Give an articulatory description of each of the consonantal phonemes in English.
Consonant, any speech sound, such as that represented by t, g, f, or z, that is characterized
by an articulation with a closure or narrowing of the vocal tract such that a complete or partial blockage of the flow of air is produced. Consonants are usually classified according to place of articulation (the location of the stricture made in the vocal tract, such as dental, bilabial, or velar), the manner of articulation (the way in which the obstruction of the airflow is accomplished, as in stops, fricatives, approximants, trills, taps, and laterals), and the presence or absence of voicing, nasalization, aspiration, or other phonation. For example, the sound for s is described as a voiceless alveolar fricative; the sound for m is a voiced bilabial nasal stop. Additional classificatory information may indicate whether the airstream powering the production of the consonant is from the lungs (the pulmonary airstream mechanism) or some other airstream mechanism and whether the flow of air is ingressive or egressive. The production of consonants may also involve secondary articulations—that is, articulations additional to the place and manner of articulation defining the primary stricture in the vocal tract.
A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet
that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants. Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their corresponding letters: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y are not consonants. In hat, H and T are consonants.
Consonants are sounds in which the air stream meets some obstacles in the mouth on its way up from the lungs, as we learned earlier. Most consonants are not as smooth- sounding as vowels; they pop, hiss, snap, or hum. Identify the phonemic realizations of a phoneme within a given word.
A considerable share of the speaker’s linguistic knowledge is knowledge about words. An
average speaker retains knowledge of tens of thousands of distinct word forms that enable reference to a wide range of objects, properties and events. Most generally, knowing a word amounts to knowing the link between a sound form (aka ‘phonological form’) and a meaning, as well as morphosyntactic properties of the word, such as grammatical category, gender, and so forth. Words (aka lexical entries) are stored in the lexicon, a long-term memory repository for words and significant subword parts (morphemes).
Understanding how phonological forms of words are stored in the lexicon is key for any theory of language. The boundary conditions are that a language user should be able to recognise the phonological forms of words during speech comprehension and utter them appropriately in language production. A traditional answer from linguistic theory (Dresher, 2011; Jones, 1950; Sapir, 1921) is that words are represented in long-term memory as sequences of phonemes, that is, abstract and discrete symbolic units of a size of an individual speech segment, such as a consonants or vowel (yet not identical to them). A phonological form of a word is an ordered sequence of phonemes, for example, the sequence of phonemes /k/ - /æ/ - /t/ (more succinctly, /kæt/) refers to a meowing domesticated feline animal or /d∧k/ to a quacking avian. Apart from special cases such as homonymy or polysemy, two words that are distinct in meaning differ in phonological form, with a minimal difference being exactly one phoneme within the same position in the word (e.g. /kæt/ ‘cat’ vs. /mæt/ ‘mat’). Furthermore, different words can employ the same set of phonemes but in different orders (e.g. cat /kæt/ vs. act /ækt/ vs. tack /tæk/). A language typically uses a repertoire of a few dozens of phonemes that are combined to produce all of the thousands of word forms.
The phonemes are bundles of features coordinated in time (to a first approximation, overlapping in time, or loosely speaking, simultaneous). A similar description is given in Fowler, Shankweiler, and Studdert-Kennedy (2016, p. 126): ‘Speakers produce phonetic segments as individual or as coupled gestures of the vocal tract,’ where there is a strong correspondence between our use of the term feature and their use of gesture. For example, the phoneme /t/ is a combination of features: [stop], which indicates that the airflow through the mouth is interrupted completely; [alveolar], which reflects a constriction at the alveolar ridge; and [voiceless], which reflects that the vocal folds are not vibrating. Allophones are often more specific realizations of phonemes which differ in the presence or absence of one or more features (e.g. [th] has the additional information that it is [spread glottis]). Features can be defined in terms of both their articulatory requirements and their acoustic consequences, as illustrated for manner features in Table 1, though at times the complete definitions require multiple acoustic cues or complex quantities.
Compare the production of two or more consonants with examples.
