Translation of Consonant in English 1. a speech sound that is not a vowel (antonym) vowel, vowel sound (hypernym) phone, speech sound, sound (hyponym) alveolar consonant, dental consonant, alveolar 2. a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken consonant (hypernym) letter, letter of the alphabet, alphabetic character Adjective 1. involving or characterized by harmony (synonym) harmonic, harmonical, harmonized, harmonised, in harmony (similar) harmonious 2. in keeping; "salaries agreeable with current trends"; "plans conformable with your wishes"; "expressed views concordant with his background" (synonym) accordant, agreeable, conformable, concordant (similar) consistent Meaning of consonant consonant Sound produced by stopping the air flowing freely through the mouth; a letter representing a sound thus defined (b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z). See also vowel. Consonants can be described in various ways, according to where and how the sound is made and whether the vocal cords in the throat vibrate or not.

Where the sound is made A... Consonant In articulatory phonetics, 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], pronounced by forcing air through a narr... Definition and Examples of Consonants Updated August 18, 2016. Definition A consonant is a speech sound that's not a vowel . The sound of a consonant is produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by a constriction of the speech organs. In writing, a consonant is any letter of the alphabet except a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. When two or more consonant sounds are pronounced in succession without an intervening vowel (as in the words dream and bursts), the group is called a consonant blend or consonant cluster . In a consonant blend, the sound of each individual letter can be heard. By contrast, in a consonant digraph (as in the word phone), two successive letters represent a single sound.

In a number of cases in English , consonant letters can be silent , such as the letter b following m (as in the word dumb), the letter k before n (know), and the letters b and p before t (debt and receipt). When a double consonant appears in a word, usually only one of the two consonants is sounded (as in ball, summer, and puppy). continue reading below our video When to Use A vs An or And | Grammar School See Examples and Observations below. Also see: From the Latin, "agree" and "sound" Examples and Observations "There are 21 consonant letters in the written alphabet (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z), and there are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents . . . . [B]ecause of the erratic history of English spelling , there is no neat one-to-one correlation between letters and sounds. In several cases, one consonant sound is spelled by more than one letter (e.g.

th in this) or one consonant letter symbolizes more than one sound (e.g. x in fox/fɒks/)." ( David Crystal , The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003) Consonant Sounds - "Our B represents probably the same sound carried by the analogous letter in Near Eastern alphabets of 30 or 40 centuries ago. "It is a consonant sound. Therefore, B is a consonant letter, the first in alphabetical sequence of our 21. If asked at a dinner party to define the word 'consonant,' someone might venture, 'Well, I know it's not a vowel . . .' and that actually is the best starting point. Whereas vowels are pronounced from the vocal cords with minimal shaping of expelled breath, consonant sounds are created through obstruction or channeling of the breath by the lips, teeth, tongue, throat, or nasal passage, variously combined. Some consonants, like B, involve the vocal cords; others don't. Some, like R or W, flow the breath in a way that steers them relatively close to being vowels." (David Sacks, Letter Perfect.

Broadway Books, 2003) - "Consonants differ from vowels in the following three ways: 1. Physiologically, [consonants] are made with complete or partial occlusion of the vowel tract. 2. Acoustically, they show significant variation in intensity from sound to sound. 3. They exhibit significant variation in duration and frequency characteristics." (Dennis M. Ruscello, Treating Articulation and Phonological Disorders in Children. Mosby, 2008) Consonant Sounds, Symbols, and Spelling - "A written sentence like 'Black cats bring good luck' becomes, in a phonetic transcription , blæk kæts brɪŋ ɡud lʌk. Even if you don't remember the phonetic symbols for the vowels, you can still see the relationship between the letters and the phonetic symbols. . . . "Consonants are fairly easy to deal with.

Each letter often corresponds to a phonetic symbol, as in the sentence 'Black cats bring good luck.' In this sentence, the only consonants that have to be changed from two letters into one symbol are the 'ck' at the end of 'black' and 'luck' and the 'ng' at the end of 'bring.'" (Peter Ladefoged, "Making Computers Talk." Practical Phonetics and Phonology, 3rd ed., edited by Beverley Collins and Inger M. Mees. Routledge, 2013) - "The 24 usual consonants occur in the following words, at the beginning unless otherwise specified: pale, tale, kale, bale, dale, gale, chain, Jane, fail, thin, sale, shale, hale, vale, this, zoo; (in the middle of) measure, mail, nail; (at the end of) sing, lay, rail, wail, Yale. Not one of these consonants is spelled in a completely consistent way in English, and some of them are spelled very oddly and inconsistently indeed.

Note that our alphabet has no single letters for spelling the consonants in chain, thin, shale, this, measure, and sing. Those letters that are commonly used for spelling consonants may be called consonant letters, but calling them consonants is loose and misleading." (R.L. Trask, Mind the Gaffe! Harper, 2006) Stop Consonants (/b d g/ /p t k/) "Many consonants are just ways of beginning or ending vowels. This is particularly true of consonants such as b, d, ɡ, each of which has a rapid movement of the lips or tongue before or after another sound such as a vowel. They are called stop consonants because the air in the vocal tract is completely stopped at some point. When forming a b in a word such as bib, the lips are firmly closed at the beginning and end of the word. In the case of d as in did it is the tip of the tongue that blocks the vocal tract by forming a closure just behind the upper front teeth. For g as in gag, the back of the tongue is raised to make a closure against the roof of the mouth. . . .

"English has another set of stop consonants, the sounds of p, t, k, as in the words pip, tit, kick." (Peter Ladefoged and Sandra Ferrari Disner, Vowels and Consonants, 3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) The Lighter Side of Consonants "Lost Consonants is a text and image word play series which illustrates a sentence from which a vital letter has been removed, altering its meaning. Welcome to a world where children have leaning difficulties and youth can become addicted to rugs; where firemen wear fame-resistant clothing, and footballers get camp in their legs; where dogs start baking and horses start catering, and where, after several days without water, everyone is really thirty." Consonant Consonant Not to be confused with the musical concept of consonance For the alternative rock group, see Consonant (band) . view · talk · edit In articulatory phonetics , 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], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose ( nasals ). Contrasting with consonants are vowels . Since the number of possible sounds in all of the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet , linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. In fact, the Latin alphabet , which is used to write English, has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so digraphs like "ch", "sh", "th", and "zh" are used to extend the alphabet, and some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled "th" in "this" is a different consonant than the "th" sound in "thin".

