Consonants: Overview

Consonant Sounds

Hello, thank you for stopping by to read about the consonant sounds in the English language. Below I will provide a relatively brief yet comprehensive introduction to all of the consonant phoneme sounds in English (more about what a phoneme is later), explain the three categories that work together to produce them in detail, and then finally give a link to some teaching tips of how to apply this knowledge in the classroom. Before I do that however, I would like to explain why English language learners and teachers should be interested in the first place.

Why Study Consonant Sounds?

English is Difficult to Pronounce:

It was noted by (Marks & Bowen 2012:17) that “The basic idea of an alphabetic writing system is that one letter should represent one sound. The spelling of English is probably the least satisfactory example of such a system.” The sound to letter correspondence in English is simply not consistent compared to many other phonetic languages i.e. Arabic and Spanish.

For example, how is the letter ‘C’ pronounced in the following words?

Ocean, Cat, Fence, Chat

Lack of phonemic awareness can cause issues with pronunciation and spelling as well as listening and reading comprehension. Yes, I did say with reading comprehension. It has been shown for example that deaf children struggle to read because of difficulty with speech sound awareness (Vaughn, 2014). Presumably then, a higher level of speech sound awareness can be helpful in the development of all students’ reading capabilities; especially young learners, learners with disabilities, and learners of English as a second language. Even for myself, I know that studying English phonology helped me a great deal in improving my vocabulary when studying for the GRE. How else is one to know how to pronounce words such as ‘effrontery’ and ‘acquiescence’? Tough GRE vocabulary goes to show that even native speakers of English at the college graduate level can benefit from learning more about phonology.

Universal Application:

It can be a great help to a range of different learners to improve their language abilities. For example, for ESL learning the consonant sounds of English vary very little throughout the world as opposed to vowel sounds (Marks & Bowen, 2010). This means that learning consonant sounds can be applied in more learning environments throughout the world, and can be beneficial for a larger number of students. Although learning about the pronunciation of vowel sounds is important, I thought I would focus more on what unites us rather than divides us to get things started. In later posts I will get into further detail about the vowel and particular allophone sounds that mark the difference between English dialects.

Pronunciation Matters:

Consonant sounds are the “solid blocks with which we construct words, phrases, and sentences” (Celce-Murcia & Brinton & Goodwin, 1996:37) and the mispronunciation of one sound can be the difference between the meaning of one word and another. For example, the words ‘big’ and ‘pig’ are only distinguished by one sound difference, the difference between the sound of /b/ and /p/ (phonemic sounds as opposed to letters are put in / /). The pronunciation and listening comprehension of these two different sounds (and therefore the distinguishing of meaning) can actually be a difficult task for ESL learners from a language background that does not have both of them, a famous example being Arabic which only has the sound of /b/ and not /p/. I was told a story of a group of Arab ESL students studying abroad in the USA. When they went to a parking area near a mall they asked a gentleman if barking was allowed in the area. The gentleman replied to them, “Well, sure go ahead. Bark all you want but just please do not bite.” Whether the story is true or not I do not know, but it does make for a good warm up to a consonant lesson, especially if some or all of your students are of an Arab background. Accents:

Accents are cool, they are funny, and you could get a career in either acting, or some kind of undercover cop/agent or a stand up comedian gig if you get really good at them. Think about it. The world is your oyster when you master the phonological system of English. Although true, consonant sounds are more universally applicable than vowel sounds (meaning they do not distinguish accents as much either), it’s a great place to start things off. And do not worry, we will get to vowel sounds soon enough. Here’s a really cool representation of what you can do when you master the English phonological system:

The IPA Alphabet

The international phonemic alphabet (IPA) is a standardized phonemic alphabet that has a direct sound to symbol equivalence. English has 24 consonant phoneme sounds. Phonemes are the sounds that mark the difference between words as opposed to allophones which are sub-pronunciations of phoneme sounds (which will be discussed after phonemes). The following table includes ALL 24 consonant phoneme sounds in the English language: Figure 1: The IPA alphabet

p	b	t	d	ʧ	ʤ	k	g
f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ
m	n	ŋ	h	l	r	w	y

All of the symbols above should be pretty familiar and easy to guess what sound they make if you are familiar with the English alphabet. However, from the 24 symbols seven do not come from the Roman alphabet (the alphabet that English uses), which are: /ð/ = The, θ = Three, /ʃ/ = Shin, /tʃ/ = Cheese, /dʒ/ = Judge, /ʒ/ = Vision /ŋ/ = Thing The reasoning behind the use of different symbols is that the Roman alphabet only consists of 21 consonant letters (and there are 24 consonant sounds) and some letters do not make good symbols because they represent different sounds that are represented by other letters which could make things confusing. For instance, I gave the earlier examples of how the letter ‘c’ represents different sounds in the following words: Ocean, Cat, Fence, Chat In the above words the following sounds are represented by the letter ‘c’: /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /s/, and /k/. Can you guess from the info presented thus far in which word is each sound represented? I bet you can…

