Contents: Introduction I. Special Phonetic Features in the English Language

1.3 Consonants: Classification
Some scientists stated that in consonant sounds the airflow is interrupted, diverted or restricted as it passes the oral cavity. The respective modifications that are made to a sound are referred to as their manner of articulation. The manner of articulation, therefore, describes how the different speech organs are involved in producing a consonant sound, basically how the airflow is obstructed¹⁰. Thus, the manner of articulation is a distinctive feature in the English language.
These are the different manners of articulation:
Plosives/stops:
In plosives, the speech organs are closed and the oral and nasal cavity completely closed blocking off the airstream. The upbuilding pressure in the oral cavity is then suddenly released. The audible puff of air that is released is called aspiration. Plosives of the English language are /p/, /t/, /k/ (voiceless) and //b/, /d/, /g/ (voiced).
Affricates:
Like with plosives there is a complete blockage of the airstream in the oral cavity. But in contrast to said plosives, the blocked-off airstream is not released suddenly, but rather slowly causing audible friction. Affricates can, therefore, be divided into two parts: a plosive followed by a fricative (as there is closure and friction in the same place). But note that affricates are always analyzed as only one phoneme. English affricates are /tʃ/ (voiceless) as in cheese and /dʒ/ (voiced) as in jungle.
Nasals:
In nasal sounds the velum (soft palate) is lowered blocking off the oral cavity. Air can only escape through the nose. English nasals are m , n and ŋ as in sing, which are all voiced.
Fricatives:
Fricatives are created when air forces its way through a narrow gap between two articulators at a steady pace. They can be divided into two categories: slit fricatives and groove fricatives. In slit fricatives the tongue is rather flat (as in /f/, θ as in thing (voiceless), v , ð as in this (voiced) ) while in groove fricatives the front of the tongue forms the eponymous groove (/s/ as in seal, /ʃ/ as in shock (voiceless), /z/ as in zero, /ʒ/ as in measure (voiced)).
Laterals:
The tip of the tongue is pressed onto the alveolar ridge. The rims of the tongue are lowered so that the air escapes over the lowered tongue rims. The only English lateral sound is /l/ (voiced).
Approximants:
The name approximants refers to the fact that the articulators involved approach each another without actually touching. There are three approximants in the English language: /j/ as in you, /w/ as in we and /r/ as in rise (all voiced). Approximants are often referred to as semi-vowels (or glides) as they represent the ―twilight zone‖ between consonants and vowels.
Stops
A stop consonant completely cuts off the airflow through the mouth. In the consonants [t], [d], and [n], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow at that point. In [t] and [d], this means that there is no airflow at all for the duration of the stop. In [n], there is no airflow through the mouth, but there is still airflow through the nose. We distinguish between nasal stops, like [n], which involve airflow through the nose, and oral stops, like [t] and [d], which do not. Nasal stops are often simply called nasals. Oral stops are often called plosives. Oral stops can be either voiced or voiceless. Nasal stops are almost always voiced. In the stop [t], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow. In [s], the tongue tip approaches the alveolar ridge but doesn't quite touch it. There is still enough of an opening for airflow to continue, but the opening is narrow enough that it causes the escaping air to become turbulent (hence the hissing sound of the [s]). In a fricative consonant, the articulators involved in the constriction approach get close enough to each other to create a turbluent airstream. The fricatives of English are [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ].
Approximants
In an approximant, the articulators involved in the constriction are further apart still than they are for a fricative. The articulators are still closer to each other than when the vocal tract is in its neutral position, but they are not even close enough to cause the air passing between them to become turbulent. The approximants of English are [w], [j], [ɹ], and [l].
Affricates
An affricate is a single sound composed of a stop portion and a fricative portion. In English [tʃ], the airflow is first interrupted by a stop which is very similar to [t] (though made a bit further back). But instead of finishing the articulation quickly and moving directly into the next sound, the tongue pulls away from the stop slowly, so that there is a period of time immediately after the stop where the constriction is narrow enough to cause a turbulent airstream¹¹. In [tʃ], the period of turbulent airstream following the stop portion is the same as the fricative [ʃ]. English [dʒ] is an affricate like [tʃ], but voiced.
