2.4 Description of English consonants

　 Consonants are sounds produced with a narrow or complete closure in the vocal tract. The air stream is either blocked momentarily or obstructed partially. Consonants can be described in terms of places of articulation, manners of articulation, and voicing.

　 Places of articulation refer to each point at which the air stream can be modified to produce a sound. Places of articulation of English consonants are found at the lips, within the oral cavity and at the glottis.

Bilabial: Sounds which are produced with both the upper lip and the lower lip involved. [] [] [] [] are English bilabials.

Labiodental: Sounds which are produced with the upper teeth touching the lower lip are labialdentals. [] and [] are English labialdentals. (Both bilabials and labialdentals are called labials.)

Interdental: If the tip of the tongue is placed between the teeth, the sound produced is called interdental. Interdentals in English are the initial sounds of the words this and thing.

Alveolar: When the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, the sound produced is described as alveolar. Alveolar sounds are heard at the beginning of these words: tear, dear, sip,　zip, lip, read and nap.

Palatal: The sounds produced with the tongue against the palate (the highest part of the roof of the mouth) or near this area, are called palatals. English palatals are the underlined　sounds in these words: show, pleasure, cheap, jeep and yes.

Velar: The sounds made with the back of the tongue touching or near the velum (the soft area towards the rear of the roof of the mouth) are called velars. Velars in English are heard at the beginning of the words call and god, and at the end of the word long. The　initial sound of wet is called a labiaovelar, since the lips are rounded and the tongue is raised near the velum.

Glottal: Sounds produced with the vocal cords as the primary articulators are called glottals. The initial sound of heap is a glottal in English.

　 Manners of articulation refer to how the air stream is modified, whether it is completely blocked or partially obstructed.

Stops: Stops (also called plosives) are sounds produced with a complete and momentary closure of airflow and then a sudden release of it. The English stops can be exemplified by the sounds in these words: pin, bin, tie, die, class, glass.

Fricatives: Fricatives are consonants produced with a continuous airflow through the mouth. The obstruction of the airflow is partial, and the air passes through a narrow passage in the mouth so as to cause some friction. The fricatives in English can be exemplified　by sounds in: fine, vine, thin, these, sip, zip, show, pleasure, high.

Affricates: Affricates are sounds produced with a complete obstruction of airflow followed by a slow release of it.( When stops are produced the compressed air is suddenly released).　In English, there are two affricates transcribed as [] and [] in cheap and jeep.　(In some English textbooks published earlier, [tr] [dr] [ts] [dz] are treated as　affricates. But now they are not seen as single segments, as the first two appear only　before vowels, and the last two appear only at the end of words. They are therefore　seen as consonant clusters by modern linguists.)

Liquids: Liquids are sounds produced with air escaping along the sides of the tongue or between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge. Liquids in English are transcribed as　[] and [], in lead, read, and deal.

Glides: Glides (sometimes called semivowels) are marginal consonants. In producing glides the　airflow obstruction is very slight although the articulators involved move to a certain position. If you pronounce east and yeast, the difference is hardly　noticeable. The initial sound in yeast is a palatal glide, transcribed as []. The　initial sound in wet, wheat, what, when, etc, is a labio-velar glide, transcribed as []. In Scotland and American English, the initial sound of when, why, which, what,　etc, is pronounced as [], which sounds like []. But in most dialects of English, the [] is dropped in word-initial position. The consonant cluster has been simplified to [].

Nasals: Nasals are sounds produced when the velum is lowered to allow the air stream to pass through the nasal passages. There are three nasal consonants, transcribed as [], [],　and []. The consonants at the end of the English words sun, sum, and sung are nasals.

　 Voicing refers the vibrating of the vocal cords when sounds are produced. When the vocal cords are brought together, but not tightly closed, the air passing between them causes them to vibrate. Sounds thus produced are voiced. All vowels are voiced. Some consonants are voiced, others voiceless. The vibration can be felt. For example, when you pronounce [] you can feel the vibration, but not [].

　 By the three aspects of consonants discussed above, we can describe each of the English consonants. [] for example, can be described as voiced labiodental fricative, and [] as voiceless velar stop. The English consonants in standard dialects are specified in the following table: