CONSONANTS

Next major topic: Consonant articulation.

Whats a vowel? A speech sound produced with a (relatively)
unimpeded air stream.
Whats a consonant? A speech sound produced with air stream
impeded, constricted, diverted, or obstructed.
As before: Vowels are open-ish, consonants are closed-ish.
Classification system for vowels:
tongue height, frontness, and lip rounding
Classification system for consonants:
place, manner, and voicing

A. Place (also called place of articulation): Where is the breath
stream impeded, constricted, diverted, or obstructed? For example:
lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, velum,
These are the articulatory landmarks that we reviewed earlier. More
on place later.
B. Manner: How is the breath stream impeded, constricted, diverted,
or obstructed? For example:
1. stop or plosive: complete obstruction of air stream
|b|, |d|, |g|, |p|, |l|, |L| |?| (glottal stop, as in uh-oh)
2. fricative: air passed thru a narrow channel, creating turbulence.
|s|, |j| (as in shoe), |!|, |0| (as in theory) [h],
|z|, || (as in Zsa Zsa), |v|, || (as in this).
3. nasal: air stream redirected (diverted) through the nasal cavity.
|m|, |n|, |p| (as in sing)

Manner categories continued
4. affricate complete obstruction of air stream followed by
fricative release.
[tj| (as in choke), |d| (as in joke)
5. approximants: consonants that are almost like vowels
[r| |I| |v| |j| (as in yellow)
These are the open-est of the closed-ish sounds breath stream
is fairly unimpeded. But, these sounds pattern like consonants;
i.e., speakers treat them like consonants not vowels.
a rat or an rat ? a lake or an lake ?
a walk or an walk ? a yak or an yak ?
So, these are consonants and thats that, even if we cant supply a
neat definition separating vowels from consonants.

Manner categories continued
Two Types of Approximants

Liquids Glides (also called semivowels)
[r| |I| |v| |j|

Why are [r|, |I| called liquids and |v|, |j| called glides? Easy:
They just are. If theres a good reason for this I dont know it, But,
youll have to learn it same as everyone else.

6. flap: Like a stop, but closure is very brief
[i| (as in kitty, butter, Betty, later)
There are other manner classes, but the 6 I listed are the ones
needed for English.

C. Voicing
Are the vocal folds vibrating?


Yes No

Voiced Unvoiced/Voiceless

English has many pairs of consonants that are identical in all other
ways except for voicing. Some examples:
|b|-|p|, |d|-|l|, |g|-|L|, |z|-|s|, ||-|j|, |v|-|!|, ||-|0|
These are called voiced-voiceless cognates.
1. Stops in English
Voiced: |b| |d| |g|
Unvoiced: |p| |l| |L| |?| (|?| is a bit of an odd bird later)
Notes on Stop Consonants (Plosives)
a. Dental (rather than alveolar) stops are rather common in some
dialects of Am Eng working class dialects in NY, NJ, Philly,
etc. Symbols: |d | and |l|. The diacritic that indicates a dental
stop is a little dealie that looks like a tooth. |d| and |l| are
allophones of /d/ and /t/ in English. They occur as distinct
phonemes in some languages.
b. Stops involve a build up of pressure behind the occlusion
followed by release. The velum has to be in the up position
for the pressure to build; i.e., the V-P (velopharhyngeal) port
needs to be closed.
What problems might speakers with cleft palate have in
producing stops?
Summary of IPA Consonant Symbols
(excluding the obvious ones b,d,g,p,t,k,l,w,r, etc.)

[0| thin
|| then
|j| yellow (not the sound association typical for the letter j in English)
|j| / |s| shoe (either symbol may be used for this sound; |j| preferred here)
|| / |z| measure (ditto but learn both because youll see both)
|?| uh-oh / button
|lj| / |c| church (symbols interchangeable; |lj| preferred here; learn both)
|d| / |j| judge (ditto |d| preferred here; learn both)
|n| which / whether (for those speakers who distinguish which/witch)
|p| sing
|i| butter
c. Glottal stops occur in a few exclamatory words like uh-uh (no) or
uh-oh (whoops). Theyre more common that you might think,
though. Glottal stops often serve as separators, as in:
no notion vs. known ocean
|no nojon| vs. |non ?ojon|
353-7200: Phone number with 00 spoken as oh-oh. A glottal stop will
almost always be inserted to separate the two ohs; e.g.
|o?o|
Glottal stops also appear as an allophone of /t/:
button [b:?n|
kitten [Li?n|
cotton |Lu?n |
smIllcn |smi?n|

The line beneath the phonetic symbol (|n|) means syllabic consonant
the consonant forms a syllable all by itself.
d. Aspiration
Voiced stops are never aspirated.
Voiceless stops are sometimes aspirated and sometimes not.
These voiceless stops will be aspirated:
a. Word-initial, regardless of stress:
tap, cat, Topeka (stop precedes an unstressed vowel), command (ditto)
|l
h
p| |L
h
l| |l
h
opILo| |L
h
omnd|
b. Intervocalic (between 2 vowels) but only when
preceding a stressed vowel.
meticulous, repair, recalcitrant, return
These voiceless stops will be unaspirated:
a. Following /s/
stop, skate, stick, stare, spike
b. Intervocalic, preceding an unstressed vowel
napping, camper, sicken, supper
(Note: Sometimes these are unaspirated,
sometimes they are lightly aspirated.)

