Classification of English Consonants

Articulatory and Physiological

Russian phoneticians classify consonants according to the following principles:

I. Work of the vocal cords and the force of exhalation.

II. Active organs of speech and the place of obstruction.

III. Manner of noise production and the type of obstruction. Within
this principle of consonant classification there are the following subdivi­sions according to:

(1) voice or noise prevalence,

(2) number of noise producing foci,

(3) shape of the narrowing.

IV. Position of the soft palate.

I. According to the work of the vocal cords and the force of exhala­tion consonants are subdivided into voiced and voiceless.

Voiced consonants are: /b, d, g, z, v, ð, 3, m, n, ŋ, 1, r, j, w, d3 /.

Voiceless consonants are: /p, t, k, s, f, θ, h, ς, tς/.

The force of exhalation and the degree of muscular tension are great­er in the production of voiceless consonants therefore they are called by the Latin word "fortis", which means "strong, energetic". Voiced conso­nants are called "lenis", "soft, weak", because the force of exhalation and the degree of muscular tension in their articulation are weaker.

The English consonants /h, m, n, ŋ, 1, w, j, r/ do not enter into fortis-lenis oppositions. The energy contrast in English operates throughout the system of consonants. In Russian it does not play as significant a role.

II. According to the position of the active organ of speech against the point of articulation (the place of articulation) consonants are classified into: (1) labial, (2) lingual, (3) glottal.

Labial consonants are subdivided into: a) bilabial and b) labiodental. Bilabial consonants are produced with both lips. They are the English /p, b, m, w/ and the Russian /п, п', б, б', м, м'/. Labiodental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth. They are the English /f, v/ and the Russian /ф, ф', в, в'/.

Lingual consonants are subdivided into: a) forelingual, b) mediolingual and c) backlingual.

Forelingual consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue. According to the position of the tip of the tongue they may be: a) dorsal, b) apical and c) cacuminal. According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be: (1) interdental, (2) dental, (3) alveolar, (4) post-alveolar, (5) palato-alveolar. Interdental consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue projected between the teeth, e.g. /θ, ð/. Dental consonants, are articulated with the blade of the tongue against the upper teeth, e.g. the Russian /т, т', д, д', с, с', з, з', ц, л, л'/. Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth ridge, e.g. /t, d, s, z, n, 1/. Post-alveolar consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the back part of the teeth ridge, e.g /r/. Palato-alveolar consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge, the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate — two places of articulation, or foci, e.g. the English /tς, d3, ς, 3/ and the Russian /ш', ж', ч'/.

Mediolingual consonants are produced with the front part of the tongue. They are always palatal. Palatal consonants are articulated with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate, e.g. /j/.

Backlingual consonants are also called velar, they are produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate "velum", e.g. English /k, g, ŋ/, the Russian /к, к', г, г', х, х/.

The glottal consonant /h/ is articulated in the glottis.

This principle of consonant classification is rather universal; the only difference is that Russian phoneticians give more detailed and precise enumerations of active organs of speech than the English ones.

Thereis, however, controversy about terming the active organs of speech. Thus, Russian phoneticians divide the tongue into the following
parts: front with the tip (1), middle (2), and back (3). Following L.V. Shcherba's terminology the front part of the tongue is subdivided into apical (a), dorsal (b), cacuminal (c) and retroflexed (d) according to the position of the tip and the blade of the tongue in relation to the teethridge(Figs. 5,6).

а с d

b

Fig. 5 Fig. 6

A.C. Gimson's terms differ from those used by Russian phoneticians: apical is equivalent to forelingual; frontal is equivalent to mediolingual; dorsum is the whole upper area of the tongue.

H.A. Gleason's terms in respect to the parts of the bulk of the tongue are: apex — the part of the tongue that lies at rest opposite the alveoles; front — the part of the tongue that lies at rest opposite the fore part of the palate; back, or dorsum — the part of the tongue that lies at rest opposite the velum or the back part of the palate.

III. A.L. Trakhterov, G.P. Torsuyev, V.A. Vassilyev and other phoneti­cians consider the principle of consonant classification according to the manner of noise production and the type of obstruction to be one of the most important and classify consonants according to this principle very accurately, logically and thoroughly. First of all they suggest a classification of consonants according to the manner of noise production from the viewpoint of the closure, which is formed in their articulation.

