Position of the Soft Palate

Manner of the Production of Noise

This principle of consonant classification provides the basis for the following distinctive oppositions:

(1) Occlusive (stops) vs. constrictive

pine — fine Bern — fern dare — share
bat — that bore — thaw bee — thee

care — there mine — thine came — lame

In these pairs the occlusive /p, b, d, k, m/ are opposed to the constrictive /f, ς, θ, ð, l/.

(2) Constrictive vs. occlusive-constrictive (affricates)

fare — chair fail — jail work — jerk

In these pairs the constrictive /f, w/ are opposed to the occlusive-constrictive (affricates) /tς, d3/.

Within the groups of occlusives, or stops, and constrictives, noise consonants may be opposed to sonorants.

(a) occlusive: noise vs. nasal sonorants

pine — mine boat — moat tale — nail dead — need kick — king

In these pairs the occlusive noise /p, b, t, d, k/ are opposed to the nasal sonorants /m, n, ŋ/.

(b) constrictive: noise vs. sonorants

same — lame vain — lane then — when

In these pairs the constrictive noise consonants /s, v, ð/ are opposed to the constrictive sonorants /1, w/.

Unicentral constrictive consonants may be opposed to bicentral constrictive consonants.

(c) constrictive unicentral vs. constrictive bicentral

same — shame thine — wine

In these pairs the constrictive unicentral /s, ð/ are opposed to the constrictive bicentral /ς, w/.

Constrictive consonants with a flat narrowing can be opposed to constrictive consonants with a round narrowing.

(d) flat narrowing vs. round narrowing

fame — same vat — sat

In these pairs the constrictive consonants with a flat narrowing /f, v/ opposed to the constrictive consonants with a round narrowing /s/.

In all these oppositions only examples with the initially opposed consonant phonemes are given. It does not mean that the pairs of medially and finally opposed consonants, that prove their phonemic status, may not be found.

This principle of consonant classification provides the basis for the following distinctive opposition:

Oral vs. nasal

pit — pin seek — seen thieve — theme sick — sing

In these pairs the oral consonants /t, k, v/ are opposed to the nasal /m, n, ŋ/.

The method of minimal pairs helps to identify 24 consonant phonemes in the English language on the basis of such an analysis which demands a recourse to the meaning, or to the distinctive function of the phoneme. Those linguists who reject meaning as external to linguistics think that it is possible to group the sounds of the language into phonemes even without knowing the meaning of words. This belief is based on two laws of phonemic and allophonic distribution (1) that allophones of different phonemes always occur in the same phonetic context and (2) that consequently, the allophones of the same phoneme never occur; in the same phonetic context and always occur in different positions. From these laws two conclusions are deduced: (1) if more or less different speech sounds occur in the same phonetic context, they should be allophones of different phonemes; and (2) if more or less similar speech sounds occur in different positions and never occur in the same phonetic context, they are variants of one and the same phoneme. This method is known in modern phonology as the purely distributional method of identifying the phonemes of a language as items of its phonemic system.

Though the practical application of the purely distributional method is theoretically feasible, there are many difficulties in its use.

This principle, which determines the choice of the most suitable method for teaching purposes, is called the principle of pedagogical expedience in phonemic analysis.

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