Consonants of the English Language - Term Paper Example

Consonants of the English language 2009 OUTLINE: A) Consonants in the English language B) ification of consonants C) Variations of consonants in different languages D) Conclusion A consonant is a sound in spoken language. A consonant is characterized by a constriction or closure at several points along the vocal tract. The word consonant is of Latin origin and it means "sounding with" or "sounding together", according to this idea consonants dont sound on their own, but only occur with a nearby vowel, although this conception of consonants does not reflect a modern linguistic understanding of consonants, which defines consonants in terms of vocal tract constrictions. If we compare consonants with vowels, they are by no means unchangeable, more stable, the law of their mutations is more con­stant, or at least better ascertained, and they frequently re­main fixed in the written language, after they have been lost or changed in sound. Hence, in researches into the history of language they are of cardinal importance, and consequently have almost exclusively en­gaged the attention of etymologists, while, on the other hand, their supposed permanence, immutability and distinctness of character have led them to be much neglected. But in fact, consonants are very far from being so well discriminated. It is true that their differences are generally more easily appreciated by the ear, though less easily imitated by the tongue, than those between vowels. The indistinct articulation of consonants in Danish, the con­founding of the hard and soft sounds of g in some dialects of Arabic, and of I and r in the Polynesian islands, the sep­aration in Italian and Spanish of consonants are united in English consonants. As a result the words often lose all resemblance from which they originated, and it is the suppression or change of consonants that disguises them. (Ladefoged Peter, 1988 p. 123) Chasm and other words of similar ending are popularly pronounced as dissyllables, and in blossom, be-torn, bosom, and chrisom introduced a written vowel. The consonant m does not readily unite even with a preced­ing liquid, and hence the vulgar pronunciation ellutn, helium, for rim, helm, and the word alarum for alarm. It is perhaps in this reluctance of m to be linked with a preceding liquid, and the explanation of the suppression of the I balm, calm, and other words of similar ending are found. (Ladefoged Peter, 1988 p. 142) If we talk about the formation of consonants we should point out that sounds are made by modifying an airstream. There are many points at which that stream of air can be modified. Producing a consonant sound depends on the position of vocal folds, they are either opened or closed. If you put your fingers to larynx and produce a sound [z] in the word hazy you will feel a vibration. Sounds which are produced with this vocal fold vibration are voiced sounds, whereas sounds produced without vibration are voiceless. This distinction will constitute the first of three descriptive parameters of consonants by means of which consonantal speech sound is described. English consonants are 24 in number. They are classified according to four main principles can be distinguished by several features: • according to the degree of noise and force of articulation; • according to the manner of articulation • according to the active organ of speech and the place of obstruction • according to the position of the soft palate According to the degree of noice English consonants are divided into sonorants (sonorous consonants) and noise consonants. In sonorants voice prevails over noise. They are /m, n, ng, r, l, j, w/ Sonorants sometimes act as vowels, as they stand at the peak of a syllable, and sometimes act as consonants. For example, in English, the sound [m] in "mud" is a consonant, but in "prism", it occupies an entire syllable, as a vowel would. In noise consonants noise prevails over voice. Noise consonants are voiced and voiceless. In voiced consonants there is both voice and noise. In voiceless there is only noise. Voiced consonants are / b, d. g, v, z, ð, dз, з/. Voiceless consonants are : /p, t. k, f, θ, s, sh, ts, h/. According to force of articulation noise consonants are divided into strong (fortis) when they are voiceless and weak (lenis) when they are voiced. Strong consonants are produced with greater force. According to manner of articulation English consonants are divided into occlusive, constrictive, occlusive-constrictive and rolled. In occlusive consonants the obstruction to the air-stream is incomplete, the air-passage is constricted. The airstream escapes through the mouth cavity with friction. They are noise /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, sh, з, h/. Sonorants /w, n, l, j/. In occlusive-constructive consonants (affricates) a complete obstruction is slowly released and the air passes through the mouth cavity with friction. They are: noise /tsh, dз/. Rolled consonants are produced with momentary obstruction. There are no rolled consonants in English. In Russian they are noise /p, p’/. According to the active organ of speech consonants are divided into labial, lingual and glottal. Labial consonants are articulated by the lips. Labial consonants are of two types: bilabial and labio-dental. Bilabial consonants are articulated by forming a constriction between the lower lip and the