See Table 5-2 (p. 96) of MacKay for a nice
summary with examples.

Voice Onset Time (VOT)
VOT = Interval between articulatory release and onset of
voicing.
voicing onset
release
|p
h
u| |bu|
voicing onset and
release ~ simultaneous
VOT ~0 msec
VOT ~85 msec
Voice Onset Time (VOT)
voicing onset
release
|p
h
ul| |spul|
Very short delay between
release and voicing onset
(~10 ms)
VOT ~10 msec
VOT ~85 msec
|spul| (unaspirated [p])
With [s] edited out
pack |p
h
L| capping |L
h
pip|
(aspirated [p]) (lightly aspirated [p])
/p/ precedes stressed
vowel (aspirated)
/p/ precedes unstressed
vowel (unaspirated or
lightly aspirated)
2. Fricatives
Mechanism of sound production is simple: Air is passed through a
narrow channel, creating turbulence. Turbulence = noise.
When you look at white water on a river or stream you are looking
at turbulence. (You can also hear this turbulence; this is the noise you hear
when white water passes between boulders and whatnot.)
All fricatives involve this turbulence-generating mechanism.
English fricatives:
Voiceless: |!| |0| (theory) |s| |j| (shoe) [h]
Voiced: |v| || (this) |z| || (Zsa Zsa)
All English fricatives except (maybe) [h] form voiced-
voiceless cognates:
|v|-|!| ||-|0| |z|-|s| ||-|j|
For each pair: Same place, same manner, different voicing.
FRICATIVES

WEAK (not very loud) STRONG (comparatively loud)

Slit Fricatives Groove Fricatives
[!| |v| |0| || |h| |s| |z| |j| ||


(constriction shape for (constriction shape
for weak fricatives) for strong fricatives)
Long flat constriction = More circular constriction
Inefficient noise generator Efficient noise generator
(noise is weak) (noise is strong)
|!|-|v|:
Place = Labiodental (lips-teeth)
Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or
grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise.
No resonator in front of the constriction; spectrum has a
pretty flat shape (no well-defined resonant peaks)
|!u|:
|vu|:
spectrum during [f] noise (flat)
spectrum during [v] noise (flat,
but with periodic buzz)
|0|-||:
Place = Linguadental (tongue-teeth)
Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or
grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise
No resonator in front of the constriction; like [f] and [v],
spectrum has a pretty flat shape (no well-defined resonant
peaks)
Place is always listed as linguadental, but for || in
particular the tongue is often behind the top teeth;
i.e., || is more often dental than
linguadental/interdental

|s|-|z|:
Place = alveolar
Round-ish, grooved constriction; these produce a strong
noise
Short resonator in front of the constriction formed by the
lips; spectrum has a strong high-frequency formant peak.
Why high freq? Short tubes have high-freq resonances.
|su|:
|z|: Spectrogram for [z] (not shown) is very similar, except that
voicing (a glottal buzz) will be mixed in with the noise, just like
|v| and ||.
spectrum during [s] noise (hi freq peak)
|j|-|| (also |s| and |z|; small wedge over |s|/|z| = hacek):
Place = Alveopalatal/Palatoalveolar/Prepalatal
Round-ish, grooved constriction; these produce a strong
noise
Relative to [s]-[z]: Place further back and lips are rounded.
Result: Longer resonator in front of the constriction;
longer tubes have lower resonant freqs. So, |j| has more low
freq energy than |s|; || has more low freq energy than |z|.
|su|:
|ju|:
More low
freq energy
for |ju| than
|su|. Same
deal for ||
and |z|.
|h|:
Place = Glottal (whisper)
Tongue, lips & jaw dont have anything in particular to do in
the production of [h] since it is a glottal articulation.
Since the vocal tract can do whatever it pleases during [h],
the tongue, lips & jaw will take the position of the following
vowel.
[h], then, is simply a whispered vowel:
he |hI|: |h| = whispered |I|
who |hu|: |h| = whispered |u|
hoe |ho|: |h| = whispered |o|
. .
. .
. .
|n|:
Voiced glottal fricative, which may seem impossible.
When /h/ occurs between two vowels, as in:

behind
behold
ahoy
The glottal fricative can be breathy (partially voiced) rather
than whispered. In breathy voice, the glottis is simultaneously
producing hiss and buzz. Phonetically, the resulting sound is
called a voiced glottal fricative, though voiced (periodic)
and unvoiced (hissy or aperiodic) elements from the glottis
are mixed; the symbol is |n|.