(In the IPA they are transcribed [ð] and [θ], respectively.) Contents 10 References Terminology The word consonant comes from Latin oblique stem cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns (littera) "sounding-together (letter)", a calque of Greek σύμφωνον sýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna). [1] [2] Dionysius Thrax calls consonants sýmphōna "pronounced with" because they can only be pronounced with a vowel. [3] He divides them into two subcategories: hēmíphōna, semivowels (half-pronounced), [4] which correspond to modern continuant consonants, not semivowels , [5] and áphōna, mute or silent consonants (unvoiced), [6] which correspond to modern stops or plosives, not to modern unvoiced or voiceless consonants.

[7] This description does not apply to some human languages , such as the Salishan languages , in which stop consonants sometimes occur without vowels (see Nuxálk ), and the modern conception of consonant does not require cooccurrence with vowels. Letters Main article: Writing system The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that denotes a consonant sound. Consonant letters in the English alphabet are B , C , D , F , G , H , J , K , L , M , N , P , Q , R , S , T , V , X , Z , and usually W and Y : The letter Y stands for the consonant [j] in "yoke", the vowel [ɪ] in "myth" and the vowel [i] in "funny", for example; W is almost always a consonant except in rare words (mostly loanwords from Welsh ) like "crwth" "cwm". There are 21 letters that are consonants.

Consonants versus vowels Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of a syllable : The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that's easiest to sing), called the syllabic peak or nucleus , is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called the onset and coda ) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world's languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world's languages. One blurry area is in segments variously called semivowels , semiconsonants, or glides. On the one side, there are vowel-like segments that are not in themselves syllabic but that form diphthongs as part of the syllable nucleus, as the i in English boil [ˈbɔɪ̯l].

On the other, there are approximants that behave like consonants in forming onsets but are articulated very much like vowels, as the y in English yes [ˈjɛs]. Some phonologists model these as both being the underlying vowel /i/, so that the English word bit would phonemically be /bit/, beet would be /bii̯t/, and yield would be phonemically /i̯ii̯ld/. Likewise, foot would be /fut/, food would be /fuu̯d/, wood would be /u̯ud/, and wooed would be /u̯uu̯d/. However, there is a (perhaps allophonic) difference in articulation between these segments, with the [j] in [ˈjɛs] yes and [ˈjiʲld] yield and the [w] of [ˈwuʷd] wooed having more constriction and a more definite place of articulation than the [ɪ] in [ˈbɔɪ̯l] boil or [ˈbɪt] bit or the [ʊ] of [ˈfʊt].

The other problematic area is that of syllabic consonants, segments articulated as consonants but occupying the nucleus of a syllable. This may be the case for words such as church in rhotic dialects of English, although phoneticians differ in whether they consider this to be a syllabic consonant, /ˈtʃɹ̩tʃ/, or a rhotic vowel, /ˈtʃɝtʃ/: Some distinguish an approximant /ɹ/ that corresponds to a vowel /ɝ/, for rural as /ˈɹɝl/ or [ˈɹʷɝːl̩]; others see these as a single phoneme, /ˈɹɹ̩l/. Other languages use fricative and often trilled segments as syllabic nuclei, as in Czech and several languages in Democratic Republic of the Congo , and China , including Mandarin Chinese . In Mandarin, they are historically allophones of /i/, and spelled that way in Pinyin .

Ladefoged and Maddieson [8] call these "fricative vowels" and say that "they can usually be thought of as syllabic fricatives that are allophones of vowels." That is, phonetically they are consonants, but phonemically they behave as vowels. Many Slavic languages allow the trill [r̩] and the lateral [l̩] as syllabic nuclei (see Words without vowels ). In languages like Nuxalk , it is difficult to know what the nucleus of a syllable is, or if all syllables even have nuclei. If the concept of 'syllable' applies in Nuxalk, there are syllabic consonants in words like /sx̩s/ 'seal fat'. Features edit Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features : [8] The manner of articulation is how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant or approximant (vowel-like) sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, and nasals. The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved.

Places include bilabial (both lips), alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), and velar (tongue against soft palate). In addition, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such as palatalisation or pharyngealisation. The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not vibrate at all, it is voiceless . The voice onset time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a feature of VOT. The airstream mechanism is how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered. Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants, which use the lungs and diaphragm, but ejectives, clicks , and implosives use different mechanisms. The length is how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in "wholly" [hoʊlli] vs. "holy" [hoʊli], but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries.

Unrelated roots are differentiated in various languages such as Italian, Japanese, and Finnish, with two length levels, "single" and "geminate". Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic lengths: short, geminate, and long geminate, although the distinction between the geminate and overlong geminate includes suprasegmental features. The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated. All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop consonant" [t]. In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted. Some pairs of consonants like p::b, t::d are sometimes called fortis and lenis , but this is a phonological rather than phonetic distinction. Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts: These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA.

Examples The extinct Ubykh language had only 3 vowels but had 80 or 81 native consonants; [9] the Taa language has 77 consonants. [10] The types of consonants used in various languages are by no means universal. For instance, nearly all Australian languages lack fricatives; a large percentage of the world's languages, for example Mandarin Chinese , lack voiced stops such as [b], [d], and [ɡ]. Most languages, however, do include one or more fricatives, with [s] being the most common, and a liquid consonant or two, with [l] the most common. The approximant [w] is also widespread, and virtually all languages have one or more nasal consonants, though a very few, such as the Central dialect of Rotokas , lack even these. Most common The most common consonants around the world are the three voiceless plosives [p], [t], [k], and the two nasals [m], [n]. However, even these common five are not universal. Several languages in the vicinity of the Sahara Desert, including Arabic , lack [p].

Several languages of North America, such as Mohawk , lack both of the labials [p] and [m]. The Wichita language of Oklahoma and some West African languages such as Ijo lack the consonant /n/ on a phonemic level, but do use it as an allophone of another consonant (of /l/ in the case of Ijo, and of /ɾ/ in Wichita). A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound , such as Makah , lack both of the nasals [m] and [n]. The 'click language' Nǁng lacks [t], [11] and colloquial Samoan lacks both alveolars, [t] and [n]. [12] Despite the 80-odd consonants of Ubykh , it lacks the plain velar /k/ in native words, as do the related Adyghe and Kabardian languages. But with a few striking exceptions, such as Xavante and Tahitian - which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever - nearly all other languages have at least one velar consonant: the few languages that do not have a simple [k] usually have a consonant that is very similar.

