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CONSONANTS
Present By Afdhol Zikri
English Department University of Pasir Pengaraian
The Larynx
The larynx has several very important functions in speech.
Located in the neck, it has several parts
Inside the box made by these two cartilages are the vocal folds, two thick flaps
of muscle rather like a pair of lips; an older name for these is vocal cords. At the
front the vocal folds are joined together and fixed to the inside of the thyroid
cartilage. At the back they are attached to a pairof small cartilages called the
arytenoid cartilages, so that if the arytenoid cartilages move, the vocal folds will
move too.
We use the word glottis to refer to the opening between the vocal folds. If
the vocal folds are apart we say that the glottis is open; if they are
pressed together we say that the glottis is clossed.
The vocal folds are wide apart for normal breathing and usually during voiceless
consonants like P, F, S.
2. Narrow glottis
If air is passed through the glottis when it is narrowed, the result is a fricactive
sound for which the symbol is H. It is called a voiceless glottal fricative. Practice saying
ahahahahaha.
3. Position for vocal fold vibration
When the edges of the vocal folds are touching each other, or nearly touching, air
passing through the glottis will usually cause vibration.
4. Vocal folds tightly closed
The vocal folds can be hrmly pressed together so that air cannot pass between
them. When this happen in speech we call it a glottal stop or glottal plosive, we use
symbol ?. Practice saying a? a? a? a? a? a?.
If the vocal folds vibrate we will hear the sound that we call voicing or
phonation.
The pressure of the air below the vocal folds ( teh subglottal pressure ) can
also be varied. Three main differences are found:
i.
Variations in intensity
ii.
Variations in frequency
Plosives
A plosives is a consonant articulation with the following characteristics. Look at your
book!
English plosive
English has six plosive consonants, p, t, k, b, d, g. The plosives have different places
of articulation. P and b are bilabial; the lips are pressed together. T and d are
alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar. Normally the tongue
does not touch the front teeth as it does in the dental plosives found in many
languages. K and g are velar: the back of the tongue is pressed against the area
where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins.
P, t and k are always voiceless. B, d and g are sometimes fully voiced, sometimes
partly voiced and sometimes voiceless.
All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word ( initial position ), between
other sounds( medical position ) and at the end of a word ( final position ).
1. Initial position ( CV )
2. Medical Position ( VCV )
3. Final position ( VC )
alveolar
p
velar
t
k
g
Source
English Phonetics and Phonology A pratical course Second edition Peter Roach
Cmbridge University Press