Underhill Chart: Voiced vs. Unvoiced

The below chart was made by Adrian Underhill (1994) (with minor variation) and is organized in a fantastic way.

p	b	t	d	ʧ	ʤ	k	g
f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ
m	n	ŋ	h	l	r	w	y

Figure 2: Unvoiced = [ – ] and Voiced = [ + ]

–	+	–	+	–	+	–	+
–	+	–	+	–	+	–	+
+	+	+	–	+	+	+	+

First off, if you compare the the two charts, the IPA symbols that correspond with a ‘+’ sign are voiced. The sounds that correspond with a ‘-‘ sign are unvoiced. You might be wondering what is a voiced and unvoiced sound? Well, if you cover your ears (or put your hand on your throat) and pronounce the sound of /s/ and then switch to a /z/, what is the difference between the two? Yes, vibration! When you pronounce and hold the /s/ sound, you will notice that there is no vibration and when you switch over to the /z/ you notice that there is, quite noticeably.

Voice = Vocal Vibration

Unvoiced = No Vocal Vibration.

Vocal vibration is the only difference between the two sounds of /s/ and /z/. If you look at the figures 1 & 2 above, you will notice that /s/ and /z/ are right next to each other. Likewise, in our earlier example we mentioned how the two sounds of /p/ and /b/ can be used to distinguish the meaning of two words, can you guess what distinguishes the pronunciation of these two sounds from the charts above?

Vibration is actually the only difference between how those two sounds are pronounced, although the difference is not as noticeable as the difference between /s/ and /z/ initially because the sounds of /p/ and /b/ cannot be held for a long time. The ‘sister’ sounds that are distinguished by voicing are right next to each other in the first two rows of the chart e.g. /p/ and /b/, /s/ and /z/, /f/ and /v/ etc. However, there is another key distinguishing factor between voiced and unvoiced consonants other than just vocal vibration, which is aspiration.

Aspiration refers basically to air being let out. For example, once again pronounce and hold the sound of /s/. Don’t worry, that’s not the sound of a hissing snake, or a gas tank leaking, it’s the sound of aspiration which comes along with the pronunciation of unvoiced sounds. For instance, the voiceless sound of /h/ is practically only air being released. Side note for chart awareness, the sound of /h/ is the ONLY voiceless sound listed on the bottom third row.

Try It Yourself: Now back to the sounds of /p/ and /b/. I want you to hold your hand in front of your mouth and switch between pronouncing both sounds. Which sound accompanies more air or aspiration being let out? Which sound is voiced and which is unvoiced? Well the /p/ sound releases more air, and therefore is unvoiced, rendering the /b/ sound voiced.

The way that the Underhill chart is set up, all voiceless sounds that have particularly strong aspiration are in the first row (See Figure 3 Below). Figure 3: Unvoiced Phonemes With Strong Aspiration

tʃ

Place of Articulation

There are two central components playing together to form consonant sounds, the place of articulation and articulators. The ‘articulators’ are the instruments used to make a sound once placed on specific locations (places of articulation) of the mouth. For example, the two lips meet to form the bilabial sounds of /b/ and /p/, as in but /bʌt/ and put /pʊt/. The tip of the tongue meets with the alveolar ridge in order to form alveolar sounds of /d/ and /t/ as in dad /dæd/ and tell /tel/. There are seven places of articulation used to distinguish consonant sounds

Places of Articulation

Bilabial: Produced with the two lips: /b, p, m, w/ as in buy, pie, my, and wool.

Labiodental: Produced with the upper teeth and inner lower lip: /f, v/ as in feel and veal.

Interdental: Produced with the tongue tip on or near the inner surface of the upper teeth: / θ/, ð/ as in thick and then. Alveolar: Produced with the tongue tip on or near the tooth ridge: /t, d, s, z, n, l/ as in to, do, zoo, new, and light.

Alveo-palatal (or palato-alveolar): Produced by the body of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth in the area between the alveolar and the palate: /ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/ as in shin, genre, chef, judge.

Velar: Produced with the tongue body on or near the soft palate: /g, k, ŋ/ as in go, kite, and bang.

Glottal: Produced by air passing from the windpipe through the vocal cords: /h/ as in hi.