upper lip. They are /p, b, m, w/. An example is the first sound in pit. Labio-dental consonants are articulated by the upper teeth and the lower lip. They are /f, v/.Lingual consonants are produced with the tongue. According to the active part of the tongue they are subdivided into forelingual, medio-lingual and back-lingual. Forelingual consonants are produced with the tip or the blade of the tongue. They are noise: / θ, ð, t, d, s, z, sh, з, tsh, dз/. The blade of the tongue may be differently shaped. It is tense and active for the apical consonants: /t, d, s, z, ð, θ, sh, з, tsh, dз, n, l/. it is relaxed and passive for the dorsal consonants. There are no dorsal consonants in English. In Russian they are/ т, т’, c, c’, н, н’, з, з’, ч, ч’/. The blade of the tongue is cup-shaped for the cacuminal consonants. There is only one cacuminal sound in English: /r/. (Hartshorn James, 1976 p.87) Medio-lingual consonants are made with the front part of the tongue. In English it is the sound: /j/. Back-lingual consonants are made with the back part of the tongue. They are:/k, g, ng/. The glottal consonant /h/ is articulated in the pharynx. According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants are interdental that are pronounced between teeth / θ, ð/; alveolar that are pronounced against teeth: /t, d, s, z, l, n/.; post-alveolar that are produced behind the teeth ridge:/r/.; palate-alveolar are consonants in which there is a constriction between the blade of the tongue and the palate-alveolar region. An example is the first sound in ship. Medio-lingual consonant /j/ is pronounced against the hard palate, a constriction between the front of the tongue and the hard palate is called palatal consonant. Back-lingual consonants /k, g, ng/ are pronounced against the soft palate, thus they are velar. According to the position of the soft palate English consonants are nasal and oral. Nasal consonants are produced with the soft palate lowered. As a result, the air passes through the nasal cavity. They are: /n, m, ng/. Oral consonants are produced when the soft palate is raised. The air escapes through the mouth. All the consonants but nasal are oral. Sounds that are produced with close approximation entail a bringing together of the two articulators two the point where the airflow is not full blocked: enough of a gap remains for air to escape, but the articulators are so close together that friction is created as the air escapes. Sounds of this sort are referred to fricatives. Fricatives may be articulated at any point of articulation, but many of those sounds are irrelevant to the study of English. One is the voiceless velar fricative /x/ , found in the speech of many Scots, in words such as loch, another is the voiceless fricative /w/ , again found in the speech of many Scots, as in words like whale (as opposed to wail), and which (as opposed to witch; its place of articulation is labial-velar. (Northhall Raymond Harris, 1990 p.56-57) But consonants may also act as letters of an alphabet that denote 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, W, X, Z, and sometimes Y — the letter Y stands for a consonant for example in "yoke" but for a vowel in "myth". Almost all consonants may be combined with each other and there is a great variety of such combinations. Two or more consonant characters are sometimes united to represent a single sound. The aspirated semivowel /f/ is sometimes represented by /gh/, or /pf/, the palatal mutal /t/ by /th/, and the musical mixed sound of /sh/ by /ci/, /ce/, /s/, /si/, /sch/, /ss/. The mixed aspirate /dh/ and /zh/ are never used in the English language, but are represented by the characters of combinations: the former by /th/, and the later generally by /s/, /z/ or /si/. Several of the consonant characters and combinations vary in sounds. /c/ has three sounds, /d/ has two sounds, /s/ four. (Martin Thomas, 1924 p.145) As we understand there are more consonants in the worlds languages than the number of consonant letters in most alphabets, that’s why linguists introduced the systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique symbol to each possible consonant. In fact, the Latin alphabet, which is used to write English, has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so some letters represent more than one consonant, and digraphs like "sh" and "th" are used to represent some sounds. For many speakers these sounds seem to be a great problem or they are not even aware that the "th" sound in "this" is a different sound from the "th" sound in "thing" (in IPA theyre [ð] and [θ], respectively). There are about 600 hundred consonants used in different languages. Some of them occur occur more frequently than others. The most common are the voiceless stops. About 98 percent of the world’s languages have the three voiceless stops: /p, t, k/ and two nasals /m,n/ that occur in other languages may not be exactly like English sounds. They may be aspirated or unaspirated as the plays of articulation may be slightly different. If we compare the system of English consonants with the consonants of other languages, it is important to mention that Spanish consonants for example have sounds that are similar to those in English, many are directly different. Spanish consonants are usually softer and less distinct than their English equivalents. B and V are pronounced exactly the same. The biggest problem is that many