It may be:

(1) complete closure, then occlusive (stop, or plosive) and nasal consonants are produced: /p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ/; /п, б, т, д, к, г, п', б', т', д', к', г', м', н', м, н/;

(2) incomplete closure, then constrictive consonants are produced: /f, v, ð, θ, h, s, z, ς, 3, w, j, 1, r/; /ф, в, с, з, х, ф', в', с', з', ж, ш, ж', ш', й, л, л/;

(3) the combination of the two closures, then occlusive-constrictive,
or affricates, are produced: /tς, dЗ/; /ц, ч/;

(4) intermittent closure, then rolled, or trilled consonants, are pro­duced: Russian /p, p'/.

A.C. Gimson, H.A. Gleason, D. Jones, and other foreign phoneticians include in the manner of noise production classification groups of lateral, nasals, semi-vowels – subgroups of consonants, which do not belong to a single class.

(1) According to the principle of voice or noise prevalence, Russian phoneticians suggest a subdivision of the group of occlusives and the group of constrictives into noise sounds and sonorants.

Noise occlusive sonorants are also called nasals.

The group of occlusive-constrictive consonants consists of noise bounds /tς, d3, ч, ц/. The group of rolled or trilled is represented by two Russian sonorants /p, p'/.

There is no such subdivision in the classifications suggested by D. Jones, H.A. Gleason and A.C. Gimson. These authors do not single outthe groups of sonorants, as such, but D. Jones, for example, gives separate groups of nasals /m, n, ŋ/, the lateral /l/, frictionless, continu­ants, or glides (semi-vowels) /w, r, j/.

H.A. Gleason gives separate groups of nasals /m, n, ŋ/, the lateral /1/, semi-vowels /w, r, j/.

B. Bloch, G. Trager give separate groups of nasals /m, n, ŋ/, the lateral /l/, trills /r/.

B. Bloch, G. Trager and A.C. Gimson include in their classifications ofconsonantsa number of allophones.

(2) Russian phoneticians subdivide the rolled, occlusive, constrictive. (occlusive-constrictive consonants into unicentral (pronounced with one focus ) and bicentral (pronounced with two foci), according to the numberof noise producing centres, or foci. This subdivision is not included into the classifications of foreign phoneticians.

(4) According to the shape of the narrowing constrictive consonants and affricates are subdivided into sounds with flat narrowing and round narrowing.

The consonants /f, v, θ, θ, θ, 3, tς, d3/ are pronounced with the flat narrowing; the consonants /s, z, w, ц/ are pronounced with the round narrowing. H.A. Gleason considers /ς, 3/ to be grooved fricatives.

There are different opinions on the nature of English affricates. The most extreme are the views expressed by B. Bloch and G. Trager who deny the existence of affricates as monophonemic entities and state that they are biphonemic sequences. The other extreme point of view is the expressed by D. Jones and I. Ward who state that there are six affricate: in the system of English consonants (D. Jones), or even eight (I. Ward) /tς, d3, ts, dz, tr, dr, tθ, dð/.

Russian phoneticians consider affricates as units which are articulatorily and acoustically indivisible (this can be proved by instrumental techniques), and morphologically unique. For instance, no morpheme boundary can pass within /tς, d3/ which is not the case that can be found in /tθ/, for example: eight — eighth /eit — eit-θ/, and /dz/, for example bed — beds, /bed — bed-z/.

Since only the sounds /tς, d3/ in the system of English consonants and /ц, ч/ in the system of Russian consonants are articulatorily and acoustically indivisible and morphologically unique (the combinations /ts, tr, dr, tθ, dð/ do not comply with these requirements), they are the only occlusive-constrictive or affricated sounds.

IV. According to the position of the soft palate all consonants are subdivided into oral and nasal. When the soft palate is raised and the air from the lungs gets into the pharynx and then into the mouth cavity, oral consonants are produced, e.g. /p, t, k, f, v/, etc. When the soft palate is lowered and the air on its way out passes through the nasal cavity, nasal consonants are produced: /m, n, ŋ/. If we compare classifications of consonants suggested by Russian and some foreign authors, we can state that Russian phoneticians propose more logical, accurate and detail classifications which serves the teaching purposes much better than oth­er classifications.

The differences in the articulation bases between the two languages are in the general tendencies their native speakers have, in the way they move and hold their lips and the tongue both in speech and in silence, in the way they coordinate the work of the obstructor and vibrator mechanisms (lenis and fortis articulations), in the way they effect CV, VC and CC transitions (close and loose transitions).

