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Ayu Melati

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CONSONANTS

a consonant is a speech sound used with a vowel or diphthong to constitute a syllable

CONSONANT SOUND PRODUCTION

Voiced sounds are pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords

Voiceless sounds pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords

POINT OF ARTICULATION – refers to the upper parts of the mouth which the lowers parts (articulators) come in contact with the production of the consonant sound

BILABIAL – when the lower lip touches the upper lip to produce the consonant

Sound /p/, /b/, /m/ & /w/

LABIO-DENTAL – when the lower lip comes in contact with the upper front teeth

/f/ & /v/DENTAL – when the lower teeth approach the upper teeth /θ/ & /ð/

ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is raised close to the toothridge or the back of the upper front teeth /t/ & /d/

POST ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is articulated against the back part of the alveolar ridge /r/

PALATAL – when the tongue is arched towards the hard palate /∫/

VELARS – when the back of the tongue closes against the velum or soft palate /k/

GLOTTAL – when friction is produced by the air passing through the glottis /h/

1. STOPS – are produced by stopping the passage

of the breath stream with a build up of pressure

behind the closure before releasing the breath

vl vd

Bilabial stops /p/ & /b/

Alveolar stops /t/ & /d/

Velar stops /k/ & /g/

2. FRICATIVES – are continuants produced when the air

stream is not completely stopped but passes through

with friction or a hissing sound

vl vd

Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/

Dental fricatives /θ/ & /ð/

Alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/

Post alveolar fricatives /r/

Palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/

Glottal fricatives /h/

3. AFFRICATES – are produced when a stop combines with a

fricative. Like fricatives, they are also continuants. They may be

prolonged as long as the speaker wishes.

Alveolar affricates /t∫/ & /dz/

4. NASALS – are produced with the air stream passing through the nose rather than the mouth

Bilabial nasal /m/Alveolar nasal /n/Velar nasal /ŋ/

5. LATERAL – is produced when the air stream is stopped in the

center by the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, while the

air passes along one or both sides of the tongue

Alveolar lateral /l/

6. SEMI-VOWELS – in their production, there is lack of friction and

the sounds are vowel-like in their voicing but they function as

consonants

Bilabial /w/ - wear, win

/wh/ - why

Palatal /y/ - new, view

THE ENGLISH VOWELS

Vowels are sounds which are produced with the vibration of air in the oral cavity

All vowel sounds are voiced oral sounds

The relationship of the vowels to one another is shown by the device known as the Vietor Triangle

VIETOR TRIANGLE

– is a vowel triangle which shows the differences among the vowel sounds in English and their relative positions on the tongue

-Contains two axes:a. horizontal axis – from front to back of the mouth

(front, center, back) b. vertical axis – from the floor to the roof of the mouth

(high, mid, low)

Lips loosely spread. Tongue lax with less tension than / i: / Example : Bid

Lips loosely spread and slighly wider apart than / ɪ / Example : Head

Open lip-rounding, wide open jaws, back of tongue low.Example : Hot

Lips neutrally open and slightly wider apart than / e / Example : Lamb

Lips neutrally open. Open jaws. Centralized quality. Example :

Love Lips loose, but closely rounded. Tongue not as tense as in / u: /. Example : Good

Lips in neutral position. Centralized. Tongue slightly higher than in /ʌ/. Example : about

Lips spread. Tongue tense (front raised) with sides touching upper molars. Example : Seat

Lips neutrally open and jaws far apart. Centre to back of tongue fully open.Example : Heart

Medium lip rounding. Tongue drawn back making no contact with upper molars. Example : Four

Lips neutrally spread. Tongue slightly higher than /ə/ (no firm contact with upper molars). Example : girl

Lips closely rounded. Back of tongue high. Tense compared with /ʊ/. Example : Shoe

as in day, pay, say, lay. The starting position is /e/ with tongue in mid position at front of mouth as in "egg", "bed" or "Ted". Therefore you move the tongue up to make the diphthong.

