English Phonetics and Phonology

Consonant sounds

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 BREAKFAST

• /b/
• /r/
• /k/
• /f/
• /s/
• /t/

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Speech sounds can be divided into three
main types:

• Stops (or plosives) and affricates

• Fricatives
• Vowels and approximants

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 We will first focus on stops and
fricatives which are classified according
to
• The place in which they are articulated
• Whether they are voiced or not (vibration of vocal
folds)
• Whether they are oral or nasal (for stops only)

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 Places of articulation
1. Bilabial (lips)
2. Labio-dental (lips-teeth)
3. Interdental
Dental (teeth)
4. Alveolar ridge
5. Post-alveolar
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6. Palatal (palate)
7. Velar (velum)
8. Glottal (glottis)
9. Uvula (uvulum)

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 Voicing: A consonant may be

• Voiced (lenis)
• Voiceless (fortis)

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A stop is composed of three phases

• Closure
• Hold (the passage of air from the lungs is blocked)
• Release – the difference in air pressure between the
area behind the closure and the atmosphere results
in a small explosion

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 The place of articulation is where
the passage of air is blocked

• For example /t/

and /d/ are both
produced by
blocking the
passage of air at the
alveolar
ridge/dental region

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 English plosives (stops)

• /p/ and /b/ are voiceless and voiced bilabials i.e.

produced with both lips
• /t/ and /d/ are voiceless and voiced alveolars
• /k/ and /g/ are voiceless and voiced velars

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What consonant pair is this?

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That’s right! /p/, /b/

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And this?

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/k/, /g/

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 What is the difference
between these two slides?

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In the first (/b/, /p/) the passage of air
to the nose is blocked by the raised
velum, in the second this passage is
open, giving us a nasal. What
consonant is it?

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It’s /m/

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 Let’s look at other positions
– in the alveolar position we
have /t/ and /d/, and the nasal
/n/:

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 In a similar way at the velum we
have /k/ and /g/, and the nasal //:

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 Fricatives

• Are created by forming a constriction through

which air from the lungs may pass, but not freely.
• This lack of freedom causes audible turbulence, or
friction, hence the name fricative.
• As for stops they may be voiceless or voiced .

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Let’s look at a fricative pair which causes
non-native speakers of English a lot of
trouble and //:

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Air passes through a small gap between the
tongue and the upper teeth causing a low
friction sound:

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 In the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/, the
friction noise is quite loud, as air hits the
upper teeth causing a hiss.

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What fricative pair is represented here?

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That’s right - /f/,and /v/

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And here?

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 This is the post-alveolar pair // and
//. Note that a small shift of the
tongue from the /s/, /z/ position directs
the flow of air onto the alveolar ridge.

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 Affricates
These may be
considered as stop +
fricative
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 An affricate is composed of the
following stages

• Closure
• Hold
• A small opening instead of the complete opening of
the stop.
• This small opening causes friction just like a
fricative

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 Affricates - articulation

• The place of articulation is always the same for

both stages
• Affricates are always either voiced or unvoiced

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 In English we have two affricates:

• // church and // George

• Both are realised in the post-alveolar position

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Here are the two main phases.

1. Hold

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2. Release with constriction

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 Here is the IPA consonant chart

White represents standard British English

consonants, light blue possible allophones, and
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dark blue exotic consonants