English consonants

GLOTTAL FRICATIVE

• 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 /hͻt/

AFFRICATES

• 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 /tʃ/ in this book, so the pronunciation of church is written / tʃ ə: tʃ /. The voiced postalveolar affricate is the first and last consonant in the word judge; it is symbolized by /ʤ/ in this book, so the pronunciation of judge is written / ʤ ۸ʤ /.