hoy |hI|
ahoy |onI|
spectrum during |h| no harmonics
spectrum during |n| note the harmonics
|h|
|n|
3. Nasals
Vocal tract is closed (at the lips, alveolar ridge, or velum); velum is
lowered; acoustic energy flows through the nose rather than
mouth.
|m|: bilabial
|n|: alveolar
|p|: velar

|p|: Symbol called engma or long n
|p| can end words (sing |sip|; lung |I:p|, bang |bcp|, etc.)
or appear in the middles of words (singer |sipo|, sinker
|sipLo|, IanguId |Icpgvid|), but |p| cannot begin
words.

NOTE: Spelling convention: ng = |p|, but there is no |g| in sing,
singer, song, hanger, stirring, bang, banger, etc.

A |g| may follow the |p|, though:

strangle |slicpgoI|
Bangor |bcpgo|
languid |Icpgvid|
mangle |mcpgoI|
jungle |d:pgoI|
|L| following |p| is also common:
sinker |sipLo|
lanky |IcpLI|
blank |bIcpL|
clunker |LI:pLo|

4. Affricates
There are only 2 on these in English:
|lj| and |d| (also |c| and |j|)
church |ljolj| (or |coc|)
judge |d:d| (or ||j:j|)
The mechanism of sound production combines stop and fricative: the
vocal tract is completely occluded (with the velum up); the stop-like
occlusion is released into a short-ish fricative: |j| or ||.

Place: Alveopalatal/Palatoalveolar/Prepalatal; the same as |j|-||,
not the same as |l|-|d|.
Place, in my opinion, is not alveolar, as indicated in the text.
5. Approximants
Two Types of Approximants

Liquids Glides (also called semivowels)
[r| |I| |v| |j|

red |icd| led |Icd| wed |vcd| yet |jcl|
These sounds are vowel-ish consonants, though they are
definitely consonants. For |i v j| (i.e., all but |I|), there is a
vowel with the same quality:
|i| -> |o| |v| -> |u| |j| -> |I|
|i| is the consonant version of |o|
|v| is the consonant version of |u|
|j| is the consonant version of |I|

5. Approximants
Two Types of Approximants

Liquids Glides (also called semivowels)
[r| |I| |v| |j|

red |icd| led |Icd| wed |vcd| yet |jcl|
Another Way to Classify Approximants
Approximants
Central Lateral
[r| |v| |j| |I|

Typical flow through
the center of the
vocal tract.
Flow around the
sides of the tongue.
|I| is called a lateral: the tongue is on the alveolar ridge, and
acoustic energy flows along the two sides (lateral margins) of the
tongue. This is how |I| gets the name lateral. Its all by itself; i.e., |I|
is the only lateral consonant in English. The remainder of the
sounds in this category (|i|, |j|, |v|) are called central approximants.

|i v j|: these are produced in the same way as |o u I|
|i|: retroflexed or bunched, somewhat rounded (like |o|)
|v|: high, back, rounded (like |u|)
|j|: high, front, spread (like |I|)
Notice that these are features of vowel articulation, not features
of consonant articulation. But since these really are consonants,
somehow we have to force these onto a consonant articulation
chart using features such as alveolar, palatal, alveopalatal, etc. Its
cumbersome and a bit forced, but its done.
|i| = alveolar (sometimes palatal); |v| = bilabial and velar; |j| = palatal
Classifications are somewhat arbitrary, but you still have to learn
them.
Last point on approximants

The symbol weve been using in here for consonant R is |i|. In the
IPA, |i| is used for a trilled R, as in Spanish (and many other
languages). The official, legitimate IPA symbol for the rhotic R that
occurs in English is |J| (lower case R rotated 180
0
counter-
clockwise). This is a headache to write, and since English does not
have a trilled R, its convenient to just borrow the |i| symbol.
6. Flap

Alveolar place; like a [d], but with very brief contact with the
alveolar ridge. Occurs as an allophone of /t/ and /d/ between
vowels and preceding unstressed vowels:

ladder |Iio|
latter |Iio| homophones
plotter |pIuio|
plodder |pIuio| homophones
kitty |LiiI|
butter |b:io|
bladder |bIio|
seedy |sIiI|
ready |iciI|
better |bcio|