Introduction to the IPA: Consonants: The Sounds of English

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Level: Basic
Time taken to Complete: 200 minutes

Activity:

Remember figure b:

 

Now that we have voicing out of the way, we can start the sounds of the English language. I will write the voiceless on the left and voiced on the right.

We can start by going over the sounds that exist in English.
If we start at the top left, we get /p/ and /b/.  Those sounds are exactly like the letters are in English.  They involve the lips, and thusly called Bilabial.  Then if we move to the right, we get /t/ and /d/.  In English, these are Alveolar, which means our tongues touch that ridge like thing right behind our teeth (check figure a).  Feel it, most English speakers do this.  In Spanish and Italian they have a dentalized one, which means their tongues are behind or between their teeth.  Retroflex stops don't occur in English, you don't need to know about them for now, save they are the sounds that accents from India often are stereo typed with. If we skip over the palatal stop, since those aren't in English either, we get the /k/ and /g/.  These too are like in English.  These sounds are in the back of the throat by the velum, which is why they are Velar.

Now we move down a step into nasals which are always voiced in English.  We start with those which involve our lips, or bilabial, which is /m/.  This is a standard m.  Because of it being the same place in the mouth as /p/ and /b/ when we have add the prefix in- in front of a /p/ /b/ or /m/ word we get im-.  Examples: Impossible, Imbue, Imperfect, Immoral, etc.
Then we go to the aveolar sound, /n/.  This is like a standard <n>.  We sometimes have /ɲ/ which is like the <ni> in onion.  It is the Spanish ñ.  The last one in English we need to worry about with Nasals is /ŋ/.  This is like the <ng> in sing, especially if you don't pronounce a /g/.  It is also the <n> in sink.  The glottal stop, /ʔ/, is used in American dialects as the sound between uh-uh, or nuh-uh.  In some British accents, Cockney for one, and in some Scottish accents, the glottal stop is used instead of a flap.

The Trill and Flap we can lob together since English doesn't have the former but we can make it.  The Flap exists in English when we have a <d> or <t> between 2 vowels. So in words like Butter, Soda, or Water.  The symbol is /ɾ/.  A trill or /r/ is basicially like saying the flap over and over again. (Try saying Ed edited it without vowels.)  This is the Spanish rr or the Italian r.  Some British and most Scottish dialects us a /r/.

Then we have the Fricative.  This has many sounds we use.  The first being the labiodental (lips to teeth) sounds /f/ and /v/.  Those are just like in the English letters.  The next are the Interdental sounds /θ/ and /ð/.  The first is the <th> in think, three, theif, etc.  The /ð/ is the <th> in The, This, Though, etc.  Check your throat to help you tell the difference, it's cool.  And if you don't believe me, then what's the difference between Thy /ðaj/ and Thigh /θaj/, where the vowels are both /aj/? Then we have /s/ and /z/ which are the same as in normal words in English (notice the s in easy is really a /z/). After that we have /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.  The first is the <sh> we have like the one in fresh, ship, show, etc.  Then the /ʒ/ is used rather rarely in English, but is in some words like the <s> in measure, or asia.  It is also the French <j>.  The last two fricatives we have are /ç/ and /h/, both of which are vocieless.  The first is only used when we have a "hy" combination.  This is like the <h> in Human, Hue, etc. The /h/ is just as the letter is (save the "hy" cases) in English.

Ignore the Lateral fricatives, we don't have those.  After that we have Approximates.  In this we have /w/ /ʍ/ /ɹ/ and /j/.  The first is /w/(and /ʍ/) which is not on the chart because it is both velar and bilabial.  It is a standard <w> like in English.  The /ʍ/ is a devoiced /w/ which is used in some accents that use <wh> as devoiced.  It may also be the <w> or <u> in 'twas, quiet, quote, between, etc.   The rest are all voiced. The /ɹ/ is the <r> in most all dialects of English.  The last sound /j/ is pretty much an English <y>  (in Germanic languages and Latin the letter <j> was pronounced like <y> so that's why it is thus in the IPA).

The last stop we have are the Liquids.  We have three liquids in English.  Those would be /ɫ/ /l/ and /ʎ/.  All three are voiced and are represented in English by the letter <l>.  The first one is the <l> one gets in any combination with vowels.  That is it is the <l> in all, oil, fill, Paul, etc. The /l/ is the normal l.  The last one /ʎ/ is the <lli> in Million.  This is a "ly" sound.  It is the Italian <gli> combination. 

Now there are a few sounds which aren't up there.  We call them Affricates.  These are usually a mixture of a stop and a fricative.  The only big pair would be /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.  The first one is <ch> or <tch> in English, as in Rich, Change, witch, etc.  The second is the voiced form /dʒ/ which is our regular <j> or <g> (next to <i> or <e> in most cases).  That is in words like Giant, General, Joke, Forge, etc.  We also have the affricates /ts/ and /dz/ but they aren't really considered one sound (unless maybe from a Foreign language which does such as Pizza or Megaherz).

 These are most of the consonant sounds in the English language.  Next Activity is the Vowels.  Fun, no?


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