ACCENTS in ENGLISH

CONSONANTS

dr Hanna Dziczek-Karlikowska
 English consonantal phonemes and semivowels
bilabial labio- dental alveol post- palato- palatal velar glottal
dental ar alveolar alveolar

plosives
p b t d kg

affricates
ʧ ʤ

fricatives
f v Ɵ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

nasals
m n ŋ

laterals
l

approximant
r

semivowels
j w
 The table shows:
1. Place of articulation (e.g.
bilabial, alveolar)
2. Manner of articulation
(place of stricture/closure) (e.g.
plosives, fricatives)
3. Voicing (voiced or voiceless)
 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF SOUNDS

• Reading: Ladefoged, P. A Course in Phonetics.

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1. Position of the glottis
- voiced
- voiceless
2. Type of release
- oral (velic closure; ‘velic’ comes
from velum)
- nasal (velic opening): nasal
consonants
- oral-nasal: nasalized vowels, as in
French or Polish
 3. Type of stricture (mannaer of
articulation)
• complete closure and instantaneous release: stops [nasal
and oral (plosion)]
• complete closure followed by delayed release: affricates
• extremely short closure, so that there is no possibility of
pressure build-up: taps (also called flaps as in American r)
• rolled – two or more extremely short closures r (French,
Spanish)
• narrowing sufficient to cause friction: fricatives
• approximant – approximation of the articulators, but not
narrow enough to cause friction (r, l, j, w)
 4. Place of stricture/articulation

• bilabial • palatal
• labio-dental • velar
• dental • glottal: English /h,
• alveolar Ɂ/. Note: these
• post-alveolar sounds are also
called ‘laryngeals’.
• palato-alveolar
 5. Functional criterion – syllabicity

• vowels: syllabic vocalic sounds

• semivowels: non-syllabic vocalic sounds
(glides)
• syllabic consonants (in English they occur only
in certain contexts, e.g. /l/ is syllabic in
‘battle’)
• nonsyllabic consonants
 Almost all sounds can be classified from the
point of view of these five criteria, for example,
the [p] in spy is and [n] in now:

[p] [n]
1. Voiceless Voiced
2. Oral Nasal
3. Stop (plosive) Stop (nasal)
4. Bilabial Alveolar
5. Non-syllabic Syllabic