Spanish speakers dont distinguish them at all from their sound. Generally, the b and v are pronounced like the "b" in "beach." L is always pronounced like the first "l" in "little," never like the second one. Examples: los, helado, pastel. Ñ is pronounced like the "ny" in "canyon." Examples: ñoño, cañón, campaña. (Northhall Raymond Harris, 1990 p. 112) Most of the German consonants are pronounced more or less as they are in English. However when /b, d, g/ appear at the end of a word or syllable, or before /t/, or /st/, they are pronounced as /p, t, k/.For example Obst, lieb, Bad, Fremd, log, Tag, mag. When g appers in the suffix/ ig/ at the end og the word it is pronounced as ich. For example billig, hastig, durstig, neunzig. Other consonants that are produced differently in German and English include the letters /l, r, j, v, g, z, c, w/. The letters /l/, /r/ both exist in both the English and German alphabets, they are pronounced very differently in the two languages. The English /l/ is a dark sound that is pronounced rather far back in the mouth. By contrast, the German /l/ is pronounced to the front of the mouth with the tongue flatter and touching the back of the front teeth. This produces a much lighter sound /l/. Unlike English, German uses either the uvular /r/ (the uvula is a small flap of skin hanging from the soft palate at the back of the mouth) or the tongue trilled /r/. Of the two /r/ the uvular which is probably more difficult for Americans to pronounce, is the more commonly used /r/ in German. Good practical skills and practice are required to master these sounds. The pronunciation of the letter /s/ depends on its position in the word. If it is in initial position preceding a vowel or stands between two vowels is pronounced like English/z/. For example Salz, Suppe, sagen, lesen, also, Elsen. In other positions it is usually pronounced as /s/ Hals, Gans, lassen. (Schaum Bert, 1983 p. 57-58) J (and the g when before an e or i) are also have its difficulties, as its sound, that of the German ch, is absent in English not taking into consideration few foreign words where it is sometimes retained, as in the final sound of loch or the initial sound of Channukah. This sound is also known as a heavily aspirated "h," made by expelling air between the back of the tongue and the soft palate. If you cant pronounce it well, youll be understood by using the "h" sound of "house," but its worthwhile to work on the correct pronunciation. Examples: garaje, juego, jardín. Z usually sounds like the "s" in "simple." In Spain it is often pronounced like the "th" in "thin." Examples: zeta, zorro. (Schaum Bert, 1983 p. 65) But there are many consonants that are not considered to be universal. These are mostly all Australian languages that lack fricatives. A large number of world’s languages lack voiced stops such as /b, d, g/ for example Mandarin Chinese. But on the other hand most languages, include one or more fricatives, with [s] being the most common, and a liquid consonant or two, with /l/ the most common. The consonant /w/ is also widespread. Several languages in the Sahara Desert, including Arabic, lack /p/. Several languages of North America, such as Mohawk, lack both labials, /p/ and /m/. Some West African languages, such as Ijo, lack /n/ on a phonemic level, but /n/ does occur as an allophone of /l/.(Schaum Bert, 1983 p. 154) In the English language most final consonants are not pronounced except for final /c, r, f, l/ for example careful. A final /s/ is not pronounced in the French language. For example Luc- lewk, amour-ab-moor. The consonant /h/ in the French language is always silent. Most of the times it is used as a vowel and, therefore requires elision with a vowel that might precede it: l’hoome (the man). In other instances, /h/ is used as a consonant and does not require elision with the preceding vowel: le heros’. The French /r/ is also different, as it needs great skills in the participation of the throat. This sound is pronounced dropping a tongue to the bottom of the mouth and leaving it against the teeth. The Spanish /r/ is pronounced rolled but the French sound /r/ is pronounced with gargling. There is no /th/ sound in French. Native French speakers have a tremendous amount of difficulty with the English words this, the and there because they pronounce /th/ as /t/. (Stein Gail, 1999 p.32). So consonants are numerous in their number combinations and classification. The number of sounds expressed by consonants in combination may like that of vowels, be one or two, but seldom more than two. Consonants, whether taken singly or in combination, have their several meanings: vowels unite the vague significations and give them definite sense. REFERENCES Consonants http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Consonant.htm retr. 28 Octov. 2009 Hartshorn James. Pronunciation Matters, London and New York: Routledge, 1976. Ladefoged Peter. Vowels and Consonants, Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing,1988. Martin Thomas. The necessity of examining the principals of grammars and grammarians. Birminghan, 1924. Northhall Raymond Harris. Weakening processes in the history of Spanish consonants. New York: TG Press, 1990. Schaum Bert. Consonant Change in English Worldwide Macmillan Hampshire, England: Publishers Limited Houndmills,1983. Stein Geil. Studying French. Brooklyn, New York: Packer Collegiate Institute, 1990. Read More