The peculiarities of the articulation bases which give rise to the differences in the system of consonants in English and in Russian are the following:

(1) The English forelingual consonants are articulated with the apico-alveolar position of the tip of the tongue. The Russian forelingual consonants mainly dorsal: in their articulation the tip of the tongue is passive and lowered, the blade is placed against the upper teeth. The Russian forelingual dorsal consonants are: /т, т', д, д', н, н', с, с', з, з', ч', ц/. The Russian forelingual apical consonants are only: /л, л', ш, ш', ж, ж'/.

(2) In the production of the Russian consonants the bulk of the tongue is mainly in the front-mid part of the mouth resonator. When Russian soft forelinguals are produced the muscular tension is concentrated in the “bunched up" front-mid part of the tongue; when the soft backlingual consonants are produced the muscular tension is concentrated in the middle part of the tongue.

In the production of the English forelingual consonants the tip of the tongue and the front edges are very tense. It results in the depression in the front part of the tongue, which enlarges the size of the front resonator and lowers the tone of the apical consonants. The English "soft" consonants are pronounced with the front secondary focus. They are /ς, 3, d3, tς/ and the soft /l/. The English /ς, 3/ are short, the similar Russian consonants /ш', ж':/ are long. The front secondary focus is formed by the middle part of the tongue which produces "secondary" articulation simultaneously with the primary focus, or primary articulation.

The Russian /п', б', м', н', ф', в', т', д', р', к', г', с', з', л', ч/ are also pronounced with the front secondary focus, but the middle of the tongue in their production is raised higher to the hard palate, than during the secondary articulation in the production of the English soft consonants.

Russian students often use the hard / ш, ж/ phonemes instead of the soft English /ς, 3/. Palatalization is a phonemic feature in Russian.

There is no opposition between palatalyzed — non-palatalyzed consonants in English. The soft colouring of the English /ς, tς, d3, 1, 3/ is non-phonemic.

(3) The English /w/ and dark [l] are pronounced with the back secondary focus formed by the back part of the tongue, which is raised to the soft palate simultaneously with the formation of the primary focus. In the articulation of /w/ the primary focus is formed by the lips, which are rounded but not protruded, as it happens when the Russian /y/ is pronounced. The bilabial /w/ which is pronounced with a round narrowing is very often mispronounced by the Russian learners. They use the labiodental /в/ or /v/ which are pronounced with a flat narrowing instead the English /w/.

The primary focus in the articulation of "dark" [l] is formed by the tip of the tongue pressed against the teeth ridge in the initial position.

English voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are aspirated, when followed by a stressed vowel and not preceded by /s/.

(4) The English voiceless fortis /p, t, k, f, s, ς, tς/ are pronounced more
energetically than similar Russian consonants.

The English voiced consonants /b, d, g, v, 6, z, 3, dЗ/ are not replaced by the corresponding voiceless sounds in word-final positions and before voiceless consonants, e.g. /'big ˛teibl/.

(5) Consonant phonemes in English which have no counterparts in
Russian are the following:

1. the bilabial, constrictive median sonorant /w/,

2. the dental (interdental) fricative consonants /θ, ð/,

3. the voiced bicentral affricate /dЗ/,

4. the post-alveolar constrictive median sonorant /r/,

5. the backlingual, nasal sonorant /ŋ/,

6. the glottal fricative /h/.

Consonant phonemes in Russian which have no counterparts in English are the following:

1. the palatalized consonants /п', б', т', д', к', г', м', н', ф', в', с', з', р'/,

2. the voiceless, unicentral affricate /ц/,

3. the rolled, alveolar sonorant /p/,

4. the backlingual, fricative voiceless /x/.

The most common mistakes that may result from the differences in the articulation bases of the English and Russian languages are the following:

— dorsal articulation of the English forelingual apical /t, d/,

— the use of the Russian rolled /p/ instead of the English post-alveolar constrictive /r/,

— the use of the Russian /x/ instead of the English glottal, fricative /h/,

— mispronunciation of the English interdental /θ, ð/: the use of /s, f/
for /θ/ and /d, z/ for /ð/,

— the use of the forelingual /n/ instead of the backlingual velar /ŋ/,

— the use of the Russian dark /ш, ж/ instead of the soft English /ς, 3/,

— the use of the labio-dental /v, в/ instead of the bilabial /w/,

— absence of aspiration in /p, t, k/ when they occur initially,

— weak pronunciation of voiceless fortis /p, t, k, f, s, ς, tς/, devoicing of voiced /b, d, g, v, ð, z, 3, d3/ in the terminal position.

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