Phonetics Fundamentals: Consonant and Syllable Analysis
Consonants: Production and Classification
Consonant sounds are produced with a constriction or obstruction of the air expelled at some point in the throat or mouth.
Consonant Classification Criteria
Voicing
Voicing refers to the vibration of the vocal cords during the articulation of a consonant sound. Consonants produced with vocal cord vibration are called voiced, while those produced without vibration are called voiceless.
Place of Articulation
This criterion refers to the specific location in the vocal tract where the airflow is obstructed or constricted. According to this, consonant sounds are classified into:
- Bilabial: Formed by contact or close approach of the upper and lower lips.
- Labiodental: Produced by a light touch of the lower lip and the upper incisor teeth.
- Dental: Involve contact or close approach of the tip of the tongue and the inside of the upper incisor teeth.
- Alveolar: Created by contact or close approach of the apex (tip) or front of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind the upper front teeth).
- Palatal: Result from contact or close approach of the blade of the tongue to the most advanced part of the hard palate, or the dorsum (back) of the tongue to the middle of the hard palate.
- Velar: Produced by contact or close approach of the dorsal part of the tongue with the soft palate (velum).
Mode of Articulation
This describes the type of impediment or manner in which the air is expelled from the vocal tract:
- Stops (Plosives): Involve a complete closure of the vocal tract, followed by a sudden release of air. They can be oral or nasal.
- Fricatives: Produced by creating a narrow constriction in the vocal tract, causing turbulent airflow and a hissing sound.
- Affricates: Begin with a complete closure (like a stop) and then release slowly with friction (like a fricative) in the same articulatory area.
- Approximants: Formed by a constriction of the vocal tract that is less narrow than for fricatives, allowing air to flow smoothly without turbulence. Examples include glides and liquids.
- Rhotics: Characterized by contact of the tip of the tongue with the alveolar region. If there is a single contact, it’s a tap or flap; if there are several very short contacts, it’s a trill.
- Laterals: Produced by contact of the central part of the tongue with the upper part of the oral cavity, allowing air to escape sideways over the tongue.
The Syllable: Structure and Contact Phenomena
Syllable Structure
Classification by Stress
From the standpoint of stress, syllables are classified as stressed or unstressed.
Classification by Internal Structure
From the standpoint of internal structure, a syllable is considered open (or free) if it ends in a vowel, and closed (or checked) if it ends in a consonant.
Syllabification
Syllabification is the process of grouping sounds into syllables. There are two main levels for syllable separation:
- Within a Word: Syllable division within a single word.
- Across Word Boundaries (Resyllabification): Syllable division when words are grouped together in connected speech.
This second level of syllabification is also known as resyllabification and often entails changes in the final sound of a word. For example, when a word ending in a consonant is syllabified with a following word that begins with a vowel, the consonant sound may become part of the initial syllable of the next word.
Phonological Contact Phenomena
- Hiatus: The contiguity of two vowel sounds that belong to two different syllables, maintaining their distinctness.
- Rising Diphthong: The contiguity of a gradual sound (semivowel) followed by a vowel, where the vowel acts as the syllabic nucleus.
- Falling Diphthong: The contiguity of a vowel nucleus followed by a gradual sound (semivowel).
- Triphthong: The contiguity of a gradual sound (semivowel), a vowel nucleus, and another gradual sound (semivowel), all within the same syllable.
- Assimilation of Sound: A phonological process where a sound becomes more similar to an adjacent sound in terms of an articulatory feature. For instance, a voiceless consonant may become voiced when it precedes a voiced consonant. Consonants commonly affected include stops, affricates, and fricatives.