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THEME 8: SISTEMA FONOLÓGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA II. LAS

CONSONANTES
Good afternoon, my name is ... and I have decided to deal with topic number 8 which is
about Sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa II: Las consonantes. Simbolos fonéticos.
Comparación con el sistema fonológico de la lengua o lenguas oficiales de la Comunidad
Autónoma correspondiente. The topic is divided under the next points:
1. INTRODUCTION

2. THE ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS. TERMINOLOGY. DESCRIBING THE CONSONANTS.

3. CONSONANT ARTICULATION. TYPES OF CONSONANTS
3.1. PLACE OF ARTICULATION

3.2. MANNER OF ARTICULATION

4. ENGLISH VS SPANISH AND CATALAN CONSONANT SYSTEMS.

5. CONCLUSION

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Let's start with the INTRODUCTION: Every language is based on a finite number of
sounds selected from all the possible sounds that human beings can articulate. These sounds
are called PHONEMES. In order to develop all these facts regarding to the study of sound and
the phonemes, we can find two different but at the same time related sciences: PHONETICS

AND PHONOLOGY. Phonetics, is the science concerned with the study of speech processes,
including the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds, from both an acoustic
and a psychological point of view, but excluding linguistic considerations. By contrast, the
main aim of phonology is to discover the rules, which organise sounds into a language
system.
The fact is that both, phonetics and phonology require as their source data, a human being
with an intact auditory mechanism and a functional speech apparatus. The SPEECH ORGANS

are: the LUNGS, to breath the air; CAVITIES OR RESONATORS to produce the sounds inside and
permit the articulation. These resonators are the PHARYNX, the NOSE and the MOUTH. And the
organs to give shape to the sounds: the ARTICULATORS. That are THE VOCAL FOLDS , THE
TONGUE, PALATE and the LIPS and the TEETH .

Once the topic has been introduced, let's move on now to the study of point number 2,
DESCRIBING THE CONSONANTS.
Consonants are produced by the interference of the flow of air through the mouth ( and
nose). In contrast to vowels, the airflow is directly restricted or obstructed, so that air cannot
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escape without creating a friction that can be heard. Thus, the vocal organs form a closing
movement creating a narrow constriction, or the closing movement is complete, giving a total
blockage. The closing movement may involve the lips, the tongue or the throat, but in each
case the effect is very different from the unimpeded articulation found in vowels.
Unlike vowels, from a phonological point of view, consonants typically occupy the
edges of a syllable, as in thigh or hang, forming sequences or clusters. Up to three can be used
together at the beginning of a spoken word in English, as in spring, and up to four can occur
at the end, though not always very comfortably, for example rascals or signalled being a
problem for Spanish learners of English.
Another defining feature of consonants relates to the concept of VOICING: Some
consonants involve the vibration of the vocal cords: these are the voiced consonants, such
as /d/ and / g/ and others have no vocal cord vibration: These are the voiceless consonants,
such as /t/ and /k/.
This distinction is not absolute: depending on where in a word a consonant appears,
there may be degrees of voicing. At the end of a word, for example, a voiced consonant
typically loses a great deal of its vibration; it is devoiced. So that, the /z/ sound of ribs /rIbz/ is
less vibrant than the one in zoo /zu:/.
Another way of learning the difference between such consonant pairs as /t/ and /d/ is
to compare the FORCE or ENERGY with which they are articulated. So that, we distinguish
between:
- Consonants made with strong muscular effort, called FORTIS, and
- Consonants which need less force or energy, called LENIS.
Try whispering town and then down, you can still differentiate the two, because the intensity
of the burst of air is greater for /t/ than for /d/. In English, the fortis / lenis distinction happens
to duplicate the voiceless / voiced one found in MINIMAL PAIRS (pairs of words that are
pronounced the same less one phoneme town /down. So, all the voiced sounds are lenis and all
the voiceless sounds are fortis sounds. Thus,
/ p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, ʧ, and h / are all FORTIS consonants (Strong Consonants)
/ b, d, g, v, δ, z, ʒ, ʤ, and ( l, m, n, ŋ, j, w) / are all LENIS ( Weak Consonants)