Consonant Sounds
The English language is constructed of many different sounds made from different kinds of letters like vowels, consonants, long vowels, and short vowels. Sometimes, sounds blend together as is the case with consonant blends.
Did you know that even though the English language only has 26 letters, it actually has somewhere around 44 unique sounds? These are called phonemes. You've got the "s" sound in "set" that is also produced with the letter “c” in the word "race."
Consonant Blend Explanation Example
Let's look at the word "drink." Both the letters "d" and "r" are consonants, and they are directly next to each other at the beginning of the word. When the word "drink" is pronounced, you can clearly hear the sounds of both of these letters, making it a consonant blend. Two-Letter L-Blend Examples
When the second letter in a two-letter consonant blend is and L, it’s called an l-blend.
These consonant blends are made up of three consonants that aren’t separated by any vowels, but you still say the sound of each letter when you pronounce the words they’re in.
Compare the pronunciation and spelling of each consonantal sound.
long a /eɪ/ short a /æ/ long e /i/ short e /ɛ/ long i /ɑɪ/ short i /ɪ/ long o /oʊ/ short o /ɑ/ long u /ju/ short u /ʌ/ other u /ʊ/ oo sound /u/ aw sound /ɔ/ oi sound /ɔɪ/ ow sound /aʊ/
R-controlled vowels
schwa+r /ɚ/ ar sound /ɑr/ or sound /ɔr/ air sound /ɛr/
Consonant Sounds
b sound /b/ ch sound /ʧ/ d sound /d/ f sound /f/ g sound /g/ h sound /h/ j sound /ʤ/ k sound /k/ l sound /l/ m sound /m/ n sound /n/ ng sound /ŋ/ p sound /p/ r sound /r/ s sound /s/ sh sound /ʃ/ t sound /t/ th sound (unvoiced) /θ/ th sound (voiced) /ð/ v sound /v/ w sound /w/ y sound /y/ z sound /z/ zh sound /ʒ/
Contrast each consonantal sound of English and Spanish and predict the mistakes that Spanish speakers are likely to make or could make.
One of the biggest challenges for Spanish speakers when learning English is pronunciation. Often it’s a struggle to produce certain vowel sounds. Sometimes it’s a case of dropping consonants at the end of words. And for some people it’s mispronunciation of the letter ‘h’ – a lot like Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady (more about this later). Whatever the problem, there’s an easy explanation for it. In Spanish there’s a tendency to pronounce things the way that they’re written. There are also some big differences between English and Spanish phonetics. Improving your pronunciation is not about sounding native, it’s about making yourself understood. And let’s face it, sometimes the mistakes are so ingrained they sound okay to you. To help you overcome these problems, we’ve made a list of six of the most common pronunciation mistakes Spanish speakers make in English. We’ve also given you some fun tips on how to fix them. So relax your tongue. Loosen those lips. And let’s get practicing your pronunciation!
1. Dropping consonant sounds at the end of words
When speaking English, Spanish speakers may drop consonants at the end of words. This is not a fatal mistake, but it is one that often falls through the net. For example, instead of saying ‘text’, Spanish speakers may say ‘tex’ or ‘brefas’ rather than ‘breakfast’. Instead of ‘mind’ you might say ‘mine’. This is because consonant clusters never appear at the ends of words in Spanish. As a result, you may drop the last consonant sound in English without even noticing. Often this creates problems with ‘ed’ verb endings – meaning words like ‘worked’ or ‘loved’ may be pronounced ‘work’ or ‘love’.
One way you can overcome this is by linking words in a sentence – just like a native would. That way you’re not trying to hit every single sound. Try saying a complete sentence and moving the consonant sound over to the next word: ‘We worked on it’ – ‘we work don it’. ‘Im having breakfast at the cafe’ – I’m having breakfas tat the cafe.’ ‘I don’t mind if we stay home’ – ‘I don’t min dif we stay home.’
Go on, practise it now and record yourself on your phone! How was it?