Laterals
Pay attention to what you are doing with your tongue when you say the first consonant of [lif] leaf. Your tongue tip is touching your alveolar ridge (or perhaps your upper teeth), but this doesn't make [l] a stop. Air is still flowing during an [l] because the side of your tongue has dropped down and left an opening. (Some people drop down the right side of their tongue during an [l]; others drop down the left; a few drop down both sides.) Sounds which involve airflow around the side of the tongue are called laterals. Sounds which are not lateral are called central. [l] is the only lateral in English. The other sounds of English, like most of the sounds of the world's languages, are central. More specifically, [l] is a lateral approximant. The opening left at the side of the tongue is wide enough that the air flowing through does not become turbulent.
So far all of the consonants we have looked at have involved a complete closure of the vocal tract, blocking air from passing out. But this is not the only way to make consonants. In fact we need a new dimension for the various possibilities (really a whole cluster of dimensions); this is called manner of articulation. One crucial variable within manner of articulation is the distance between the articulators. For stops, the closure is complete, but there are two further possibilities. One, discussed in this subsection, involves a narrow, but not complete, closure that allows air to pass through the aperture but with accompanying noise. The other, discussed in the next subsection, involves an opening that is wide enough for the air to pass through unimpeded.
Stops and fricatives are different manners of articulation.
Consider what happens when you bite your lower lip with your upper teeth and then blow air out. Unless you're biting too hard, some of the air can pass between your teeth and lip, creating a sound like that at the beginning and end of the word fife. A phone made like this, with an incomplete or approximate closure that permits air to pass through and produces a noisy sound due to the resulting turbulence, is called a fricative. The fricative at the beginning and end of the word fife is voiceless because the fricative sound is not accompanied by voicing. That is, the voicing starts after the vocal tract is opened up for the vowel and stops just before the closure made again at the end of the word. The place of articulation for this consonant is one we didn't encounter for English stops; it is the second of the possible places associated with the lips (in addition to bilabial place of articulation). It is called labiodental place of articulation. The symbol for the voiceless labiodental fricative is /f/, so the pronunciation of the word fife is written /fayf/. English also has a phoneme that is the same as /f/, but voiced. This is the sound at the beginning and end of the word verve. It is symbolized by /v/, so the pronunciation of verve is written /vərv/.
English has a pair of fricatives at another place of articulation where there are no English stops. Try putting your tongue between your teeth or against the back of your upper teeth and then expelling air from your mouth. Again if the contact is not too tight, some air should pass between your tongue and your teeth, generating turbulence that results in the consonant that appears at the beginning of the word thing and at the end of the word both¹². The place of articulation for this consonant is called dental place of articulation. The symbol for the voiceless dental fricative is θ , so the pronunciation of the word both is written boθ . English also has the corresponding voiced phoneme; it is the initial consonant in the word this and the final consonant in the word bathe. It is symbolized by ð in this book, so the pronunciation of bathe is written beð .
Although English has no bilabial fricatives, it does have alveolar fricatives. When the tongue is allowed to approach but not quite come in contact with the alveolar ridge, we get the consonants in the word sauce if it is not accompanied by voice and the consonants in the word zoos if it is accompanied by voice. The symbols for these alveolar fricatives are /s/ and /z/, so the pronunciation of sauce is written /s s/, and the pronunciation of zoos is written /zuz/. Most English fricatives are produced at different places of articulation than English stops.
Somewhat behind the alveolar ridge, it is possible to bring part of the body of the tongue near the roof of the mouth and produce voiceless and voiced fricatives that are distinguishable from /s/ and /z/. The voiceless fricative appears at the beginning and end of the word shush. It is symbolized by š , so the pronunciation of shush is written š^š . The voiced fricative at this place of articulation is a somewhat marginal phoneme in English, and it does not normally appear at the beginnings of words. It is the consonant in the middle of the word Asia. The symbol for this consonant in this book is ž (somewhat like the IPA symbol), so the pronunciation of Asia is written ežə . š and ž are produced at what is called the postalveolar place of articulation.
