Instituto Superior “Josefina Contte”

Carreras: Profesorado en Inglés - Tecnicatura Superior en Traducción en Inglés

Unidad Curricular: Fonética y Fonología I

Curso y División: 1° Turno: Mañana - Tarde

Profesora: Lic. Mariana Sottile

The following theoretical framework is built from extracts from:

Kelly, G. (2000). Chapter 4. “Consonants”. How to teach pronunciation. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Underhill, A. (2005). Part 1: “Sounds in Isolation”. Sound Foundations. Learning and Teaching Pronunciation.
Oxford, UK: Macmillan Publishers.

Consonants

Discovery activity – The fricative consonants

Manner of articulation

1. Take each of the consonants in the second row, and choose a vowel to follow it.

[-] [+] [-] [+] [-] [+] [-] [+]

You could use these words:

fire /f/ via /v/

three /θ/ then /ð/

sue /s/ zoo /z/

shore /ʃ/ measure /ʒ/

Say each one aloud slowly. What movement in your mouth coincides with the first audible sound of each
consonant?

Can you feel vibration of your vocal cords in all cases? If you look at the [+] and [-] sounds below each
phoneme above, you can check your own pronunciation:

[+] = voiced and lenis

[-] = unvoiced and fortis

2. Do the same again but this time whisper, and notice two things: what happens in your mouth immediately
prior to the onset of the consonant, and what happens immediately at the onset of the audible consonant?
 3. Try miming the words. If you exaggerate slightly can you see visual clues for each consonant?

Commentary

For these eight consonant sounds the air flow through the mouth is not completely blocked, though it is restricted.
(If it were blocked a plosive sound would be produced). Even before the sound begins there may be a slight “air leak”
through this restriction.

At the beginning of the sound you’ll notice an increase in the pressure of air behind the restriction, producing an
audible friction which provides the characteristic sound of that consonant. Sounds produced by this kind of friction
are called fricatives, and, unlike plosives, fricatives can be sustained and given longer or shorter duration.

Kelly (2000) states that “fricatives occur when two vocal organs come close enough together for the movement of air
to be heard between them”. This type of stricture is one of close approximation.

Place of articulation

In the previous activity we found that the second row of consonants are produced by friction, which involves
restricting the air flow through the mouth. Although there are eight phonemes in this row, there are only four places
in the mouth where the restriction to the air flow is made, each place yielding two phonemes, one voiced and lenis
and one unvoiced and fortis. These four places give four different and characteristic sound qualities, and the
voiced/unvoiced contrast in each place gives a total of eight sounds.

Discovery activity – The places where the fricatives are produced

1. /f/ and /v/. Say the words fire and via aloud. Where in your mouth do you make the restriction that causes
friction?

You should find that you are producing the friction for this pair of consonants by pressing your bottom lip
lightly against the edge of your top front teeth. The technical term for this place of articulation is labiodental
(labio = lip, dental = teeth). This pair are therefore labiodental fricatives, and to distinguish between them
we have to use the full description:

Unvoiced fortis labiodental fricative = /f/

Voiced lenis labiodental fricative = /v/

Both /f/ and /v/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“free” /fri:/, “after” /ˈæftə/, “cough” /kʌf/

“vote” /vəʊt/, “avoid” /əˈvɔɪd/ “love” /lʌv/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- the lower lip makes light contact
with the upper teeth, forming a
stricture of close approximation;
- the airflow is released causing
audible friction (a hissing sound);
- /f/ is unvoiced and fortis;
 Labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ - /v/ is voiced and lenis.

2. /θ/ and /ð/. Say the words thanks and this. Where do you make the restriction?

The friction here is produced by pressing the tip of your tongue lightly against the inside edge of your top
front teeth, so that the air stream is just able to flow in between tongue and teeth, producing friction.

These two sounds are referred to as dental fricatives, and to distinguish between them we should use the
full description:

Unvoiced fortis dental fricative /θ/

Voiced lenis dental fricative /ð/

Both /θ/ and /ð/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“third” /θɜːd/, “healthcare” /ˈhelθkeə/, “fourth” /fɔːθ/

“this” /ðɪs/ “although” /ˈɔːlðəʊ/  “bathing” /ˈbeɪðɪŋ/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- the tongue tip makes light contact
with the back of the top front teeth.
Or, tongue tip may protrude
between upper and lower teeth;
- the airflow is released through the
stricture of close approximation
causing audible friction (a hissing
sound);

Dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ - /θ/ is unvoiced and fortis;

- /ð/ is voiced and lenis.

3. /s/ and /z/. Say Sue and zoo. Where do you make the restriction to the air flow and the resulting friction?

The friction is produced by pressing the blade of your tongue lightly against the alveolar ridge, and so these
two sounds are referred to as alveolar fricatives. To distinguish between them we should use the full
description:

Unvoiced fortis alveolar fricative /s/

Voiced lenis alveolar fricative /z/

Both /s/ and /z/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“Sue” /su:/, “aside” /əˈsaɪd/, “this” /ðɪs/

“zoo” /zu:/,  “noisy” /ˈnɔɪzi/, “these” /ði:z/

 Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- the tongue blade makes light
contact with the alveolar ridge;
- the airflow is released through the
stricture of close approximation
causing audible friction (a hissing
sound);
- /s/ is unvoiced and fortis;
- /z/ is voiced and lenis.
Alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/

4. /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. Say the words fashion and fusion. Where do you produce the friction?

The friction here is produced with the tongue at a point slightly further back from /s/ and /z/, so that the
blade of the tongue is roughly opposite the join between the alveolar ridge and the palate. In addition, the
centre of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate, the air flowing with some friction between the raised
tongue and the hard palate. The technical term for this place of articulation is palato-alveolar. If we include
the manner of articulation then this pair are called palato-alveolar fricatives, and to distinguish between
them we need to use the full description:

Unvoiced fortis palato-alveolar fricative = /ʃ/

Voiced lenis palato-alveolar fricative = /ʒ/

/ʃ/ can occur word initially, medially and finally:

“shame” /ʃeɪm/, “wishes” /ˈwɪʃɪz/, “cash” /kæʃ/

/ʒ/ rarely occurs initially (except from few non-English words used in English) or finally, but it’s frequent
intervocalically, ie between vowel sounds in the middle of words:

“genre” /ˈʒɔːnrə/, “garage” /ˈgærɑːʒ/, “pleasure” /ˈpleʒə/

Characteristics
- the soft palate is raised, producing
oral sounds;
- the tongue blade makes light
contact with the alveolar ridge, and
the front of the tongue is raised;
- the airflow is released causing
audible friction (a hissing sound);
- /ʃ/ is unvoiced and fortis;
- /ʒ/ is voiced and lenis.
Palato-alveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/