2. The system of eng phonemes. Consonants

Consonants are speech sounds made with the air stream that meets a complete, partial or intermittent obstruction in the mouth or nasal cavi- ties. the closure blocks the air stream and the sound production is ac- companied with certain audible noise characteristics. the phonological analysis establishes 24 phonemes of the english con- sonant system [p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ∫, j, h, t∫, ʤ, m, n, ŋ, w, r, l, j].

Principles of classification suggested by Russian phoneticians provide the basis for establishing of the following distinctive oppositions in the system of English consonants:

1. Degree of noise - bake - make, veal - wheel

2. Place of articulation

a. labial vs. lingual

pain — cane

b. lingual vs. glottal

foam — home, care — hair, Tim - him

3. Manner of articulation

3.1 occlusive vs. constrictive pine -fine, bat - that, bee - thee

3.2 constrictive vs. affricates fare — chair, fail -jail

3.3 constrictive unicentral vs. constrictive bicentral – same – shame

4. Work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation

4.1 voiceless fortis vs. voiced lenis

pen — Ben, ten - den, coat - goal

5. Position of the soft palate

5.1 oral vs. nasal

pit — pin, seek — seen

There are consonant phonemes in the English language which can be classified according to the articulating (main) organ into the following types:

1. Labial consonants which are subdivided into: a) bi-labial, i.e. articulated by means of both lips; b) labio-dental - articulated by means of the lower lip with the upper teeth as the passive organ.

2. Lingual consonants which are subdivided into: a) fore-lingual; b) fron-lingual (or mid-lingual); c) back-lingual.

In this group we distinguish: apical, dorsal and cacuminal [kæ'kju:mɪn(ə)l].

Apical consonants are articulated by the tip of the tongue which is brought into contact with the teeth or the teeth ridge.

Dorsal consonants are articulated by lowering the tip of the tongue (so that it comes into contact with the front lower teeth) while the closure or narrowing of the air passage occurs between the blade of the tongue and the upper teeth.

In the articulation of the cacuminal consonants the tip of the tongue is curled back and is usually brought into contact with the teeth ridge and the fore part of the hard palate.

3. Velar consonants are formed by means of a closure or a narrowing between the velum (soft palate) and the back of the tongue, in cases when the velum is active.

4. Uvular consonants are formed by the activity of the uvula.

The English consonants form oppositions based on the following principles:

1) The manner of articulation (stops and constrictives).

2) The articulating organ (labial, lingual).

3) The passive speech organ (dental, alveolar, palatal, velar).

4) The shape of narrowing (a narrow slit or round aperture).

5) The presence or absence of voice (voiced and voiceless).

6) The prevalence of noise or musical tone (voiced noises and sonorants).

7) The kind of resonance (oral or nasal).

8) The noise-producing obstacles (single point and double-point).

9) The manner of releasing closure (plosives and affricates).

Sound modifications are allophonic variations of speech sounds caused by their position in a word As we know, speech sounds influence each other in the flow of speech. As a result of the intercourse between consonants and vowels and within each class there appear such processes of connected speech as assimilation, accommodation, deletion.