2.Short and long vowel sounds often sound the same
If Spanish is your mother tongue, you may have difficulties with vowel sounds. This is because there are around twenty distinct vowel sounds in English, whereas in Spanish there are only five. Catalan also only has eight. As a result, Spanish speakers tend to stretch out the vowel sound too much to overcompensate, or merge it with the closest sound in Spanish. This can lead to embarrassing misunderstandings such as “Miss, can I have a sheeet?” and “Are we going to the beeech?”
There are both short and long vowel sounds in English. Have a go at practicing these minimal pairs so all the words sound different: i / i: | æ / ɑ: | e/ eɪ | ɒ / əʊ | ʊ / u:
3. The V and the B are pronounced the same
“Have you seen the Voice?” Or “Have you seen the boys?” Record yourself saying these sentences on your phone and play them back. Do they sound the same to you? If they do, you may need to work on your pronunciation of the /b/ and /v/ sounds. In English, the /v/ is fricative, which means the teeth and lips must touch when you say it. The /b/ on the other hand, is plosive. This means both the lips touch together (imagine the motion you’d do when applying lipstick or blowing a kiss). Mispronunciation of these sounds can cause some confusion. The word ‘very’ sounds more like ‘berry’, ‘van’ sounds like ‘ban’ and ‘vase’ sounds like ‘bars’.
: Practice saying both sets of words and check your pronunciation is different for each. Make sure that for the /v/ sound air passes between your teeth and lips with a vibration. b/v 4. Vowel sound added to words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant
Practice saying the word ‘Spain’ does it sound more like ‘Espain’? If so, then you’re guilty of this next one. Spanish speakers sometimes add an ‘e’ to the beginning of words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant. As a result, you pronounce the words ‘street’ and ‘school’ as ‘estreet’ or ‘eschool’. This happens because words in Spanish don’t normally begin with a consonant cluster – so sounds like sp, st, sk, sl, sm always have a vowel sound before.
The way to practice is to start with an ‘sssssss’ sound and once you’ve mastered that, then move on to the next consonant. Try saying this tongue twister five times. First slowly. Then get quicker and quicker. ‘SpongeBob SquarePants speaks Spanish at school.’
5. Mispronunciation of the ‘h’ sound It isn’t just Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady who has problems with this one. Many Spanish speakers also mispronounce the ‘h’ sound. This happens normally for one of two reasons. People often omit the ‘h’ when it should be pronounced – because it is silent in Spanish. Take the words ‘hola’, ‘enhorabuena’ and ‘albahaca’ for example. On the other hand, you may find yourself over pronouncing it – much like the ‘J’ sound in ‘jalepeño’ or ‘japon’. In English, however the ‘h’ is much softer – more of a whisper. Think about the action you do when you want to warm your hands or steam up a mirror with your breath.
Try saying these words which all have the letter ‘h’ in them: he, her, home, help, happy, behind, behave. As you’re saying them, hold a piece of paper in front of your mouth. It should move a little every time you say the ‘h’ sounds.
6.Sentence stress
Spanish is a syllable-timed language, which means you stress every syllable. English on the other hand, is a stress-timed language. This means that we don’t give the same emphasis to all the sounds that we make. Instead, we shorten unstressed syllables to fit the rhythm. We often stress the important words. These are words that carry information – like nouns, adjectives and main verbs. And we speed up on words with less importance – like articles ‘and’, ‘a’, and ‘the’ and auxiliary verbs ‘don’t’, ‘does,’ ‘will’ etc. Confused? Have a go at this fun activity below.
1. Say each line twice before moving on to the next.
2. Stress the main words.(*) 3. Speed up on the unimportant words. 4. Make sure the timing stays the same but the rhythm changes.
Hou-Cheng Huang PHD, BSC, MSC, Asif S. Usmani PHD, BE, MS (Auth.) - Finite Element Analysis For Heat Transfer - Theory and Software-Springer-Verlag London (1994) PDF
Hou-Cheng Huang PHD, BSC, MSC, Asif S. Usmani PHD, BE, MS (Auth.) - Finite Element Analysis For Heat Transfer - Theory and Software-Springer-Verlag London (1994) PDF
