English consonants

RETROFLEX

• A further possibility is for no closure of the oral cavity at all. English has three such consonants. One is produced with the tip of the tongue curled somewhat back and approaching the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. This is the sound at the beginning and end of the word rear . We will use the symbol /r/ for this consonant (though the more precise IPA symbol is [ɹ]; [r] is often used for an alveolar trill or tap). Sounds produced with the tongue curved in this way are called retroflex; we can treat this as a particular place of articulation (though not everyone does).

• The two other approximants are produced similarly to high vowels, except that the articulators are usually not brought as close together as they would be for vowels. One of these consonants approaches the vowels /u/ and /ʊ/. It is the consonant found at the beginning of the word we and is symbolized by /w/, so the pronunciation of we is written /wi:/. Note that this phoneme has two simultaneous places of articulation: velar, because the back of the tongue approaches the velar region, just as for /u/, and bilabial, because the lips are rounded and brought close together, as for /u/. The other English approximant resembles the vowels /i/ and /ɪ/. It is the consonant found at the beginning of the word you and is symbolized by /j/, so the pronunciation of you is written / ju:/. (Note that in IPA, this consonant is symbolized by /j/.) The place of articulation for this consonant is one we haven't seen yet for any consonants; as for the vowel /i/, the middle of the tongue approaches the region in the middle of the roof of the mouth. This is referred to as the palatal place of articulation.

• It should be clear by now that the distinction between vowels and consonants is really a matter of degree. The consonants that are the least vowel-like are stops, which involve a complete closure of the vocal tract and cannot be pronounced continuously. A little more like vowels are fricatives, which can be pronounced continuously but which still have the characteristic fricative noise resulting from the narrow opening in the vocal tract. Closest to vowels are sonorants. All of these can be pronounced continously.