Unlike vowels, some consonants are identified through their use of the nasal cavity.
With the three nasal consonants /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ the soft palate remains lowered, as when we
breathe, and the result is a series of sounds in English with a distinctive nasal resonance.
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Other defining characteristics of consonants, include the ASPIRATION of certain

plosives, especially in accented syllables in initial position as in put /pʰ/, take /tʰ/and come
/kʰ/. ASSIMILATION of neighbouring sounds like in meat pie /mi:p pai/ or that person
/’δæp p3:sņ/; and finally, NEUTRALISATION of sounds like in the case of plosives / p, t,
k / following /s/ in syllable-initial position, where these phonemes are pronounced like their
voiced counterparts, such is the case of the word student, where the group /st/, normally
aspirated in syllable-initial position, becomes /sd/ with an unaspirated /d/, since the contrast
between /t/ and /d/ is neutralised in this context.

With this, I've finished point number 2, let's move on, now, to the study of THE
CONSONANT ARTICULATION in depth. I will start by the PLACE OF ARTICULATION.

After the air has left the larynx, it passes into the vocal tract. Consonants are produced by
obstructing the airflow through the vocal tract. There are a number of places where these
obstructions can take place. These places are known as the ARTICULATORS.
They are:
 BILABIAL: If both of the lips are used to articulate a sound, then it is said to be a bilabial
sound. Examples of bilabial sounds include: /p /,/b / and /m /. (and /w/?? )
 LABIO-DENTAL: Two sounds use the lower lip together with the upper teeth and so are
called labio-dental consonants. These sounds are: /f / and /v /.
 DENTAL: Using the tongue tip between the teeth or close to the upper teeth, as in /θ/ in
thin and /δ/ in then.
 ALVEOLAR: An alveolar sound is when the tongue tip, or blade, touches the bony
prominence behind the top teeth. The following sounds are alveolar:/t/,/d/,/s/,/z/,/l/,/n/, and
the first elements of /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.
 POST-ALVEOLAR: the front of the tongue comes into contact with the rear part of the
alveolar ridge. /r/
 PALATO-ALVEOLAR: Four sounds are said to be palato-alveolar. This is partly because the
blade of the tongue straddles both the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate as air
is forced through to make the following sounds: The //in sheep. The // in genre.
The /t/ in chips. And the /d/ in jail.
 PALATAL: Raising the front of the tongue close to the hard palate. The /j / sound in yes is
the clearest example of a palatal sound in RP.
 VELAR: The velar sounds are usually made when the back of the tongue is pressed against
the soft palate. They include the /k/ in cat, the /g/ in girl and the // in hang.
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 GLOTTAL: Glottal sounds are those sounds that are made using the space between the
vocal cords to make audible friction as in /h/ in house, or a closure as in the glottal
stop / ?/. It is physically impossible to feel the process using your tongue. It is as far as
you can get in your mouth. The glottal stop is becoming a more widespread part of British
English, and is increasingly heard in R.P., especially replacing /t/ between vowels and
before /l/ as in bott/?/le, and also replacing /t/ at the end of a word or before a vowel:
Gat/?/wick airport/?/.
As you can see, depending on the place of articulation we will have one phoneme or
another. Nevertheless, sometimes, we can find ALTERATIONS IN THE PLACE OF

ARTICULATION of a phoneme depending on the adjacent sounds. These variations are called
ALLOPHONES. Allophones are just for phonemic transcription and are represented into
brackets [] for instance, phoneme /t/ has among others the following allophones[t] aspirated
as in tip; [t] with nasal release as in curtain [t] dental as in eighth.

As well as indicating the place of articulation, it is also necessary to determine the nature
and extent of the obstruction involved. The type of obstruction is known as the MANNER OF

ARTICULATION. An example of this can be found by looking at the following words: nine
dine line. They all begin with voiced, alveolar consonants. Yet, they are all clearly different in
both sound and meaning. The kinds of constriction made by the articulators are what make up
this further dimension of classification. :