*Adapted from Celce-Murcia & Brinton & Goodwin (1996)

Chart Awareness: Referring back to the Underhill chart (1996) the consonant sounds have been organized in the first two rows, from left to right, by a steady progression of moving the place of articulation farther back in the mouth e.g. the first row begins with bilabial /p/ and ends with palatal /g/. The third row does not follow any particular pattern concerning the place of articulation.

p	b	t	d	ʧ	ʤ	k	g
f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ
m	n	ŋ	h	l	r	w	y

Figure 4: Place of Articulation: First Two Rows

Bilabial	Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolar	Palatal	Palatal	Velar	Velar
Labiodental	Labiodental	Interdental	Interdental	Alveolar	Alveolar	Palatal	Palatal
Movement of Tongue ———————– > ———————– > ———————– > ———————– >

Figure 5: Place of Articulation: Third Row

Bilabial

Alveolar

Velar

Glottal

Alveolar

Palatal

Bilabial

Palatal

Mode of Articulation

The mode of articulation refers to how the sound is produced by blocking the airstream. Some consonant sounds involve the total obstruction of the airstream, for example the plosive /b/ and /p/ sounds, where there is a total obstruction of air by the two lips before producing the sound. However, in other sounds, such as the liquids /l/ and /r/ and the semi-vowel glides of /w/ and /y/, there is relatively little obstruction of air.

Modes of Articulation

Plosives: The airstream is stopped or blocked completely prior to release: /p, b, t, d, k, g/ Go ahead and practice pronouncing these sounds and you can see why they are named as ‘plosives’ (or stops) easily.

Fricative: Air is forced through a narrow passageway in the mouth or throat creating continuous friction: /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/ Go ahead and practice pronouncing these sounds and you will notice that you can hold these sounds when you pronounce them contrary to plosives that require a block and release of air to be pronounced.

Affricative: The sound begins as a plosive or a stop and is then released as a fricative: /tʃ/, /dʒ/ This one is a mix between a plosive and a fricative sound, hence their symbol representation. E.g. /t/ + /ʃ/ (shin) = /tʃ/ (Church) and /d/ + /ʒ/ (vision) = /dʒ/. There are only two affricative sounds in English and they are basically the same though one is voiced and the other is not.

Nasal: Continuous air is released through the nasal cavity while the speech organs assume a stop-like position: /m, n, ŋ/. These sounds are all voiced and have that trademark ~~annoying~~ I mean charming nasally sound. So if you put a finger on top of that schnauz of yours you should be able to feel a vivid vibration running through those nostrils. Here’s a proper example of the nasal sound in action from The Nanny actress Fran Drescher meeting well Fran Drescher. BUT remember there are only three nasal consonant sounds in English… so don’t go overboard pronouncing other consonant and vowel sounds all nasally (come on this is English not Brazilian Portuguese or French!) are you might risk sounds like this:

Liquids: Basically this is a consonant sound that is made when the tongue is obstructing the middle of your mouth so that air can only come out from the sides as in the sounds /l, r/

Semi-vowels (or glides): These sounds are known as semi-vowels because they barely obstruct the airflow in a type of gliding motion (don’t you feel smooth pronouncing these sounds?) /w, y/. *Adapted from Celce-Murcia & Brinton & Goodwin (1996)

p	b	t	d	ʧ	ʤ	k	g
f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ
m	n	ŋ	h	l	r	w	y or j

Figure 6: Mode of Articulation

Plosive

Affricative

Plosive

All Fricatives

Nasal

Fricative

Liquid

Semi-vowel

Chart Awareness: Back to the Underhill (1996) consonant chart, you can notice that the mode of articulation was taken into thought when organizing the sounds. All the plosives are on the first column (interrupted by the two affricative sounds in English), and the second column are ALL fricatives. The third row contains nasals, liquids, semi-vowels, and the fricative /h/ which is made only by exhaling air.

Conclusion & Introductory Lesson

Ok, now that you understand the system of consonant sounds in English, it’s time to put all of this knowledge into a communicative lesson that can start the process of learning in an easy way for your students. To do this check out the following blog: Consonant Sounds: Introductory Lesson Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 Won’t you please come again. P.S. At some point I hope to get to teaching the Indian-English accent.. with the head shake to match!

Bibliography

Celce-Murcia, M & Brinton, D & Goodwin, J (1996) Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge University Press. Underhill, A (1994). Sound Foundations. Heinemann Vaughn, S. Bos, C. Schumm, J. (2014) Teaching Students Who Are Exceptional, Diverse, and at Risk in the General Education Classroom.