

“quát” in Vietnamese. In addition, /j/ “Yes” is articulated as similarly as /d/ “dạ”

In conclusion, in my opinion, pronunciation part plays an important role in studying

English. Articulating correctly, you will listen and speak well. Nowadays, the aim of learning is

to communicate others. Therefore, if we only good at Grammar, it is not enough. Because when

you speak correctly with grammar but your pronunciation is wrong, people will don’t

understand. As a rural student, with good marks to pass entrance exam because my test only is

grammar. Hence, when I study at the first year of university, I have much difficulty in learning

English. The most difficulty is pronouncing wrongly many sounds; this lead to my listening and

speaking are very poor. Many words are written I know meaning of them but when teacher speak

those words I don’t understand. The reason is I don’t know exactly how those are pronounced.

This is also reason why I do this topic; I want to find out more by contrasting my mother tongue

and English. Moreover, the studies also suggest some implications for teaching , both

English and Vietnamese for high school students. I hope that this paper, to a certain extent,

will help much for further exploration in this area and language teachers some idea for their

teaching.
 English and Vietnamese Consonants 14

Reference

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Consonants. Dec 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant

Celce – Murcia, M & Brinton, D.M. & Goodwin, J.M. 1996 Teaching Pronunciation A

Reference to Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Langugages. Cambridge

University Press.

Đoàn Thiện Thuật. (1980). Ngữ âm tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Đại học và Trung học Chuyên nghiệp.

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http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic543069.files/Lecture%20slides%20and%20hand

outs/Vietnamese_Sounds.pdf

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Maner of articulation. Dec 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manner_of_articulation

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O’Grady, W. & Dobrovolsky, M. & Arnoff, M (1987) Contemporary Linguistics An Introdution

Toronto : Copp Clark Pitman.

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http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19074

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http://www.david-kilgour.com/mp/sahla.htm

Vocal organs. N.d, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vocal+organ