British and American Pronunciation 02 - Consonants

19.04.2024 S.R British and American Pronunciation 02 - Consonants • consonants are classified according to 3 pieces of information: -> the place of articulation: where is the vocal tract obstructed? -> the voicing: is it voiced or voiceless? -> the manner of articulation: how is the vocal tract obstructed? the place of articulation e.g. /ʃ / e.g. /t/ e.g. /k/ the voicing the manner of articulation • • • • plosives, e.g. < peter> affricates, e.g. < change> fricatives, e.g. < vice> nasals, e.g. < man> • • “V-” means voiceless, e.g. < pack> “V+” means voiced, e.g. < bag> The Consonant Chart! e.g. /p/ e.g. /f/ Weekdays · The Plosives transcribed |pæn| and never [pʰæn]! But remember the aspiration! • beware of German final devoicing! Don’t do it! (e.g. dock and dog, pluck and plug, back and bag, not and nod, cut and cud, cap and cab) The Fricatives • • • • • • • fricatives: consonants produced by forcing air through an obstruction made by 2 articulators close together articulators: lips, tongue, teeth, palate, velum, … beware: |v| ≠ |w|! never substitute |θ| and |ð| with |s|, |z| or |d|! in order to decide whether a word begins with |θ| or |ð| you have to know if it is a function word or a content word -> Function words have little lexical meaning and express grammatical relationships. They include prepositions (of, at, in), pronouns (they, them), determiners (the, that), conjunctions (and, that), auxiliary verbs (be, have), particles (no, not). Interdental fricatives at the beginning of function words are always voiced (e.g. this, they, them, their, there, that, the, than, then, …). || Content words are words that possess semantic content and contribute to the meaning of the sentence. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Interdental fricatives at the beginning of content words are always voiceless! (e.g. think, thanks, throw, thorough, thorn, …). The interdental fricatives before vowels are mainly voiced! (e.g. weather, wear, father, mother, together, feather, …). Exception: words of Greek and Latin origin have |θ| before vowel (e.g. method, author, sympathy, …)! Interdental fricatives at the end of words: the letter |e| after the letters |th| may always represents the voiced fricative |z| 1/2 • • • important rule: when < c> represents an alveolar fricative, it is always voiceless (e.g. < ice> -> |aIs|, < peace> -> |pi:s|, < face> -> |feIs|, …)! beware: ‹ss> looks as if it were always voiceless, but it isn't (e.g. dissect, dissolve, possible, possess, …)! beware: the voiced palatal fricative |ʒ| isn’t part of the German phoneme inventory, so Germans tend to substitute it with |ʃ| which is wrong! The Affricates • • • affricates: consonants that begin as plosives and release as fricatives. Only the alveolar affricate is part of the English phoneme inventory. It exists in its voiceless and voiced variety, /ʧ/ and |ʤ|. beware: |ʤ| ≠ |ʧ|! beware: |ʤ| ≠ |j|! The Nasals nasals: consonants where the air leaves through the nose |ŋ|: the velar nasal; assimilation to the velar plosives |k, g|; it doesn’t occur in initial position; |g| in the comparative and superlative (e.g. long, longer, longest or young, younger, youngest)! • |ŋ| may also exist as an assimilation across word boundaries (e.g. ) The Lateral/Liquid for |l| the tongue touches your alveolar and the air leaves on one side only • 2 realisations of |l|: at the end of words and before consonants -> “dark l” [ɫ] and at the beginning of words and before • vowel -> “clear l” [l] (e.g. < little> -> [lItɫ]); “clear l” [l] exists only in British English, in American English |l| is always dark [ɫ] (e.g. < clear> -> [klIǝ] in RP || [kɫIǝr] in GA or < light> -> [laIt] in RP || [ɫaIt] in GA • • • in phonology we need not mark dark or clear l in transcriptions, so e.g. < lullaby> would be transcribed |lʌləbaI| for both BE and AmE! But remember the difference between dark l and clear l! The Semi-Vowel w • • semi-vowel w: bilabial beware: |w| ≠ |v|! simple rule: < v> -> |v| as in village and < w> -> |w| as in would! The Semi-Vowel j • semi-vowel w: palatal; usually spelt with a < y> • French words which once had the rounded palatal vowel “ü” (e.g. < tune> -> [tju:n], ‹excuse> -> [Iks’kju:z]) • optional |j| (e.g. < absolute> -> [,æbsə’l(j)u:t], ‹revolution> -> [,revə’l(j)u:ʃən]) • |tj| is often assimilated to |tʃ| which may coexist (e.g. < fortune>, < virtue>, …) • assimilation across word-boundaries (e.g. < got you> in slang < gocha>, < meet you>, …) The Aspiration/Aitch |eItʃ| • aspiration: h; exhaling sound • in the middle of words < h> is often silent (e.g. in < exhaust>, < exhibit>, < annihilate>, …) • silent h in French words (e.g. in < honour>, < hour>, < honest>, …) • spelling pronunciation in < human>, < humour>, < hotel>, … • in the pronouns < h> is often silent when unstressed • The r |a:| |a:r| -> it may be produced in so many different places that we • ignore them! AmE < r> -> rhotic (is always pronounced), RP < r> -> non rhotic (is not pronounced before consonant and at the end of words) = there is no linking-r in AmE because the r is always there (rhotic)! 2/2