Outline

Preliminary remarks

English Phonetics
Unit 9. Approximants

RP English Approximants A Comparison of English and Spanish Approximants

1. Preliminary remarks
Approximants are speech sounds that can be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants (e.g. plosives and fricatives) In the articulation of approximants, the relevant articulators approach one another but leave enough space in-between them for air to flow without much audible turbulence Approximants are therefore more open than fricatives (they imply wide approximation of the articulators). Also, unlike the fricativesr, friction does not accompany the production of the sound

1. Preliminary remarks
MOA: Degree of constriction/stricture (main determinant of a consonants MOA) 3 main degrees Closure: Stops (nasals, plosives, affricates), taps, trills, laterals Narrowing: (consequence friction) Median & lateral fricatives, affricates Wide approximation: (no friction) Approximants

1. Preliminary remarks

2. RP English Approximants
English approximants: inventory /w/ voiced labial-velar central approximant (e.g. wet /wet/, whale /wel/, one /wn/) /j/ voiced palatal central approximant (e.g. yet /jet/, few /fju:/, pure /pj:/) /r/ voiced post-alveolar central approximant (e.g. ray /re/, sorry /sri/, write /rat/) /l/ voiced alveolar lateral approximant (e.g. leaf /li:f/, call /k:l/) Semivowels or Glides Liquids

2. RP English Approximants
English approximants: specific points on all

2. RP English Approximants
/j/ & /w/ have also been referred to as glides or semivowels /j/ and /w/ are produced in the same area of the oral cavity as vowel sounds (i.e. in the vowel space). This is why they are often called semi-vowels (they are, acoustically, very similar to a close front i.e. [i]- and close back i.e. [u]- vowel respectively). Despite being phonetically like vowels, they function like consonants (e.g. they are only found in the onset of syllables, not in the nucleus). /w/ has a double articulation (i.e. labial-velar). /j/ is the only palatal sound in English

When preceded by a syllable-initial voiceless plosive (i.e. /p, t, k/), approximants are devoiced (i.e. become partially voiceless) and slightly fricative

2. RP English Approximants
/w/ In some accens of English, there is an approximant related to /w/. This is the voiceless labial-velar approximant // (thus, double-articulated like /w/). // is a voiceless approximant equivalent to [w] but it has incorrectly been described in the past as a fricative (compare // and a labialized velar fricative [xw]). // is typically spelled <wh>. Speakers who use it distinguish between words like whine-wine Few speakers in England produce // -those who do have often undergone speech training of some kind. // was already extinct in England in the 19th century

2. RP English Approximants
// is somewhat more often heard in American English and its also a feature of many Scottish and Irish English accents

2. RP English Approximants
/r/ and /l/ (so-called liquids; the lateral approximant is often simply described as lateral for its MOA, but its really a lateral approximant) /r/ English accents are described as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on distribution of /r/ In rhotic accents, <r> is an r-sound in all positions. In non-rhotic accents, <r> is only an r-sound when followed by a vowel sound

2. RP English Approximants
store /st:/ stork /st:k/ (no /r/ since <r> is followed by a pause store- or consonant sound ) /st:r/ storkstoring

store it /st:r t/ (/r/ because <r> is followed by a vowel in wordinternally (storing) or across word boundaries (store it). In the latter case, we speak of linking /r/

2. RP English Approximants
/r/ has different values depending on the accent In RP it is a voiced post-alveolar central approximant (formerly described as a frictionless continuant), but in GA its POA is retroflex

2. RP English Approximants
An old-fashioned pronunciation in RP (but still found in other accents of English) is a tap/flap [], particularly before unstressed syllables (e.g. sorry). Another pronunciation of /r/ in English (but not in RP) is as a voiced alveolar trill [r] (the so-called rolled r) typcal of northern accents of England/Scotland The symbol r stands for a trill in the IPA, but its typically used in phonological transcr. irrespective of the actual pronunciation

2. RP English Approximants
/l/ Median approximants have no complete closure anywhere on the mid-line of the vocal tract (air passes freely over the tongue centre & exits without turbulence) Lateral approximants have a complete closure on the midline of the vocal tract, with simultaneous wide approximation at one (unilateral) or both (bilateral) sides of the tongue so the air leaves the oral cavity laterally without turbulence

2. RP English Approximants
/l/ is alveolar (theres contact in the centre of the oral tract between the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge) However, /l/ has two main allophones/variants in RP English: the so-called clear l and dark l depending on whether the sound has a secondary POA or not clear /l/ is simply alveolar but dark /l/ is velarised alveolar. This secondary POA adds to the primary one the raising of the tongue back towards the velum) Velarisation is shown by the diacritic ~ (called tilde) written through the symbol used or by the diacritic after the symbol (so dark /l/ symbolised or l )

2. RP English Approximants

2. RP English Approximants
clear /l/ is found in syllable onsets (e.g. light [lat]) and only in the coda when the next sound in the following syllable- is /j/ (e.g. value [vl.ju:]) Dark /l/ is only found in post-vocalic positions (i.e. in codas) except when the following sound is /j/ (e.g. fill [f], melt [mt]).

2. RP English Approximants
Much American, Scottish and some Australian English have a velarised dark /l/ in all contexts. Dark /l/ is often vocalised in some accents of English. Vocalisation = replacement of a cons. with a vowel L-vocalization is typical of many accents/dialects of English like Cockney and Estuary English, but not RP. The resulting vowel is variously transcribed [o], [] or even [w] resulting in pronunciations such as [mok], for milk, and [mdo], for middle

2. RP English Approximants
liquids and syllabicity A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of one The syllabic consonants in English are the nasals and the liquids (the most common ones are /n/ & /l/) Word-final liquids are syllabic when they follow another consonant /r/ most often in rhotic accents; not common in RP but when it occurs there are alternative pronunciations without the syllabic consonant (e.g. water in here /wtr n h/ or /wtr n h/

2. RP English Approximants
The IPA diacritic for syllabicity is an understroke (it can be dispensed with in phonological transcription since syllabic consonants are predictable)

3. English vs. Spanish Approximants

Spanish has no /w/ and /j/ as consonantal phonemes. Spanish/l/ is like Engish clear l. Dark l is only used in the speech of Catalans speaking Spanish or Catalan. Spanish has two rhotics, the voiced alveolar tap // and the voiced alveolar trill /r/, which books in the Spanish tradition often represent as / r/ (and the tap as /r/) but the diacritic is not IPA practice (cf. pero /peo/ vs. perro /pero/).

Summary
Def. of approx.(wide approximation, no friction) devoicing after stressed /p, t, k/ Semi-vowels/glides /j/: palatal /w/: labial-velar, // vs. /w/ Liquids /l/: clear vs. dark /l/, L-vocalisation /r/: linking /r/, post-alveolar, retroflex, tap, trill syllabic /l/ (and /r/) Spanish vs. English approximants

References
Compulsory reading: Roach, P. J. 2001 [1983]. English Phonetics and Phonology. A Practical Course. Cambridge: CUP. Press. 3rd ed. Chapter 7 Nasals and other consonants. Sections 7.2. /l/, 7.3. /r/ y 7.4 /j/ and /w/. Recommended readings: Collins, B., & Mees, I. M. 2003. Practical Phonetics and Phonology. Routledge. Pp. 46-48. Cruttenden, A. 2001 [1994]. Gimsons Pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold. 2nd ed. Chapter 9 The English Consonants. Section 9.7. Oral Approximants.