The English Consonant System

The consonant is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs has to overcome a certain obstruction on its way.

The English consonant system consists of 24 consonant phonemes which can be classified as follows:

1.According to the type of obstruction (occlusives, constrictives, occlusiveconstrictives, or affricates).

2.According to the articulatory organ (labial, lingual, pharyngal).

3.According to the prevalence of noise over the musical tone (noise consonants and sonorants).

4.According to the work of the vocal cords (voiced and voiceless).

5.According to the position of the soft palate (oral and nasal).

Chart of English Consonant Phonemes

Vowel Reduction

Vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced less distinctly than those in stressed syllables. It is possible to speak about three types of vowel reduction: QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE, COMPLETE (ZERO) REDUCTION.

I.Quantitative reduction results in the change of the length (quantity) of a vowel in an unstressed syllable. It affects long vowels and diphthongs which become half-long or short, e. g.

We have done it. / :/-long

We have done it. / - half-long We did it. / / - short

Diphthongs become half-long when followed by an unstressed syllable, or short, when followed by a stressed one, but it is not reflected in transcription, e. g.

I’ve done it. I have done it. I did it.

II.Qualitative reduction is connected with the change of the quality of a vowel. There are two types of it.

1.Qualitative soft reduction, resulting in the / / phoneme. The letters “e, i, y” correspond to it in spelling: expect, cinema, city, service.

2.Qualitative hard reduction, resulting in the neutral vowel / /. The letters “a,

o, u” and the suffixes –er, -ar, -or, -ous correspond to it in spelling: famous, pilot, melody, actor, polar.

III.Complete reduction results in a full disappearance of a vowel in an unstressed position. It occurs before the syllabic sonorants /m, n, l/ when they are posttonic and preceded by a consonant: conversation / n/, written /tn/, pencil /sl/ as well as in different / /, history / /, I’m / /, I’ve / /.

Full and Reduced Forms

There are some words in English that retain their full forms even when they are unstressed:

1.The following words have no weak forms: ON, WELL, WHAT, THEN.

2.The negative particle ‘not’ is never reduced except when met in contracted forms: can’t, couldn’t etc.: But why not? /n t/. Of course not. /n t/

12

3.Prepositions in sentence-final or sense-group final positions are so slightly reduced that the quantity of short phonemes is not changed; long vowels

become half-long,

e. g. What are you thinking of? / v/ What have you done it for? /f /

4.“to have” as a principal verb has no weak form though unstressed in affirmative sentences, e. g. I have a sister. / v /

List of Full and Reduced Forms

Assimilation

Assimilation is a phonetic process by which one sound under the influence of a sound near it acquires some articulation and acoustic likeness to that of other sound.

Assimilation results in the appearance of new phonemic variants. Each case of assimilation must be analysed from the following view points:

1.From the point of view of its direction it can be PROGRESSIVE, REGRESSIVE, RECIPROCAL, or DOUBLE.

2.From the point of view of its degree it can be COMPLETE, PARTIAL, INTERMEDIATE.

Directions of Assimilation

Considering its direction it is possible to distinguish 3 types of assimilation:

1.PROGRESSIVE

2.REGRESSIVE

3.RECIPROCAL, or DOUBLE.

1.In progressive assimilation the assimilated phoneme is influenced by the preceding one, e. g. programme, frail.

2.In regressive assimilation the assimilated phoneme is influenced by the phoneme following it, e. g. tall, garden.

3.In reciprocal assimilation the adjacent phonemes influence each other, e. g. train - /t/ becomes post-alveolar and /r/ becomes partially devoiced.

Degrees of Assimilation

Considering its degree assimilation can be classified into:

1.COMPLETE

2.INTERMEDIATE

3.PARTIAL

1.Assimilation is termed complete when the articulation of the assimilated phoneme fully coincides with that of the assimilating one, e. g. Does she? / /.

2.Assimilation is termed intermediate when the assimilated phoneme changes into a certain third phoneme, e. g. hand + kerchief = / /.

14

3.Assimilation is termed partial when the assimilated phoneme acquires only some features similar to those of the assimilating phoneme.

Types of Partial Assimilation

There are 4 types of partial assimilation. It can affect:

1.the place of articulation

2.the work of the vocal cords

3.the lip-position

4.the manner of producing noise

1.Assimilation affecting the place of articulation results in:

a)the dental allophones of the alveolar /t, d, n, l, s, z/ when followed by / , /:

b)the post-alveolar allophones of the alveolar /t, d, n, l/ when followed

2.Assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords results in:

a)partially devoiced allophones of /w, l, r, j, m, n/ when preceded by /p, t, k, f, , s, /: play, pray, pure, few, threat, friend, quite.

b)looked /k t/, finished / t/, books /k s/, pipes /p s/.

3.Assimilation affecting the lip-position results in labialized allophones of

consonants before such phonemes as /w, u:, /: twenty, twice, tall, quick, tool.

4.Assimilation affecting the manner of producing noise results in:

a)plosionless allophones of /p b, t d, k g/ (loss of plosion); when they follow one another either within a word or at the junction of words the first plosive loses its plosion: actor /k t/, Big Ben /g b/, don’t talk /t t/, put down /t d/, eight pounds /t p/.

b)When /p b, t d, k g/ are followed by the fricatives or affricates their plosion becomes fricative (fricative, or incomplete plosion): past five /t

f/, temperate zone /t z/, hot summer /t s/.

15