THE FIRST THREE DIPHTHONGS have the vowel sound

in "pit" or "if" as the FINISHING POSITION. To make this sound, your tongue has to be high and towards the front of your mouth and your lips kept relaxed.

as in sky, buy, cry, tie. The starting position is /a/ , the same sound as in "car" or the noise "ah" which you make when you open your mouth at the dentist's. To make the diphthong you need a big jaw movement, less opening as you move the tongue up and front.

starting pas in boy, toy, coy or the first syllable of soya. The osition is the sound in "door" or "or". Your tongue needs to be low, but you need to pull it back and make your mouth round. To make the diphthong, you relax the lip rounding and move your tongue forward and up.

THE NEXT THREE DIPHTHONGS have the neutral "shwa" vowel sound

which occurs in grunting noises and the weak forms of "the" and "a", as the FINISHING POSITION. To make the neutral vowel sound keep your tongue fixed in the centre of your mouth, lips fairly relaxed and just grunt!

as in beer (the drink), pier, hear. The starting position is

as in "if" or "pit" with tongue front and high and lips relaxed.

as in bear (the animal), pair and hair. The starting position is  

as in "egg" or "bed" with tongue in mid position at front of mouth. To make the diphthong, using a small controlled movement, pull your tongue slighty back from mid front to the mid central position in your mouth.

as in "tour", "poor" (talking posh!) or the first syllable of "tourist". The starting position is with tongue pulled back but small mouth

aperture as in "hook", "book" or "look".To make the diphthong, this time the small controlled tongue movement goes from the back postion to the mid central position, losing the lip rounding and relaxing your mouth from the tight starting position.

THE LAST TWO DIPHTHONGS have the back vowel

(tongue pulled back but small tight mouth aperture as in "hook", "book" or "look") as the FINISHING POSITION.

as in "oh", "no", "so" or "phone". The starting position is the neutral vowel sound, also known as "shwa“ which sounds like a grunt, as in the 

weak form of "the" or "a". To start in this way, the tongue should be fixed in mid central position in your mouth with lips relaxed. To make the diphthong, it is a short controlled movement in the opposite direction of 5) above: from the centre to the back moving your relaxed lips into a tighter small round aperture. Your cheeks should move in a bit!

 as in all the words of "How now brown cow!". The starting position is the vowel sound as in "at" "bad" or "rat" with tongue front but also

low

(i.e. mouth open). To make the diphthong the journey for your tongue from front low (mouth very open) to back high (small tight mouth aperture) is a very long excursion. Your jaw will move a lot too.

A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear

together in a syllable without a vowel between them, such as the /sp/

combination in speak, spot, or the /skr/ combination in scrape, scream.

Consonant Cluster : 1) s+ (initial) p,t,k,f,m,n,w,l,y,r /

s:pre-initial/others :initial 

2) s+other consonant s+ (post-initials) l,r,w,j =pre-initial+initial+post-

initials

 

The consonant clusters which constutute the coda are also not arbitrarily

formed, they can be described as:

”any consonant except for h,r,w,j may be final consonant. There may be 2

kinds of  Final Cluster : pre-final+final/final+post final, Pre-

finals(m,n,nasal,l,s : bump,belt) / Post-finals (s, z, t, d, /q/ : bets,beds)”

The following worksheets and activities help with initial and final clusters.

Stress is defined as using more more muscular energy while articulating

the words. When a word or a syllable in word is produced louder, more

lenghty, with higher pitch or with more quality, it will be perceived as

stressed. The prominence makes some syllables be perceived as stressed.

Words including long vowels and diphthongs or ending with more than 1

consonant are stronger, heavier and stressed.

 Rules of Word Stress in English

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

rule example

Most 2-syllable nouns PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble

Most 2-syllable adjectivesPRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

1. Stress on first syllable

2 Stress on last syllable

rule example

Most 2-syllable verbsto preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class

change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-

syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an

adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it

becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import,

contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the

stress is on the first or second syllable.

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule example

Words ending in -icGRAPHic, geoGRAPHic,

geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and -

tionteleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

rule example

Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -

gy

deMOcracy, dependaBIlity,

phoTOgraphy, geOLogy

Words ending in -al CRItical, geoLOGical

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

rule example

For compound nouns, the stress is on

the first partBLACKbird, GREENhouse

For compound adjectives, the stress

is on the second partbad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned

For compound verbs, the stress is on

the second partto underSTAND, to overFLOW