[13] For instance, an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest coast is that historical *[k] has become palatalized in many languages, so that Saanich for example has [tʃ] and [kʷ] but no plain [k]; [14] [15] similarly, historical *[k] in the Northwest Caucasian languages became palatalized to /kʲ/ in Ubykh and /ʧ/ in most Circassian dialects. [16] The most frequent consonant (that is, the one appearing most often in speech) in many languages is [k].[ citation needed ] Audio samples Linguistics 201: Articulatory Phonetics Articulatory Phonetics ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ We will spend the next few days studying articulatory phonetic: what is involved in the actual movement of various parts of the vocal tract during speech.ï¿½ (Use transparancy to discuss organs of speech; oral, pharyngeal and nasal cavities; articulators, lungs and diaphragm).

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ All speech sounds are made in this area.ï¿½ None are made outside of it (such as by stomping, hand clapping, snapping of fingers, farting, etc.) ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Theoretically, any sound could be used as a speech sound provided the human vocal tract is capable of producing it and the human ear capable of hearing it.ï¿½ Actually only a few hundred different sounds or types of sounds occur in languages known to exist today, considerably fewer than the vocal tract is capable of producing.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Thus, all speech sounds result from air being somehow obstructed or modified within the vocal tract. This involves 3 processes working together: a) the airstream process--the source of air used in making the sound. b) the phonation process--the behavior of the vocal cords in the glottis during the production of the sound. c) the oro-nasal process--the modification of that flow of air in the vocal track (from the glottis to the lips and nose).

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Let's discuss the airstream process first. The airstream process ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The first major way to categorize sounds according to phonetic features is by the source of air.ï¿½ Where does the air come from that is modified by the vocal organs?

Languages can use any of three airstream mechanisms to produce sounds.ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ One airstream mechanism is by far the most important for producing sounds in the world's languages.ï¿½ Most sounds in the world's languages are produced by manipulating air coming into the vocal tract as it is being exhaled by the lungs, a method referred to as the pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.ï¿½ Sounds made by manipulating air as it is exhaled from the lungs are called pulmonic egressive sounds.ï¿½ Virtually all sounds in English and other European languages are produced by manipulating exhaled air.ï¿½ And most sounds in other languages are also pulmonic egressive.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ There is another variety of this pulmonic airstream mechanism.

Inhaled air can also be modified to produce speech sounds.ï¿½ This actually occurs in a few rare and special cases, such as in Tsou, an aboriginal language of Taiwan, which has inhaled [f] and [h] ([h5/˝ps˝] ashes; [f5/tsuju], egg).ï¿½ Such sounds are called pulmonic ingressive sounds, and the airstream mechanism for making such sounds is called the ingressive rather than the egressive version of the pulmonic airstream mechanism.ï¿½ Perhaps because it is physiologically harder to slow down an inhalation than an exhalation, pulmonic ingressive sounds are extremely rare.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The majority of the sounds in all languages of the world are pulmonic egressive sounds.ï¿½ However, in addition to using air being actively exhaled (or inhaled), two other airstream mechanisms are used to produce some of the sounds in some of the world's languages.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 1) To understand the second airstream mechanism, the glottalic airstream mechanism, let's first look at a special pulmonic egressive sound, the glottal stop.

Air being exhaled from the lungs may be stopped in the throat by a closure of the glottis.ï¿½ This trapping of air by the glottis is called a glottal stop.ï¿½ English actually has a glottal stop in certain exclamations:ï¿½ [u?ow], u?u], [a?a], and in certain dialectical pronunciations: [bottle].ï¿½ The IPA renders the glottal stop as a question mark without the period.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The glottal stop itself is an example of a pulmonic egressive sound, since air from the lungs is being stopped.ï¿½ However, the glottis can be closed immediately before the production of certain other sounds, trapping a pocket of air in the vocal tract.ï¿½ If this reservoir of stationary air is then manipulated in the production of a sound it yields another type of airstream mechanism, the glottalic airstream mechanism.ï¿½ Here's how it works.

First, the vocal cords completely close so that for a brief moment no air escapes from the lungs and air is compressed in the throat (pharynx).ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ If the closed glottis is raised to push the air up and outward, an ejective consonant is produced.ï¿½ The air is forced into the vocal tract and there manipulated by the organs of speech.ï¿½ Compare glottalized vs. non-glottalized [k] in Georgian.ï¿½ Ejectives are found in the languages of the Caucasus mountains, among many Native American languages, and among the Afroasiatic languages of north Africa (Hausa, Amharic).

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ If the closed glottis is lowered to create a small vacuum in the mouth, an implosive consonant is produced.ï¿½ The lowering glottis acts like the downward movement of a piston to create a brief rarification of the air in the vocal tract.ï¿½ When the stricture in the mouth is released air moves into the mouth.ï¿½ Swahili has three implosives:ï¿½ [b], [d], [g].ï¿½ Implosives occur mostly in languages of east Africa, in several Amerindian languages and in some IE languages of northern India.ï¿½ (Compare the difference between implosives, using the glottalic airstream mechanism, and ingressives, which use inhaled air.)ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The third and final airstream mechanism used by human language is confined to certain languages of southwest Africa.ï¿½ It is called the velaric airstream mechanism.ï¿½ There is regular oral articulation, while the back of tongue seals off air from the lungs and creates a

 relative vacuum.ï¿½ Air in the mouth is rarified by backward and downward movement of the tongue.ï¿½ï¿½ When the stricture is released the air rushes in, creating a click.ï¿½ Although we think of such sounds as exotic, English uses a few of them for quasi-linguistic sound gestures:ï¿½ 'grandmother's kiss' (bilabial click), encouraging a horse (lateral click), tisk-tisk (actually a dental or alveolar click).ï¿½ Some Khoisan languages have over a dozen clicks.

(release of click can be supplemented by additional features: aspirated,ï¿½ nasal/ non-nasal). One Khoisan language ï¿½!Xung has 48 different click sounds. A few of the Bantu languages of South Africa, such as Zulu, have clicks; presumably, these sounds were borrowed from the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi (Hottentot) peoples who originally lived throughout all southern Africa.ï¿½ï¿½ Zulu and the other Bantu languages that use clicks spell them with the letters c, x, q. (cf. the name of the tribe Xhosa).ï¿½ Notice that clicks stop up the air only in the oral cavity; pulmonic air continues through the nose (one can produce a nasal hum while producing clicks).

ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ For the sake of completeness, it should be said that at least one other airstream mechanism could possibly be used for producing sounds in human language.ï¿½ A puff of air could be trapped in either cheek, then released to be manipulated by the speech organs.ï¿½ This is the airstream mechanism employed by the Walt Disney character Donand Duck and could be called the buccal airstream mechanism.ï¿½ So far as we know, Donald Duck is unique in using it. And no language uses a gastric airstream mechanism, which would be modifying air burped up from the stomach.

