Figure 9 :The System of English Consonants

Vowels can be diagrammed and charted in many and various ways. X-ray studies of speech process, the instrumental-acoustic analyses of the vowels, and the careful observations of the involved muscle tension have led to the conventionalized method of diagramming or charting the articulatory positions of the tongue, lips, and muscular walls during the formation of vowels.

The tongue positions for the vowels are arbitrarily and conventionally divided into nine areas, as in the diagrams below.

Running from the front of the mouth to the back, the areas are known as front, central, back. The layered areas, going from top to bottom, are known as high, mid, low or closed, mid-open and open.

Figure 10: The relative tongue positions of the vowels

Figure 11: The front vowel tongue curves

Figure 12: The central vowel tongue curves

Figure 13: The back vowel tongue curves

I.8 Aspiration

All languages have pure plosive consonants at three places of articulation at least /  /, / /, /  / (English, French, German, Danish, Portuguese etc.).

The complete articulation of a plosive or a stop consonant consists of three stages: 1 the closing stage; 2 the hold or compression stage; 3 the release or explosion stage.

These pure plosives are very frequent in all languages. They are the only phonemes in English which are characterized by such phonetic phenomenon as “aspiration”. Speaking about the degrees of aspiration we immediately define the allophonic variation of every of these three phonemes.

“The fortis series /p, t, k/, when initial in an accented syllable, are usually accompanied by aspiration, i.e. there is a voiceless interval consisting of strongly expelled breath between the release of the plosive and the onset of a following vowel, e.g. pin, tin, kin [p^hin, t^hin, k^hin]. (The feature of aspiration is commonly regarded from an acoustic point of view as the voiceless interval occurring between the release burst of the stop and the onset of the voicing of the following sound, the time measured, which may be of the order of 40-70 msecs., being referred to as the voice onset time – VOT: see, for instance, Abramson, 1977)”(p.153)⁶.

The experiments proved that there are three degrees of aspiration at least in English. Some phoneticians point to the fact of a bit weaker aspiration when a pure voiceless plosive precedes an accented but a lax vowel, for example J.D. O’Connor in his Phonetics (Penguin books, 1973, p. 53).

After many experiments in defining the real nature of aspiration mechanism had been made, it appeared that it is directly connected with the temporal characteristics of this mechanism. The longer the air coming from the lungs is kept behind the obstruction (lip + lip, soft palate + the back of the tongue; the tip of the tongue + alveolar ridge), the stronger the plosion is.

I. The first and the strongest degree of aspiration [p¹] [t¹] [k¹]

is when /  /, /  / or /  / precedes an accented vowel:

pearl [ p ¹ ], cool [k¹  ], tease [t¹ ί ], park [p¹  ];

card [ k¹  ], torn [t¹  ], port [p¹ ], keep [k¹ ί  ];

cup [¹ ], till [¹ ], pun [¹ ], cap [¹ ];

ten [¹ ], pull [¹ ], kiss [¹ ], toss [¹ ];

II. The second degree of aspiration, which is relatively weak, occurs in the following cases:

a) when /  /, /  / or /  / precedes an unaccented vowel:

sitter [² ], licking [² ], deeper [ί p²  ];

letter [² ], baker [² ], floppy [p² ];

ripper [ r  p²  ], writer [r  t²  ], liking [l  k²   ];

city [² ], grouper [ r p² s t r  k²   ];

b) when /  /, /  / or /  / occurs finally in a syllable:

sit [²], lick [²], top [t p²], knock [k²]

bake [²], let [ ²], soap [²], lake [²];

leap [ί p² ], like [l  k ], right [r  t² ], bake [² ];

c) when /  /, /  / or /  / precedes one of oral sonorous phonemes:

in that case the aspiration is manifested in the devoicing of /l^, r^, w^, j^/ e.g.: place [² l^]; crime [k² r^  m ], twins [tw^  n z ]

please [² l^ ί ² w^ [² l^ ];

try [t² r^  ], apply [² l^ ], crisp [² r^  s p ];

3. Pure plosives are not aspirated when:

a) /  /, /  / or /  / follows a sibilant /  /:

story [^×], spell [ ^× ], scope [^× ]

storm [^×], speak [^×ί ], scheme [^×ί ];

^× ^× ^× ;

b) when fortis or lenis occlusive pure plosives/  /, /  /, /  /,

/  /, /  /, /  / form a cluster, there is no audible release in the preceding plosive:

act [ ^× ], tipped [^× ], sit down [s^× ];

fact [ f^×], sipped [ ^×], at twelve, [^× w^e];

asked [^×], lopped [ l ^× ], but do it [ b^× ];

c) when /  /, /  / or /  / forming a syllable with an oral sonant /l/ results in lateral plosion:

cattle [ ^×^□ ], couple [k^×^□], apple [ p^×l^□ ];

settle [se t ^×^□ ], bottle [ b t ^×^□ ], suckle [s  k ^×l^□];

little [ l^×l^□ ], rattle [^×^□ ], maple [p^×l^□ ];

d). when a strong pure plosive / t /precedes /  / or /  /:

at the table [^ω   ], at three [^ω ί];

at this [ ^ω    ], sit there [s ^ω  ];

e). when a strong pure plosive precedes a nasal consonant it is released nasally:

cotton [ ^×n ], beaten [ [bί^×n ], ^×n;

kitten [^×n ]; fatten [^× n ], happen [p^× n];