 PLOSIVE: Plosive or STOPS sounds are made by forming a complete obstruction to the
flow of air through the mouth and nose. The first stage is that a closure occurs. Then the
flow of air builds up and finally the closure is released, making an explosion of air that
causes a sharp noise. Note that a plosive cannot be prolonged or maintained. Once the air
has been released, the sound has escaped. The plosive sounds in RP are: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/
/g/, and the first elements of /ʧ/ /ʤ/ and the glottal stop.
 FRICATIVE: A fricative is the type of consonant that is formed when two vocal organs
come so close together that the movement of air between them cause audible friction.
Typically air is forced between the tongue and the place of articulation for the particular
sound. Try it yourself. Say the /f / in fin, the // in thin and the // in shin. You should be
able to feel the turbulence created by the sounds. It is possible to maintain a fricative
sound for as long as your breath holds out. This is very different from a plosive sound.
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Other fricatives include the /v / in van, the /s / in sin, the /h / in hat, the / / in that, the /z /
in zoo and the / / sound in confusion. And the second element in / ʧ/ and /ʤ/ are also
fricative. /z/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/ are often grouped as SIBILANTS, because they are made with a
narrower groove in the tongue and the sound is sharper than the others.
 AFFRICATES: An affricate is a plosive immediately followed by a fricative in the same
place of articulation. The /t/ in chap and the /d / in jeep are the two clear affricates in
English. If you think about it, the /t/ sound is made up from the plosive /t/ and the
fricative // sounds.
 NASAL: A nasal consonant is a consonant in which a complete closure is made at some
point in the mouth, with the soft palate lowered, so that the air escapes through the nose.
You can feel if a sound is a nasal sound or not by placing your hand in front of your mouth
and feeling if any air is escaping or not. There are three nasal sounds in English. The /m /
in mat, the /n / in nasal and the // in sing.
 LATERAL: A partial closure is made at some point in the mouth, in such a way that the air
stream is allowed to escape around the sides of the closure. /l/ is the clearest example of a
lateral sound in English. Varieties of the same phoneme or allophones of /l/ are these
three:
- Clear [ l ], common before vowels like in silly.
- Dark [ ɫ] also called “back /l/”, common before consonants, as in shelf often
pronounced /ʃeuf /; and in final position, as in, hill often pronounced /hiu/.
- And finally, -le terminations, where this sound becomes the nucleus of the syllable
or syllabic: as in people /’pi:pļ/. American use syllabic [ ļ] where RP has a noticeable
vowel, like in fertile /’f3:tail / RP and /’f3:tļ/AE
This sound is SILENT in talk, walk, alms ,etc…
 APPROXIMANTS: these may be called frictionless continuants. The organs of speech are
not brought close enough together to cause turbulence and audible friction. There are 4
approximants in English: /l/, which is also lateral. /r/, and the semivowels /w/ and /j/. We
have three different phenomena Regarding to the /r/, in English:
Silent r: in RP, before consonants or in final position it is not pronounced, but serves
to make the previous vowel long: arm /a:m/
Pronounced r : in RP it's pronounced in final position when the next word begins with
a vowel. E.g. near /ni/  near enough /nirin/. This is also called linking r.
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Intrusive r: this sound does not represent a letter, but it's inserted into a sequence, e.g.
I saw it, /ai sɔ:rit/. RP speakers use it to link words ending with a vowel, even when
there is no justification from the spelling.

Once we know how the English consonant system works it's time to study the
COMPARISON AMONG THE ENGLISH CONSONANT SYSTEM, THE SPANISH
AND THE VALENCIAN ONE. If sounds in a target language are physically similar to those
in the source language, and they combine and are distributed similarly, the learner won't have
any problem. Problems arise when there are no similar phonemes or that these phonemes are
found in different combinations. That is why in order to develop this point I am going to
analyse the consonant systems of the three languages: English, Spanish and Catalan.

The English consonant system has 24 phonemes; the Spanish 20 and the Valencian has
23. Unfortunately not every phoneme has an identical correspondence in the other two
languages, and this fact can create some difficulties to students. Besides of this the consonant
clusters, groups of consonants together in the speech, are not always the same. In this point I
will try to clarify these difficulties.

If we have a look to the PLOSIVES, we will see that the three languages have identical
phonemes. The difference between them is that Spanish and Valencian do not have /b/ /d/or
/g/ in word final position. And /p/ /t/ /k/ are not aspirated before a stress vowel as it occurs in
English. /t/ and /d/ are alveolar in English, but Dental in Spanish and Valencian.