The phonation process ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The vocal cords can be in one of several positions during the production of a sound.ï¿½ The muscles of the vocal cords in the glottis can behave in various ways that affect the sound.ï¿½ The effect of this series of vocal cord states is called the phonation process.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Voicing.ï¿½ Vocal cords can be narrowed along their entire length so that they vibrate as the air passes through them.ï¿½ All English vowels are voiced.ï¿½ Voiceless vowels also occur but are far rarer than voiceless consonants are much more common than voiceless vowels.ï¿½ Voiceless vowels usually occur between voiceless consonants, as in Japanese. No language has only voiceless vowels; a language has either only voiced vowels or voiced and a few voiceless vowels.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ There are also several other vocal cord states that are used to modify sound in the world's languages.ï¿½ None is used as a regular feature of English. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Laryngealization.ï¿½ The posterior (artenoid) portion of the vocal cords can be closed to produce a laryngealized or creaky sound.ï¿½ This doesn't play a meaningful role in English phonology, althoght we might use a creaky voice to imitate an old witch when reading fairy tales.ï¿½ Some languages of Southeast Asia and Africa have creaky vowels and consonants, as in Margi, a Nigerian language:ï¿½ ja to give birth/ laryngealized ja thigh; or in Lango a Nilotic language:ï¿½ man this/ laryngealized man testicles.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Murmur.ï¿½ The anterior (ligamental) portion of the vocal cords can be closed, with the vocal cords vibrating.ï¿½ This produces murmured or breathy sounds.ï¿½ Murmured or breathy vowels occur in some languages of Southeast Asia.ï¿½ We make murmured sounds to imitate the Darth Vader voice.ï¿½ In many Indo-European languages of India the stop consonants have a murmured release;ï¿½ in other words the anterior portion of the vocal cords remain closed after the stop has been produced during part of the time the vowel is pronounced:ï¿½ bh, dh, gh, Buddha.ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Whisper.ï¿½ A similar vocal cord state is used to produce the whisper.ï¿½ The vocal chords are narrowed but not vibrated, narrowing is more complete at the anterior end, less so at the posterior end.ï¿½ Whispered sounds do not contrast with non-whispered sounds to produce differences of meaning in any known language, but the whispered voice is common as a speech variant across languages.

ï¿½ There is no IPA symbol for a whispered sound.

The oro-nasal process ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Regardless of which airstream mechanism is used, speech sounds are produced when the moving air is somehow obstructed within the vocal tract.ï¿½ The vocal tract consists of three joined cavities:ï¿½ the oral cavity, the nasal cavity, and the pharyngeal cavity. The surfaces and boundaries of these cavities are known as the organs of speech.ï¿½ What happens to the air within these cavities is known as the oro-nasal process.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Let's talk first about the oro-nasal process in the articulation, or production, of consonants. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ There are two major ways to classify the activity of the speech organs in the production of consonants:ï¿½ place of articulation and manner of articulation.

Consonantal place of articulation ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The place of articulation is defined in terms of two articulators These may be: lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, tongue tip (apex), tongue blade (laminus), or back of the tongue (dorsum), hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula, glottis, pharynx, glottis (the "voice box," or cartilaginous structure where the vocal cords are housed). bilabial [b, p, m, w] labiodental, [f, v] interdental, [T, D] (apico)-dental the tip (or apex) of the tongue and the back teeth:ï¿½ Spanish [t, d, s, z]. alveolar (apico-or lamino-) tongue and alveolar ridge (compare 'ten' vs. 'tenth').

Examples:ï¿½ English [t, d, s, z] postalveolar or palatoalveolar (apico- or lamino-) (English [S]/[Z]), retroflex (apico-palatal) bottom of the tongue tip and palate, or alveolar ridge:ï¿½ Midwest English word-initial [ï¿½] and [t, d, n] in many Dravidian languages and many languages of Australia. palatal (apico- or lamino-) (English [j]),ï¿½ [S]/[Z] in many languages velar or dorso-velar Eng. [k, g, N]ï¿½ German [x]ï¿½ Greek [V] uvular French [R], also found in many German dialects.ï¿½ï¿½ pharyngeal (constriction of the sides of the throat),ï¿½ glottal (glottal stop, the vocal chords are the two articulators. cf. A-ha, bottle, Cockney English 'ave).ï¿½ [h] is a glottalic fricative sound.

Manner of articulation ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Now let's look at the ways that moving air can be blocked and modified by various speech organs.ï¿½ There are several methods of modifying air when producing a consonant, and these methods are called manners of articulation. We have already examined where the air is blocked.ï¿½ Now let's look at how the air can be blocked. 1) Sounds that completely stop the stream of exhaled air are called plosives:ï¿½ [d], [t], [b], [p], and [g], [k], glottal stop.ï¿½ Another word for plosive is stop (nasals are also stops, however, since the air is stopped in the oral cavity during their production). 2) Sound produced by a near complete stoppage of air are called fricatives: [s], [z], [f], [v], [T], [D], [x], [V], [h], pharyngeals.

3) Sometimes a plosive and a fricative will occur together as a single, composite sound called an affricate:ï¿½ [tS], [ts], [dz], [dZ], [pf].ï¿½ 4) All other types of continuant are produced by relatively slight constriction of the oral cavity and are called approximants.ï¿½ Approximants are those sounds that do not show the same high degree of constriction as fricatives but are more constricted than are vowels. During the production of an approximant, the air flow is smooth rather than turbulent. There are four types of approximants. a) The glottis is slightly constricted to produce [h], a glottalic approximant. b) If slight stricture occurs between the roof of the mouth and the tongue a palatal glide is produced [j].ï¿½ If the constriction is between the two lips, a labiovelar glide is produced.ï¿½ The glides [j] and [w] are also called semivowels, since they are close to vowels in degree of blockage.

c) If the stricture is in the middle of the mouth, and the air flows out around the sides of the tongue, a lateral is produced.ï¿½ Laterals, or lateral approximants, are the various l-sounds that occur in language.ï¿½ In terms of phonetic features, l-sounds are + lateral, while all other sounds are + central. d) The third type of approximant includes any of the various R-sounds that are not characterized by a flapping or trilling: alveolar and retroflex approximants.ï¿½ This includes the American English r (symbolized in the IPA by an upside down [ï¿½], but we will use the symbol [r]).ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ It the air flow is obstructed only for a brief moment by the touch of the tongue tip against the teeth or alveolar ridge, a tap, or tapped [|] is produced:ï¿½ cf. Am Engl ladder; British Engl.

very.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ If the tongue tip is actually set in motion by the flow of air so that is vibrates once, a flap or flapped r is produced:ï¿½ this is the sound of the Spanish single r.ï¿½ Flaps can even be labio-dental, as in one African language, Margi, spoken in Northern Nigeria. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ If the air flow is set into turbulence several times in quick succession, a trill is produced.ï¿½ Trills may be alveolar, produced by the apex of the tongue: the Spanish double rr perro; the French uvular [R]: de rien; Bilabial trills [B] have been found to occur in two languages of New Guinea: mBulei = rat in Titan.ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Degree of blockage ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ In discussing manner of articulation, it is also relevant to classify consonants according to the total degree of blockage.

