Tuesday, 9 July 2013

T 6 CP in Description


Topic 6        Consonant Phonemes in Description
“The distinctive features of consonants are decided by the articulators used, the manner in which the airstream is controlled and the presence or absence of vocal fold activity.” (Samuel R. Faircloth)  These 3 factors are considered to decide the characteristics of a consonant phoneme.

A)  Place of Production
     1)  Bilabial  -----  / p /, / b /, / m /    (Bi = two) (labial = lips)
         (When  the airstream is obstructed by the lips)

     2)  Labio-dental  -----  / f /, / v /    (lip and teeth)
         (When the lower lip approximate the upper teeth)

     3)  Lingua-interdental  -----  /  θ   /, /  ð   /  (lingua = tongue)
          (When the tongue tip is projected in between the biting edges of the
          upper and lower central incisor teeth)

     4)  Lingua-alveolar -- / t /, / d /, / s /, / z /, / l /, / r /, / n /  
          (When the tongue approaches or contacts the alveolar ridge)     

     5)  Lingua-palatal  -----  /      /, / ӡ /, / t/,/ dӡ / /  j  /
          (When a portion of the tongue approximates the hard palate)

     6)  Lingua- velar  -----  / k /, / g /, / ŋ /
          (When the back of the tongue contacts the velum)

B)  Manners of Production
     1)  Plosives  -----  / p /, / b /, / t /, / d /, / k /, / g /
          (When airstream is momentarily stopped and released suddenly)

     2)  Fricatives  --- / f   v /    / θ   ð /    / s   z /    /   ӡ /   / h /                                 
          (When the articulator are held in a relatively stable position
           allowing continuous production of the sound through a narrow gap
           in the articulator and producing friction sounds.)

     3)  Affricatives  -----  / t /, / dӡ /
            (the combination of a plosive and a fricative sound)
                                                                                             22.
     4)  Glides  -----  / w /, / j /, / l /, / r /    (/ l /lateral) (/r/ retroflex)
(When the sound is produced by the fast movement of one articulator to another)  
 * / w / and / j / are considered as semi-vowels.   

     5)  Nasal  -----  / m /, / n /, / ŋ /
          (when the phonated airstream is diverted to the nasal cavity)

C)  Voiceless or Voiced
      It is the activity of the vocal folds that decide if the consonant  phoneme is voiceless or voiced.

Voiceless Consonant Phonemes (9)
      / p /, / t /, / k /, / /, / t /, / f /, / s /, / θ /, / h /

Voiced Consonant Phonemes  (15)
     / b /, / d /, / g /. / ӡ /, / dӡ /, / v /, / z /, /  ð  /,
     / m /, / n /, / ŋ /, / l /, / r /, / j /, / w /

Consonant phonemes also act as "syllable-releasing or syllable arresting" (1).   For example, the phoneme ‘p’ in the word ‘stop’ acts as syllable-arresting.
However, ‘p’ in the word ‘play’ acts as syllable-releasing.

The plural nouns or singular verbs of the word ended in Voiceless Consonant Phonemes (/ p /, / t /, / k /, / f /, / θ /) have the / s / speech sound for the letter ‘s’.                   

          Nouns in Plural                      Verbs in Singular
                                                        [He /She /It]
         ships                / Ips /                      stops                / stɒps /               
         shirts               / 3:ts /                       hits                  / hIts /
         sticks              / stIks /                        picks              / pIks /
         roofs                / ru:fs /                        laugh                / la: fs /
         paths              / pa: θs /                  
         
     On the other hand, the plural nouns of the words ended in Voiced Consonant Phonemes (/ b/, / d /, g /, / m /, / n /, / l / r / )  has the / z / speech sound for the letter ‘s’.                                                 19

Nouns in Plural                                                                          
        tubs          / tʌbz /                      beds         / bedz /    
        bags         / bægz /                    sums         / sʌmz /
        nuns         / nʌnz /                     girls          / g3:lz  /                                                                                  

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