English does not have velar fricatives, but it does have a voiceless glottal fricative, produced by making the glottis narrow enough for a breathy sound to be created. This is the consonant at the beginning of the word hot; this phoneme does not occur at the end of English words. It is symbolized by /h/, so the pronunciation of hot is written /hαt
We have seen that stops involve complete closure, and fricatives involve approximate closure. It is also possible to combine these two by beginning with a complete (stop) closure and ending with an approximate (fricative) closure. Such phones are called affricates. English has two of them, voiced and voiceless affricates produced at the postalveolar place of articulation. The voiceless postalveolar affricate is the first and last consonant in the word church; it is symbolized by č in this book, so the pronunciation of church is written čərč . The voiced postalveolar affricate is the first and last consonant in the word judge; it is symbolized by ǰ in this book, so the pronunciation of judge is written ǰ^ǰ . Notice how c is similar to a t followed by a š and how j is similar to a d followed by a ž ; in fact, an alternate way to write these affricates is /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

Sonorants

Produce the syllables /ba/, /da/, /ga/. Now do the same thing but instead of making a complete closure for the stops at the beginnings of the syllables, leave a little gap8 between the articulators, and see what consonants result. Do the same thing for /pa/, /ta/, /ka/. (Note that the resulting consonants should sound like English only for /da/ and /ta/.)
Pronounce the syllable /ba/ while holding your nose. Now try the same thing, replacing the /b/ with an "m" sound (as in mama). What can you conclude about the difference between /b/ and the sound of "m"? The the same thing with /d/ and the sound of "n". Also try to pronounce the word sing while holding your nose, and notice what happens to the final consonant (written with the letter combination "ng"). English nasal and lateral consonants have a complete stop-like contact in one place, but the air escapes somewhere else.
One way to produce a sonorant consonant is to completely close the oral cavity, just as for a stop, but to open up the nasal cavity, the empty region behind the nostrils and above the oral cavity. This is achieved by lowering the velum, the flap at the back of the roof of the mouth. The nasal cavity and velum are shown in the figure below, in which the vocal tract is configured for the production of the sound at the beginning and end of the word mom¹³. Such phones are called nasal consonants (as we will see later on, there are also nasal vowels). For nasal consonants, the air is allowed to pass through the nasal cavity, but it also resonates in the oral cavity, and the place of articulation (within the oral cavity) distinguishes different nasal consonants from one another. English has three nasal consonant phonemes, at the bilabial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation. The bilabial nasal is the one at the beginning and end of the word mom; it is symbolized by /m/, so the pronunciation of mom is written mαm . The alveolar nasal is the one at the beginning and end of the word none; it is symbolized by /n/, so the pronunciation of none is written /n^n/. The velar nasal is the one at the end of the word sing (this phoneme does not appear at the beginning of words in English); it is symbolized in this book by ŋ , which is close to the IPA symbol, so the pronunciation of sing is written /sɪŋ
Positions of English consonants
According to the Russian scientist Blokh, the place of articulation is determined by the active organ of speech against the point of articulation. There may be one place of articulation or focus, or two places of articulation or foci when active organs of speech contact with two points of articulation. In the first case consonants are called unicentral, in the second they are bicentral.
According to the position of the active organ of speech against the point of articulation (i. e. the place of articulation) consonants may be:
Labial.
Lingual.
Glottal.
1. Labial consonants are made by the lips. They may be b i l a b i a l and l a b i o – d e n t a l. Bilabial consonants are produced when both lips are active: [p]‚ [b]‚ [m]‚ [w]. Labio-dental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth: [f]‚ [v].
2. Lingual consonants are classified into f o r e l i n g u a l, m e d i o l i n g u a l and b a c k l i n g u a l.
Forelingual consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue. They differ in the position of the tip of the tongue. According to its work they may be:
a p i c a l, if the tip of the tongue is active: [t]‚ [d]‚ [s]‚ [z]‚ [∫]‚ [ʒ]‚ [Ө]‚ [ð]‚ [ʧ]‚ [ʤ]‚ [n]‚ [l];
d o r s a l, if the blade of the tongue takes part in the articulation; the tip is passive and lowered. In English there are no dorsal consonants;
c a c u m i n a l, if the tip of the tongue is at the back part of the teeth ridge, but a depression is formed in the blade of the tongue: [r].
According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be:
interdental; dental; alveolar; post-alveolar; palato-alveolar.
I n t e r d e n t a l consonants or interdentals are made with the tip of the tongue projected between the teeth: [Ө]‚ [ð].
D e n t a l consonants or dentals are produced with the blade of the tongue against the upper teeth: e.g. the Russian [т], [д].
A l v e o l a r consonants or alveolars are articulated with the tip against the upper teeth ridge: [t]‚ [d]‚ [s]‚ [z]‚ [n]‚ [l].
P o s t – a l v e o l a r consonants or post-alveolars are made when the tip or the blade of the tongue is against the back part of the teeth ridge or just behind it: [r].
P a l a t o – a l v e o l a r consonants or palato-alveolars are made with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge and the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate, thus having two places of articulation or foci: [ʧ]‚ [ʤ]‚ [∫]‚ [ʒ].9
Mediolingual consonants are produced with the front part of the tongue. They are always p a l a t a l. Palatals are made with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate: [j].
Backlingual consonants are also called velar, because they are produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate: [k]‚ [g]‚ [ŋ].
3. The glottal consonant [h] is articulated in the glottis.
Consonants made by completely closing the vocal tract are called stops. As we discussed informally, different consonants can be produced by varying the place where the closure occurs. This consonant dimension is known as place of articulation; we will see later that the place of articulation is also relevant when there isn't a complete closure of the vocal tract. In one sense place of articulation is really six different dimensions because it involves the independent movement of six separate parts of the vocal tract. Each of these structures is called an articulator. The articulators relevant for place of articulation are the lips, the tongue tip, the tongue body, the tongue root, the pharynx (the region behind and below the oral cavity), and the glottis (the gap between the vocal cords). You get different stops by making the contact at different places in the vocal tract.
Each language makes of use of several places of articulation, usually between three and six, to distinguish its consonant phonemes. In this section, we'll only consider those places that are relevant for English.
There are two possible places of articulation involving the lips as articulators. For bilabial place of articulation, the lips are brought together (or for non-stops, as we'll see later, close together). The first and last consonants in the word bib are bilabial stops. The symbol for this consonant is /b/, so the pronunciation of bib is written /bɪb/. A further possible position of the lips is contact between the lips and upper teeth; this is not used for English stops, though it used for other English consonants.
With one part or another of the tongue as articulator, there is a continuous range of possible places for contact with the roof of the mouth, beginning with the upper teeth and extending back to the uvula at the back of the mouth. All languages apparently make use of at least two positions within this range. For English stops, two positions are relevant. One of these is contact between the tip of the tongue and the ridge that is just behind the upper teeth, the alveolar ridge. This is referred to as alveolar place of articulation. It is a feature of the first and last consonants in the word did. The symbol for these stops is /d/, so the pronunciation of the word did is written /dɪd/.
There is a further possibility for contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth that is used in most languages. The back of the tongue body contacts the region near the back of the roof of the mouth, near the structure called the velum, which I'll have more to say about below. This is called velar place of articulation. It is a feature of the first and last consonants in the word gag. the symbol for these stops is g , so the pronunciation of gag is written gæg .
So English distinguishes the stops /b, d, g/ along the dimension of place of articulation. Other places of articulation are utilized for other English consonants that are not stops and for consonants in other languages.
2.3. Consonant changes in English
Consonants were historically more stable than vowels, though certain changes took place in all historical periods.
Some of the consonant changes dated in pre-written periods are referred to as "West Germanic" (WG) as they are shared by all the languages of the WG subgroup; WG changes may have taken place at the transitional stage from Proto-Germanic(PG) to Early OE prior to the Germanic settlement of Britain. Other changes are specifically English; they took place in Early OE.
1) In OE there were no affricates and sibilants except [s,z]
2) Hardening. The PG voiced [ð] (due to Verner's Law or to the third act of the shift) was always hardened to [d] in OE and other WG languages. The two other fricatives, [v] and [y] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives.
3) PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification into [r] and thus became a sonorant (maiza→māra). This process, termed rhotacism, is characteristic not only of WG but also of North German.
4) voicing or devoicing of [v, f, θ, y, s]. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants.
5) In all West Germ languages, at an early stage of their independent history, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j] This process is known as WG "gemination" or "doubling" of consonants, as the resulting long consonants are indicated by means of double letters, e. g.: * fuljan > OE fyllan (NE fill)', * sætjan > OE settan