Remember that all sounds that involve significant stoppage of air in the vocal tract are known as consonants (this distinguishes them from vowel, which are produced by very little blockage of the airstream).ï¿½ Consonants differ in the manner as well as the degree to which the airstream is blocked. While we are discussing the manner in which air is blocked, we can also classify sounds as to the degree of blockage. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Plosives, fricatives, and affricates are all sounds made by nearly complete or complete blockage of the airstream.ï¿½ For this reason they are known collectively as obstruents. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Consonants produced by less blockage of the airstream are called sonorants.ï¿½ With little blockage the airstream flows out smoothly, with relatively little turbulence.ï¿½ There are several types of sonorants, depending upon where the airstream is blocked in the vocal tract and how air flows around the impediment.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Sonorants are produced using the following manners of articulation: ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ 1) Sounds produced by stoppage at the vocal tract and release through the nose are called nasals.ï¿½ The nasals [m], [n], and [ng] have the same point of articulation as the plosives [d], [b], and [g], except that the velum rises and air passes freely through the nose during their production; the oral stoppage is not released.ï¿½ Plosives are also known as oral stops, to distinguish them from the nasal stops.ï¿½ All known languages have at least one nasal except for several Salishan languages spoken around the Puget Sound (including Snohomish)ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ The division of consonants into obstruents and sonorants is not absolute.ï¿½ In some languages, such as Russian, the glide [j] is produced by much more blockage and could almost as easily be called a fricative.ï¿½ Also

, some l- and r- sounds are definitely fricatives rather than approximants.ï¿½ Some types of l- and r-sounds are characterized by a highly turbulent flow of air over the tongue, even more than for the trilled [r].

In Czech, besides the regular flapped r, there is a strident trilled and tensed [r] which is much more like an obstruent than a sonorant. Navaho has a fricative [tl] which is definitely more fricative than approximant. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Because all l- and r- sounds (whether approximant and non-approximant) are produced in the same way--with the the air flowing around or over the tongue like water moving around a solid object--there is a collective term for these sounds:ï¿½ liquids. Liquids and nasals are sometimes able to carry a syllable.ï¿½ Syllabic r and l occur in Czech and Slovak:ï¿½ StrC prst skrz krk. The IPA uses a dot beneath them to signify syllabicity. Review of some articulatory terminology Stops (air completely blocked in the oral cavity)-nasal and oral (plosives).

Obstruents (high degree of blockage) include: plosives, fricatives, and affricates. Sonorants (low degree of blockage)include: nasals and approximants.ï¿½ Approximants (the lowest degree of blockage) include: the glottal approximant [h], the glides [j] and [w], and most l- and r-sounds. Liquid:ï¿½ all l- and r- sounds, whether fricative or approximant. Go over the handout on the English sound system (up to the vowel questions) Secondary articulation features in consonants ï¿½ï¿½ Lack of release.ï¿½ Plosives may not be released fully when pronounced at the end of words.ï¿½ This occurs with English [p} b}, t}, d}, k}, g}] ï¿½ Length.ï¿½ Consonants may be relatively long or short. ï¿½Long consonants and vowels are common throughout the world, cf.

Finnish, Russian: zhech/szhech to burn;ï¿½ Italian:ï¿½ pizza, spaghetti.ï¿½ Long or double consonants are also known as geminate consonants and are indicated in the IPA by the symbol [ï¿½].ï¿½ Geminate plosives and affricates are also known as delayed release consonants. ï¿½ï¿½ Nasal release.ï¿½ In certain African languages: [dn]. ï¿½ï¿½ Palatalization. Concomitant raising of the blade of the tongue toward the palate:ï¿½ cannon/canyon, do/dew; ï¿½common among the sounds of Russian and other East-European languages: ï¿½mat/mat'ï¿½ luk/lyuk.ï¿½ There are thousands of such doublets in Russian. ï¿½ï¿½ Labialization. Concomitant lip rounding cf. sh in shoe vs.

she (IPA uses a superscript w to transcribe labialization) In some languages of Africa the constrast between labialized and non-labialized sounds signal differences in meaning, as in Twi:ï¿½ ofaï¿½ he finds/ ofwaï¿½ snail. ï¿½ï¿½ Velarization.ï¿½ï¿½ The dorsum of the tongue is raised slightly.ï¿½ Compare the l in wall, allï¿½ (velarized or dark l) vs. like, land (continental or light l).ï¿½ The glide [w] is also slightly velarized. In Russian all non-palatalized consonants are velarized.ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ Pharyngealization.ï¿½ Concomitant constriction of throat. Afroasiatic languages of north Africa, such as Berber: zurn they are fat/ zghurn they made a pilgrimage. ï¿½ï¿½ Tensing.ï¿½ The muscles of the articulators can be or lax when pronouncing a sound.ï¿½ Cf.

Korean stops:ï¿½ Lax unvoiced p, lax voiced b, tense unvoiced pp.ï¿½ Tensing also occurs in the vocal cords during the production of tensed stops, so tenseness could also have been listed under phonation processes. The oro-nasal process in vowels Go over part D on the handout now; go over part E during the lecture on vowels. ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Sounds produced by no blockage other than a slight raising of the tongue or a narrowing of the lips are called vowels.ï¿½ Vowels differ in several phonetic features.ï¿½ Three are most important. 1) which part of the tongue is raised:ï¿½ front/central/back (mention the difference between the [a] of father in English dialects.) 2) how high the tongue is raised:ï¿½ high, middle, low 3) whether or not the lips are rounded. Several other features distinguish vowels on a more limited basis across the world's languages.

4) whether or not the tongue is tense (bunched up; in English, diphthongalized) or lax (relaxed and slightly shorter, closer to the center of the oral cavity).ï¿½ï¿½ In English, stressed lax vowels only occur in closed syllables, tense vowels occur in either open or closed syllables: Tense= by, too, way, so, ma Lax= bit, but, full, get, oil/or, and, (also, hard, in New England pronunciation), as well as schwa:ï¿½ sofa 5) nasal vs. non-nasal (describe the velum and oro-nasal process) 6) long vs. short.ï¿½ Many languages have a distinction between short and long vowels:ï¿½ Hawaiian, Navajo, etc.ï¿½ Estonian has three vowel lengths;ï¿½ in English vowels are slightly longer before voiced consonants and slightly shorter before voiceless.