The FRICATIVES AND AFFRICATES are better understandable for Valencians than for
Spanish Castillian.. Valencian recognises phoneme /v/ as in canviar or veure. Also the /z/ in
rosa or the affricates / ʧ/ /ʤ/: xocolata , joc, jordi, potser dotze... Main problems Spanish
speakers have with these consonants are in the realisation of the // //, as this phoneme does
not exist in Spanish, students tend to do it as an /s/, or in general words, SpC. Speakers
pronounce the unvoiced equivalent of the English affricates.

The phonemes /h/ and /x/ are also problematic for these languages inter-
comprehension. Spanish and Valencian do hot have the aspirated h, (unvoiced glottal
fricative) and they use to pronounce it with the most similar phoneme they have that is the
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unvoiced velar fricative //. So English students of Spanish in caja would pronounce / kaha/
instead of /kaxa/. And the other way round, SpC. And Vlc, would pronounce /xi/ instead
of /hI/ when pronouncing the personal pronoun he.

NASALS, LATERALS AND APPROXIMANTS do not represent very big problems, because
Both Spanish Castillian and Valencian are very similar to English. The most problematic
features would be the /r/ in rosa or carro has more friction that the /r/ in rose.
/w/ exists in SpC. in hueso; but it is velar and in E. is bilabial.

Let's go now to analyse the CONSONANT CLUSTERS. In order to do this we will differentiate
among INITIAL CLUSTERS, if they are at the beginning of a word, MEDIAL CLUSTERS, if they
appear in the middle and FINAL CLUSTERS, when they are produced at the end of a word.

INITIAL CLUSTERS of two consonants are similar among the three languages, except in
the case op /s/ + consonant; which is not present in Spanish nor Valencian and causes an
epenthetic /e/ to be inserted in e.g. speak /es'pik/, instead of /'spIk/. This epenthetic /e/ also
appears in the combination of /, , , / + /r/ . The first two sounds do not exist in Spanish
and /t/ and /d/ are dental instead of alveolar, then is quite difficult for them to produce theses
sounds correctly. Epenthetic /e/ also appears in initial three-consonant clusters, because
Neither Spanish nor Valencian have this combination: spray /es'preI/.

Concerning MEDIAL CLUSTERS , we have to say that although the English and the
Valencian system are very similar, there are several differences wit the Castillian Spanish
clusters.. Spanish tends to assimilate the final consonant of a syllable with the first consonant
of the following syllable, this is the case of submarino, examen, Israel etc.

FINAL CLUSTERS of consonants are common in English and Valencian. Valencian has
several final clusters of 3 and even 4 syllables, e.g. Alps, llests triomfs, texsts. Nevertheless
Spanish do not have that kind of combination, then Spanish speakers will find many problems
to pronounce e.g. sprinkled. Surely they would pronounce something simmilar to /es'prinkel/.

After developing all these facts it seems that Valencian speakers, due to the
particularities of their language would have less difficulty than Spanish speakers to pronounce
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English correctly. Nevertheless, we as teachers must help our students teaching them how to
pronounce correctly helping them with pronunciation techniques, listening, speech etc.

Finally, I would like to CONCLUDE by saying that the knowledge of the English
consonant system, its pronunciation and particularities are essential in order to acquire a good
level in English language, not only for understanding but also for producing our own speech
segments. That is why we should emphasise more on it, when learning or teaching English as
a target language. Phonetics and phonology may be the best tools to become a real English
speaker.

As far as the BIBLIOGRAPHY is concerned, I have mainly used the next sources,
 Gimson An Introduction To The Pronunciation Of English Arnold 1985
 Jones An Outline Of English Phoneticcs Heffer 1960
 Mott A Course In Phonetics And Phonology For Spanish Learners Of English PPU 1991
 IPA (International Phonetics Association) : www.ipa.org
 Guia De Fonemes I Al.lofons Del Valencià www.geocities.com/soho/café/9308/afi.htm
 M.Swan & B.Smith. Learner English..A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems.” Speakers
of Spanish and Catalan”. CUP 1987

That's all regarding topic number 8. Thank you very much for your attention.