English consonants

FRICATIVES

• 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 /sͻ:s/, and the pronunciation of zoos is written /zu :z/

PALATO-ALVEOLAR

• 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 /ʃ/, so the pronunciation of shush is written / ʃ ۸ ʃ /. 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 /Ʒ/ (somewhat like the IPA symbol), so the pronunciation of Asia is written /eıƷə/. / ʃ / and /Ʒ/ are produced at what is called the postalveolar place of articulation.