7) Different phonation processes involving the vocal cords produce several featural contrasts in vowels as in consonants: ï¿½ï¿½voiced/voiceless (whispered) laryngealized (creaky), murmured (breathy). There are three diphthongs in General American English ï¿½ï¿½ [aU] houseï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½[aI] like,ï¿½ï¿½ ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ [OI] oil, boy, toy Diphthongs in other American dialects.

sounds in English: summery of edwards sapir study of speech | aseel kmahmood - Academia.edu sounds in English: summery of edwards sapir study of speech Aseel Kmahmood University Of Baghdad College Of Arts English Department The Sounds of Language By: Aseel Kazum Mahmood 5th.Nov.2013 Introduction: The two terms „language‟ and „sound‟ are so common in introductory textbooks about language and linguistics and wherever there is a need to talk about communication. Sounds are essential to speech. We use speech for communication and sounds of speech are the fundamental elements of such a communication system. We consider sounds to be the basic components of speech, The ability to produce sounds is not sufficient for communication. We need a vehicle of transmitting these sounds to the ears of the hearers and that is where the study of the sounds waves comes into play. It is called acoustic phonetics. We have seen that the mere phonetic framework of speech does not constitute the inner fact of language and that the single sound of articulated speech is not, as such, a linguistic element at all.

For all that, speech is so inevitably bound up with sounds and their articulation that we can hardly avoid giving the subject of phonetics some general consideration. Production of sound: We will begin by describing how speech sounds are made. Generally speech is the result of a highly complicated series of events, the communication in sound of such a simple concept as; “it‟s raining” involves a number of activities on the part of the speaker. We can define the formulation of speech sound in terms of three stages:  The first place, the formulation of the concept will take place at the linguistic level, i.e. the brain; the first stage may be said to be psychological. The nervous system transmit this message to the so called organs of the speech and these in turn behave in conventional way, which, as we have learned by experience, will have the effect of producing a particular pattern of sound.  The second important stage for our purpose may thus be said to be articulatory or physiological. The movement of the organs of speech will create disturbance in the air, or whatever the medium.  The third stage in our chain, the physical or acoustic.

Since communication generally requires a listener as well as a speaker, these stages will be reversed at the listening end: the reception of the sound waves by the hearing apparatus (physiological) and the transmission of the information along the nervous system to the brain, where the linguistic interpretation of the message takes place (psychological). Accent and sound: The main point of language is to convey information and nowadays a language can take various forms. It can be:  Spoken.  written  As a sign for those who cannot hear. However speech is the most common way of using language, still there are a number of nonlinguistic notions conveyed by speech.it only take one few seconds to know something about a person talking to you, without considering the words they use or their meaning but mainly because of the way they say it this feature is best characterized as accent. (Roch.2009) defines an accent as ‘‟the different pronunciation of the same language by people from different geographical places, social classes, ages or educational background…etc. Q. how this definition relates to language and sound in far than the different pronunciation of the same language itself, more likely, of that of speakers of other languages? A.

Normally the speaker feels that his language is built up, acoustically speaking, of a comparatively small number of distinct sounds, each of these sounds is accurately provided for in the current alphabet by one letter or, in a few cases, by two or more alternative letters. As for the languages of foreigners, a certain unanalyzed phonetic character, apart from the sounds as such, that gives foreign speakers their air of strangeness which makes the speaker feels that the sounds they use are the same as those he is familiar with but that there is a mysterious “accent” to these foreign languages. The thing that makes the speaker sense the strangeness in his speech is accent, “accent” the way Sapir describes it is „‟as the total acoustic effect produced by a series of slight but specific phonetic errors for the very good reason that we have never made clear to ourselves our own phonetic stock in trade.‟‟ Q. What makes the speaker sense a mysterious accent in the way foreign speakers produce their native language? A. The reason to sense this mysterious accent is due to the Phonetic analysis which convinces one that the number of clearly distinguishable sounds and nuances of sounds that are habitually employed by the speakers of a language is far greater than they themselves recognize.

This is all due to the frequent failure of foreigners, who have acquired a practical mastery of English and who have eliminated all the cruder phonetic shortcomings of their less careful brethren, and by neglecting that they neglected the minor distinctions that helps to give their English pronunciation the curiously elusive “accent” that we all vaguely feel. E.g: English speaker sometimes overlook the pronunciation of certain words like that the t of a word like sting is not at all the same sound as the t of teem. The latter t having a fullness of “breath release” that is inhibited in the former case by the preceding s. Variability of speech sounds The main goal of the phonological research community is to understand the variation in the sound structure of language. A focus of this feature that sets it apart from other variation is the emphasis on understanding how knowledge of variation might be presented cognitively, a growing consensus among researchers is that at least some aspects of acoustic and articulatory variations are represented cognitively, rather than being derived by universal principles (munson2009). And still despite the peculiarity made between the two languages previously were performed merely to clear the view of the tremendous variability of speech sounds.

Yet a complete inventory of the acoustic resources of all the European languages, the languages nearer home, while unexpectedly large, would still fall far short of conveying a just idea of the true range of human articulation. In many of the languages of Asia, Africa, and aboriginal America there are whole classes of sounds that most of us have no knowledge of. They are not necessarily more difficult of enunciation than sounds more familiar to our ears; they merely involve such muscular adjustments of the organs of speech as we have never habituated ourselves to. It may be safely said that the total number of possible sounds is greatly in excess of those actually in use. Q. Why we find it difficult to believe that the range of possible speech sounds is indefinitely large? A. That is due to two reasons, firstly; our habit of conceiving the sound as a simple, unanalyzable impression instead of as the resultant of a number of distinct muscular adjustments that take place simultaneously. A slight change in any one of these adjustments gives us a new sound which is akin to the old one, because of the continuance of the other adjustments, but which is acoustically distinct from it, so sensitive has the human ear become to the nuanced play of the vocal mechanism.

Secondly; while our ear is delicately responsive to the sounds of speech, the muscles of our speech organs have early in life become exclusively accustomed to the particular adjustments and systems of adjustment that are required to produce the traditional sounds of the language. All or nearly all other adjustments have become permanently inhibited, whether through inexperience or through gradual elimination. Human ability to produce new sounds: Mostly all our speech organs have become adjusted and thus permanently inhibited to making the sounds of our language whether through inexperience or through gradual elimination in addition to that the adaptation of human ear to hearing those familiar sounds, but that does not mean losing our ability to produce new sounds, the power to produce these inhibited adjustments is not entirely lost, but the extreme difficulty we experience in learning the new sounds of foreign languages is sufficient evidence of the strange rigidity that has set in for most people in the voluntary control of the speech organs. We can compare the lack of freedom of voluntary speech movements with the all but perfect freedom of voluntary gesture and according to Fernandez& Eva (2011) phonological development statement that From birth to one year, comprehension (the language we understand) develops before production (the language we use).

