General Characteristics of Consonants

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 794.

There are few ways of classifying English consonants. According to V.A.Vassilyev primary importance should be given to the type of obstruction and the manner of production of noise. On this ground he distinguishes two large classes of consonants:

1. occlusive, in the production of which a complete obstruction is formed: [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g], [m], [n], [ŋ], [t∫], [dʒ];

2. constrictive, in the production of which an incomplete obstruction is formed: [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [∫], [ʒ], [h], [w], [l], [r], [j].

Each of the two classes is subdivided into noise consonants and sonorants. The

division is based on the factor of prevailing either noise or tone component in the auditory characteristic of a sound. In their turn noise consonants are divided into plosive consonants (or stops) and affricates:

Sonorants are sounds that differ greatly from all other consonants of the language.

This is largely due to the fact that in their production the air passage between the two

organs of speech is fairly wide, that is much wider than in the production of noise consonants. As a result, the auditory effect is tone, not noise. This peculiarity of articulation makes sonorants sound more like vowels than consonants.

The place of articulation is another characteristic of English consonants which

should be considered from the phonological point of view. The place of articulation is

determined by the active organ of speech against the point of articulation. According to

this principle the English consonants are classed into: labial, lingual, glottal. The class of labial consonants is subdivided into: a) bilabial (upper lip+lower lip: b, p, m, w); b) labio-dental (lower lip+upper teeth: v, f); and among the class of lingual consonants three subclasses are distinguished; they are: a) forelingual (θ, ð, t, d, n, l, s, z, ∫, ʒ,t∫, dʒ); b) mediolingual (j) and c) backlingual (k, g, ŋ). The classification of consonants according to this principle is illustrated in the following scheme:

Our next point should be made in connection with another sound property, that

is voiced — voiceless characteristic which depends on the work of the vocal cords. It has long been believed that from the articulatory point of view the distinction between such pairs of consonants as [p, b], [t, d], [k, g], [s, z], [f, v], [ʃ, Ʒ], [ʧ, ʤ] is based on the absence or presence of vibrations of the vocal cords, or on the absence or presence of voice or tone component. However, there is also energy difference. All voiced consonants are weak (lenis) and all voiceless consonants are strong (fortis).

According to the position of the soft palate consonants can be oral and nasal. There are relatively few consonantal types in English which require the lowered position of the soft palate. They are the nasal occlusive sonorants [m], [n] and [ŋ]. They differ from oral plosives in that the soft palate is lowered allowing the escape of air into the nasal cavity.

The grouping of the RP consonants according to the articulatory principles exemplified above may be illustrated in the table given below: