T 8 Some phonemes to note27 - 30

Topic 8     Some Consonants and Vowel Phonemes to Note:

1.  / j /      (lingua-palatal, frictionless-glide, voiced, (semivowel))  

           

y – yacht, yard, yawn, year, yes, yellow, yell, yet, yield,

/ j /  only functions as syllable-releasing and the letter ‘y’ has the speech sound.  It is close to the vowel phoneme /  I   /.  The relatively relaxed state of the tongue enables it to arch a bit more back in the oral cavity.  It takes place immediately before a vowel nucleus.  Hence the tongue moves rapidly from the initiation of the sound into the movement for the vowel.

1.   / ju: /       

        u – U, Q, W, you, youth abuse, amuse, due, duke, duplicate, duty,       

             mute, pupil, use, mutual, futile,

       

        eu – feud, feudal,

       

ew – few, new, curfew, view,

/ ju: / occurs mostly on stressed syllables or monosyllables.

3.  / jU /       

        u – durable, during, educate, education, invalulable,  mural, pure,      

             singular, furore, evacuate, evacuation, executive, copula,

             deputise,  mercury,

/ jU / occurs mostly on unstressed syllables in polysyllables.

4.  / kw /      

qu – queen, quest, quit, quiver, question, quote, quotation, quotient,

       quick, quiet, queer, quilt,

5.  / ∫ /  

s – sure, pressure                                                             

                                                                                               

       sh – she, wash, rush, rash, bush, brush, harsh                              31.

       

        c – ancient, ocean, racial,

       

ch – machine, cashew, chevron,

       

t – attention, confidential, initial, patient, partial, station

6.  / t∫ /       

       ch – chair, church, much, march, chart, change, charge, such,      

              watch, match, chore, chirp, cheek, chin, China

        t – actual, question, ritual, virtual, virtue, texture, culture

7.  / ӡ / 

       s – leisure, measure, pleasure, treasure, vision, usual,

x – luxurious, luxuriant, luxuriate,

8.  / dӡ   /     

        gy – allergy, energy, strategy, psychology, zoology,

        ge – age, page, wage, orange, range, surge, huge,

       

        dge – bridge, ridge, edge, knowledge, ledge, pledge,

9.  / θ /

th – breath, author, faith, therapy, nothing, theme, theory, therapy,

      thick, think, third, thorn, threat, throat, throne, through, throw,

      thumb, thunder,

There are more words with /  θ  / speech sound than /  ð  / for the letter cluster ‘th’.                                                                                 

10.  /  ð  / 

th – breathe, fathom, gather, them, themselves, then, though,

       with, wither, zither, either, neither, soothe,

                                                                                

11./ ŋ /     (ended in ng/nk)                                            

ng -- bring, ring, sing, sting, string, sling, fling, thing,

            English, angry, hungry, tangle, angle, tangible                                   

When the words ended in ‘ng’, like ‘bring, ring, sing’ and so on in syllable-arresting cases, then, the letter ‘n’ has / ŋ / speech sound and / g / sound is omitted.  However, when the phoneme / g / acts as syllable-releasing, then / g / is not omitted as the words ‘English, angry, hungry’ and the like.

nk –  ink, drink, link, pink, wink, bank, tank, flank, think, rink,

        wrinkle, shrink, blink, uncle, ankle, crinkle,

When the words ended in ‘nk’, the letters ‘nk’ always have / ŋk / speech sound.

    12.   / w /   (bilabial, nonfricative-glide, voiced, (semivowel))

                              

war, warrant, warp, ward, waste, what, where

/ w / has the speech sound close to / U /.  It is initiated with the tongue close to / U / but it moves straight away towards the position of the following vowel.  It involves “the dual ballistic movement of an articulator” simultaneously with the production of the sound as in the case of the glide consonants: / l /, / r / and / j /.  For example, the word ‘war’, the phoneme / w / the tongue moves from the / U / initiation quickly downward to shape / Ɔ: /.

     13.   / l /       (lingua-alveolar, voiced)

            (The airstream escapes on the sides of the tongue blade.)                      

        able, table, marble, ample, sample, grumble, candle

                                                                               

The letter cluster ‘bl’ in the words like ‘able, table, marble ’ and so on can form a syllable.  A syllable which is the smallest speech sound unit always contains a vowel phoneme / diphthong and consonant phoneme.  Only

syllabic consonants ‘/ l /, / m / and / n /’ can form a syllable without a vowel phoneme.                                                                               

                                                                                       

     14.   / m /     (bilabial, nasal, voiced)

       is – communism, nationalism, capitalism,                                

       freedom, ransom, handsome, wisdom, troublesome,

(Though the dictionary still enter – communism as / 'kɒmjUnIzəm/, it is understood that it is also valid to transcribe it as /'kɒmjUnIzm /.  For the syllable-arresting /m/ in the words above, the speech sound can form a syllable without including /ə/. 

     15.   / n /     (lingua-alveolar, nasal, voiced) 

        tion – station, creation, section, diction, dictation, reaction,

        sion – occasion, passion, compassion, dimension, session,