And that the person until the age of ten have mostly developed a somewhat fixed phonological system of articulated muscular adjustment during which he has good command of language. By that we think of our rigidity in articulation is the price we have had to pay for easy mastery of a highly necessary symbolism. One cannot be both splendidly free in the random choice of movements and selective with deadly certainty. Organs of speech: A full account of the activity of each of the organs of speech— in so far as its activity has a bearing on language— is not impossible here, nor can we concern ourselves in a systematic way with the classification of sounds on the basis of their mechanics. a few bolded outline is all we can attempt and in the words of gibson „‟the first stage may therefore be said to be psychological.as the nerve system transmit this message of producing sound to the „‟organs of speech‟ ‟and these in turn behave in a conventional manner .

it is the movement of the organs of speech that creates disturbance in the air or whatever the medium may be through we are talking ; the varying of air pressure may be investigated and continued into the third stage which is the physical or acoustic „‟.(gimson1989) The man map of the organs of speech is around the following areas; the lungs and bronchial tubes; the throat, particularly that part of it which is known as the larynx or, in popular parlance, the “Adam‟s apple”; the nose; the uvula, uvula, which is the soft, pointed, and easily movable organ that depends from the rear of the palate; the palate, which is divided into a posterior, movable “soft palate” or velum and a “hard palate”; the tongue; the teeth; and the lips. The palate, lower palate, tongue, teeth, and lips may be looked upon as a combined resonance chamber, whose constantly varying shape, chiefly due to the extreme mobility of the tongue, is the main factor in giving the outgoing breath its precise quality of sound.

The lungs & bronchial tubes: The lungs and bronchial tubes are organs of speech only in so far as they supply and conduct the current of outgoing air without which audible articulation is impossible. They are not responsible for any specific sound or acoustic feature of sounds except, possibly, accent or stress. It may be that differences of stress are due to slight differences in the contracting force of the lung muscles, but even this influence of the lungs is denied by some students, who explain the fluctuations of stress that do so much to color speech by reference to the more delicate activity of the glottal cords. The glottal cords and the larynx: These glottal cords are two small, nearly horizontal, and highly sensitive membranes within the larynx, which consists, for the most part, of two large and several smaller cartilages and of a number of small muscles that control the action of the cords. The cords, which are attached to the cartilages, are to the human speech organs what the two vibrating reeds are to a clarinet or the strings to a violin.

They are capable of at least three distinct types of movement, each of which is of the greatest importance for speech: -They may be drawn towards or away from each other, they may vibrate like reeds or strings. -They may become lax or tense in the direction of their length. -The last class of these movements allows the cords to vibrate at different “lengths” or degrees of tenseness and is responsible for the variations in pitch which are present not only in song but in the more elusive modulations of ordinary speech. The role of glottal stops in determining voicing:  The two other types of glottal action determine the nature of the voice, “voice” being a convenient term for breath as utilized in speech. If the cords are well apart, allowing the breath to escape in unmodified form, we have the condition technically known as “voicelessness.” All sounds produced under these circumstances are “voiceless” sounds. Such are the simple, unmodified breath as it passes into the mouth, which is, at least approximately, the same as the sound that we write h, also a large number of special articulations in the mouth chamber, like p and s.

 On the other hand, the glottal cords may be brought tight together, without vibrating. When this happens, the current of breath is checked for the time being. The slight choke or “arrested cough” that is thus made audible is not recognized in English as a definite sound but occurs nevertheless not infrequently. This momentary check, technically known as a “glottal stop,” is an integral element of speech in many languages, as Danish, Lettish, certain Chinese dialects, and nearly all American Indian languages.  Between the two extremes of voicelessness, that of completely open breath and that of checked breath lies the position of true voice. In this position the cords are close together, but not so tightly as to prevent the air from streaming through; the cords are set vibrating and a musical tone of varying pitch results. A tone so produced is known as a “voiced sound.” It may have an indefinite number of qualities according to the precise position of the upper organs of speech. Our vowels, nasals (such as m and n), and such sounds as b, z, and l are all voiced sounds.

The most convenient test of a voiced sound is the possibility of pronouncing it on any given pitch, in other words, of singing on it.The voiced sounds are the most clearly audible elements of speech. As such they are the carriers of practically all significant differences in stress, pitch, and syllabification. The voiceless sounds are articulated noises that break up the stream of voice with fleeting moments of silence. Acoustically intermediate between the freely unvoiced and the voiced sounds are a number of other characteristic types of voicing, such as murmuring and whisper. These and still other types of voice are relatively unimportant in English and most other European languages, but there are languages in which they rise to some prominence in the normal flow of speech. The nose The nose is not an active organ of speech, but it is highly important as a resonance chamber. It may be disconnected from the mouth, which is the other great resonance chamber, by the lifting of the movable part of the soft palate so as to shut off the passage of the breath into the nasal cavity; or, if the soft palate is allowed to hang down freely and un obstructively, so that the breath passes into both the nose and the mouth, these make a combined resonance chamber.

Such sounds as b and a (as in father) are voiced “oral” sounds,. As soon as the soft palate is lowered, however, and the nose added as a participating resonance chamber, the sounds b and a take on a peculiar “nasal” quality and become, respectively, m and the nasalized vowel written an in French (e.g., sang, tant). Consonants (manner and place) The remaining oral sounds are generally grouped together as “consonants.” ‟‟In articulatory phonetics, 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], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.‟‟ Ladefoged & Maddieson(1996).

In them the stream of breath is interfered with in some way, so that a lesser resonance results, and a sharper, more incisive quality of tone. There are four main types of articulation generally recognized within the consonantal group of sounds.  The “stops” or “explosives The breath may be completely stopped for a moment at some definite point in the oral cavity. Sounds so produced, like t or d or p.  The “spirants” or “fricatives,”.” where the breath may be continuously obstructed through a narrow passage, not entirely checked. Examples of such as they are called are s and z and y.  The “laterals,” are semi-stopped. There is a true stoppage at the central point of articulation, but the breath is allowed to escape through the two side passages or through one of them. Our English d, for instance. Laterals are possible in many distinct positions. They may be unvoiced (the Welsh ll is an example) as well as voiced.

 These sounds are the “trills” or “rolled consonants,” in which the stoppage of the breath may be rapidly intermittent; in other words, the active organ of contact—generally the point of the tongue, less often the uvula—may be made to vibrate against or near the point of contact of which the normal English r is a none too typical example. They may be voiced or unvoiced.(Roca and Johnson 2000) The oral manner of articulation is naturally not sufficient to define a consonant. The place of articulation must also be considered. Contacts may be formed at a large number of points as below: - from the root of the tongue to the lips. It is not necessary here to go at length into this somewhat complicated matter.

-The contact is either between the root of the tongue and the throat, -some part of the tongue and a point on the palate (as in k or ch or l), -some part of the tongue and the teeth (as in the English th of thick and then), - the teeth and one of the lips (practically always the upper teeth and lower lip, as in f), -or the two lips (as in p or English w).(Roca and Johnson 2000) The tongue articulations are the most complicated of all, as the mobility of the tongue allows various points on its surface, say the tip, to articulate against a number of opposed points of contact. It is evident that all the articulations that involve the tongue form a continuous organic (and acoustic) series. The positions grade into each other, but each language selects a limited number of clearly defined positions as characteristic of its consonantal system, ignoring transitional or extreme positions.

Hence arise many positions of articulation that we are not familiar with also as listed below: -The typical “dental” position of Russian or Italian t and d; -The “cerebral” position of Sanskrit and other languages of India, in which the tip of the tongue articulates against the hard palate. As there is no break at any point between the rims of the teeth back to the uvula nor from the tip of the tongue back to its root, Frequently a language allows a certain latitude in the fixing of the required position. This is true, for instance, of the English k sound, which is articulated much further to the front in a word like kin than in cool. We ignore this difference, psychologically, as a non-essential, mechanical one. Another language might well recognize the difference, or only a slightly greater one, as significant, as paralleling the distinction in position between the k of kin and the t of tin. Vowels: Vowel: Is a speech sound produced with the air going out freely, without any obstruction in the vocal tract .There are three kinds of vowels. -Simple(pure) vowel: Is a vowel sound that consists of one vowel only. There are (12) pure vowels .

-Diphthong : Is a sequence of two pure vowels, in the pronunciation of which we glide smoothly from the first to the second vowel . There are (8) Diphthongs. -Triphthong : Is a sequence of three pure vowels (or a diphthong and a pure vowel) in which we glide smoothly from the first vowel to the second and to the third vowel without any interruption. There are (5) Triphthongs .( O'Connor , 1988 ) Simple vowels are: Pure vowels are described according to four principles.  The height of the tongue in the month (high(close), mid, low(open).  The part of the tongue which is raised to pronounce the vowel. (front, central, back).  Lip rounding (rounded, unrounded).  The length (short , long ) The organic classification of speech sounds: The way to define the phonetic habits of a given language is not exhaustively defined by stating that it makes use of such and such particular sounds. There remains the important question of the dynamics of these phonetic elements. Two languages may, theoretically, be built up of precisely the same series of consonants and vowels and yet produce utterly different acoustic effects.

One of them may not recognize striking variations in the lengths or “quantities” of the phonetic elements, the other may note such variations most punctiliously (in probably the majority of languages long and short vowels are distinguished; in many, as in Italian or Swedish or Ojibwa, long consonants are recognized as distinct from short ones). Or the one, say English, may be very sensitive to relative stresses, while in the other, say French, stress is a very minor consideration. Or, again, the pitch differences which are inseparable from the actual practice of language may not affect the word as such, but, as in English, may be a more or less random or, at best, but a rhetorical phenomenon, while in other languages, as in Swedish, Lithuanian, they may be more finely graduated and felt as integral characteristics of the words themselves. And despite the responsibility of varying methods of syllabifying for acoustic difference. Most important of all, perhaps, are the very different possibilities of combining the phonetic elements. Each language has its peculiarities.

The ts combination, for instance, is found in both English and German, but in English it can only occur at the end of a word (as in hats), while it occurs freely in German as the psychological equivalent of a single sound (as in Zeit, Katze). Frequently a sound occurs only in a special position or under special phonetic circumstances. In English, for instance, the z-sound of azure cannot occur initially, while the peculiar quality of the t of sting is dependent on its being preceded by the s. The objective comparison of sounds in two or more languages is, then, of no psychological or historical significance unless these sounds are first “weighted,” unless their phonetic “values” are determined. These values, in turn, flow from the general behavior and functioning of the sounds in actual speech. These considerations as to phonetic value lead to an important conception. Back of the purely objective system of sounds that is peculiar to a language and which can be arrived at only by a painstaking phonetic analysis. References: - Ladefoged, P. 2001.vowels and consonants: an introduction to the sound of English. Blackwell. Ltd. -Roch, P. 2009.

English phonetics and phonology .4th edition. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. -Munson, B.2009 .levels of phonological abstraction and socially motivated speech sound variation. University of Minnesota. - Fernandez, E .2011.Fundamentals of Psycholinguistics. West Sussex: WileyBlackwell. -A.c,gimson .1989,fourth edition.an introduction to the pronunciation of English. New York, Rutledge chapman ltd. -Roca & Jhonson.2000.a course in phonology.2nd edition. Blackwell publisher ltd. - Ladefoged, P, Madison, I.1996.The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. -Akmajian, Adrian, Ritchard A.Demers, Ann K.Farmer, and Robert M.Harnish.2001. Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. MIT Press. -Crystal, D.2006. How language works. Clay Ltd. England. -Crystal, D.2003. A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Blackwell, Oxford, UK.

-O'Connor, J.1988. Phonetics. Penguin, Australia and UK. READ PAPER Phonetics for learning German | Vowel | Phonetics Introduction to Phonetics for Students of English, French, German and Spanish ` This Introduction to Phonetics was originally a booklet produced in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, to serve as a background and further reading text for the Articulatory Phonetics component of our rst-year Linguistics unit. It focuses on the structure and linguistic function of the vocal tract, the classication of vowels and consonants, the International Phonetic Alphabet and its use in phonetic transcription. Though phonology/phonemics is not explicitly covered, the references to broad and narrow transcription in the nal section will point the user in that direction.It is primarily addressed to native anglophones, drawing on their knowledge and experience of English. However, it also contains extensive illustration from standard French, German and (Castilian) Spanish, with plenty of emphasis on the phonetic resemblances and differences between these four languages.

There are around a hundred exercises (answers are supplied), in which, again, English, French, German and Spanish all gure. Though the course is not intended to provide a systematic in-depth analysis of the sound system of any individual language, there is enough basic material here to serve as the starting-point for subsequent language-specic Phonetics or Linguistics units.

Question: What is the popular technical term for a speech sound or letter 'articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract'?
Answer: Consonant