Unit III Articulatory and physiological classification of English consonants and vowels

I. Articulatory and physiological classification of English consonants.

1. Manner of noise production and the type of obstruction: a) voice or noise prevalence; b) number of voice producing foci; c) shape of the narrowing.

2. The place of articulation.

3. The work of vocal cords.

4. The position of the soft palate.

II. Articulatory and physiological classification of English vowels.

1. Stability of articulation.

2. Position of the tongue.

3. Position of the lips.

4. Degree of tenseness and the character of the end of the vowe.l

5. Length.

Classification of English consonants

There are 24 consonant phonemes in English.

1. Manner of noise production and the type of obstruction.

A.L. Trakhterov, G.P. Torsuyev, V.A. Vassilyev suggest to classify consonants according to the manner of noise production from the viewpoint of the closure, which is formed in their articulation.

Complete closure – occlusive (stop, or plosive, and nasal) consonants are produced: [p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ].

Incomplete closure – constrictive consonants (fricatives) are produced: [f, v, θ, ð, h, s, z, ∫, ʒ, w, j, l, r].

The combination of the two closures – occlusive-constrictive, or affricates, are produced: [t∫, ʤ].

a) Voice or noise prevalence.

The group of occlusive consonants and the group of constrictive consonants can be subdivided into noise and sonorants. Noise occlusive consonants are also called stops, or plosives [p, b, t, d, k, g]. Occlusive sonorants are also called nasals [m, n, ŋ]. Constrictive noise consonants are fricatives [f, v, θ, ð, h, s, z, ʃ, ʒ], constrictive sonorants [w, j, l, r].

The group of occlusive-constrictive consonants which are also called affricates consists of noise sounds [t∫, ʤ].

Noise consonants (stops, fricatives and affricates) in the English scientific literature are also called obstruent consonants.

There is no such subdivision in the classifications suggested by D. Jones, H.A. Gleason and A.C. Gimson. They do not single out the group of sonorants, but D. Jones gives separate groups of nasals [m, n, ŋ]; the lateral [l], frictionless continuants, or glides (semi-vowels) [w, r, j].

H.A. Gleason gives separate groups of nasals [m, n, ŋ], the lateral [l], semivowels [w, r].

B. Bloch and G. Trager give separate groups of nasals [m, n, ŋ], the lateral [l], trill [r].

b) Number of voice producing foci – occlusive, constrictive, occlusive-constrictive consonants are subdivided into unicentral – pronounced with one focus: [t, d, k, g, p, b, s, z, f, v, ŋ, h] and bicentral – pronounced with two foci: [w, l, ∫, ʒ, t∫, ʤ].

c) The shape of the narrowing – constrictive consonants and affricates are subdivided into sounds with flat narrowing and round narrowing.

The consonants [f, v, θ, ð, ∫, ʒ, t∫, ʤ] are pronounced with the flat narrowing. The consonants [s, z] are pronounced with the round narrowing. H.A. Gleason considers [∫, ʒ] to be grooved fricatives.

There are different opinions on the nature of English affricates. B. Bloch and G. Trager decline the existence of affricates as monophonemic entities and state that they are biphonemic sequences.

D. Jones states that there are six affricates in the system of English consonants, I. Ward states eight of them: [t∫, ʤ, ts, dz, tr, dr, tθ, dð].

Some phoneticians consider affricates to be the units which are articulatorily and acoustically indivisible and morphologically unique. No morpheme boundary can pass within [t∫, ʤ] which is not the case that can be found in [ts, dz, tr, dr, tθ, dð]: eight – eighth [eit – eit-θ], and [dz]: bed – beds [bed – bed-z]. Since only the sounds [t∫], [ʤ] in the system of English consonants are articulatorily and acoustically indivisible and morphologically unique.