B. Consonants

An indispensable constituent of a consonant is noise. The source of noise is obstruction. There are the following types of obstruction in the production of consonant: 1) complete occlusion (closure); 2) constriction (narrowing); 3) occlusion-constriction (closure immediately followed by a constriction).

The noise produced by the removal of a closure is that of a plosion, the noise resulting from the movement of the air stream in the narrowing is that of friction. The two effects are combined when closure is followed by a narrowing.

1. According to the type of obstruction and the manner of the production of noise, English consonants are classified in the following wais:

OcclusiveConstrictiveOcclusive-Constrictive

stops fricatives oral

(plosives) nasal (sonorant) affricates

[p,b, d,k,g] (sonorant) [p,b, d,k,g]

[p,b, d,k,g] medial lateral

[p,b, d,k,g] [p,b, d,k,g]

unicentral bicentral

[p,b, d,k,g] [p,b, d,k,g]

Obstruction may be formed either by two active speech organs or by active speech organ (articulator) and a passive organ of speech (point or place of articulation).

2. According to the active speech organ which forms an obstruction, English consonants are classed into:

LabialLingualPharyngeal (glolal)

bilabial labial-dental fore lingual back lingual [h] [p,b, d,k,g] [p,b, d,k,g] [p,b, d,k,g]

mediolingual

[p,g]

apical cacuminal

[p,b, d,k,g] [p,]

3. According to the place of obstruction, consonants are classified into dental [V<? ], alveolar [t, d, n, 1, s, z], post-alveolar [r], palatal [j], palate-alveolar [iJFJl ], velar [j ].

4. According to the presence or absences of voice, English consonants are subdivided into voiced [ P ^ and voiceless [iJFJl

5. According to the force of articulation English consonants are classified as lenis and forties.

In the articulation of English voiced consonants the muscular tension is weak - Lenis articulation. In the articulation of English voiceless consonants the muscular tension is strong — forties articulation.

6. According to the position of the soft palate English consonants are subdivided into oral [p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v,.rrs, z, w &₎t\_f di w, 1, r, j] and nasal [m,

In this description of the sounds of the English language we have considered the articulatory characteristics of the sounds, pronounced in isolation. But in correctable speech isolated sounds are rather unusual. Sounds are grouped together to form larger unit and in the process of grouping they influence one another (the stages of their articulation merge and interpenetrate) and their articulatory features are modified in various ways. Nevertheless, those characteristics of a sound, which are significant for differentiating meaningful units, are preserved in all positions and combinations..

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11