1. CONSONANTS
AND VOWELS IN
ENGLISH
PISMP1.09
KERY
DAYANG
SHEYR

2. VOWELS & CONSONANTS
FOR LINKING
 To understand linking, it is important to
know the difference between vowel
sounds and consonant sounds.
 The important thing in linking is the
sound, not the letter.
 Often the letter and the sound are the
same, but not always.
For example, the word "pay" ends with:
the consonant letter "y"
the vowel sound "a"

3.  We could distinguishing all of the consonant
sounds of English through the properties of;
 Voicing
 Nasality
 Place and manner of articulation

4. ARTICULATORY APPARATUS

5. CONSONANTS
 Consonants = obstruents + sonorants
 Obstruents: (oral) stops, affricates, and fricatives
 Sonorants: nasals and liquids (l,r)
o Consonants can be defined by:
• Point of articulation (or “place”):
Specification of the active and passive articulators.
• Manner of articulation:
Oral stop; nasal stop; fricative; affricate; lateral;
flap; approximant; and some others.

6. Places of articulation: labial
• Bilabial: made with
two lips
(pie, buy, my)
• Labiodental: lower
tip and
Upper front teeth
(fie, vie).

7. Places of articulation:
coronal
• Dental: tongue tip or blade and
upper front teeth (thigh, thy).
(interdental: the tip of the
tongue protrudes between the
upper and the lower front teeth).
• Alveolar: tongue tip or blade and
the alveolar ridge (tie, die, nigh,
sigh, zeal, lie).
• Retroflex: tongue tip and back of
the alveolar ridge (rye, row, ray).
• Palato-Alveolar (post-alveolar):
tongue blade and the back of the
alveolar ridge (shy, she, show).

8. Places of articulation: dorsal
• Palatal: front of the
tongue and hard
palate (you). Palatal
sounds are
sometimes classified
as coronal.
• Velar: back of the
tongue and the soft
palate (hack, hag,
hang).

9. Oro-nasal process
[From: Dan Jurafsky slide]
Oral sounds: soft palate Nasal sound: soft palate is
is raised (closing the passage). lowered, so air passes through
the nose.

10. MANNERS OF ARTICULATION
 Stop
 Fricative: near closure, creating frication (heavy air
turbulence)
 Affricate (combined stop and fricative)
 Approximant (no turbulence) (y,w,r)
 Lateral approximant (l) obstruction in the middle, air
passage around the side of the tongue.
 Tap or flap: American symbol [D], IPA [ɾ]

12. EXAMPLES FOR
CONSONANTS
Stop
 b as in bat, sob, cubby
 d as in date, hid, ado
 g as in gas, lag, ragged
 p as in pet, tap, repeat
 t as in tap, pet, attack
 k as in king, pick, picking

13. Fricatives
 f as in fail, life
 v as in veil, live
 Ɵ as in thin, wrath
 ð as in this, bathe
 s as in soft, miss
 z as in zoo, as
 š (American) or ʃ (IPA) as in shame,
mash
 ž (American) or ǯ (IPA)as in triage,
garage, azure,
 h as in help, vehicular

14. Affricates
 č (American) or tʃ (IPA) as in cheap, hatch
 ǰ (American) or ʤ (IPA) as in jump, hedge
Nasal
 m as in map, him
 n as in knot, tin (alveolar POA)
 ñ as in canyon
 ŋ as in sing, gingham, dinghy
Liquids
 l as in large, gull
 r as in red, jar
Glides and semi-consonants
 y (American) or j (IPA) as in boy, yellow
 w as in wall, cow

15. VOWELS
o Vowels are displayed in a two-dimensional chart,
corresponding only roughly to the position of the
tongue, and the first two formants of the vowel. Plus:
whether the lips are rounded
o Monophthong or diphthong (no movement, or
movement)
o The fact that it’s harder is reflected in the fact that
there is more than one way in which it’s done. IPA is
one way; American is another.
o Vowels are harder to characterize articulatorily, but
we try!

16. From: Jennifer Venditti slide

17. IPA

18. SHORT VOWELS
Front:
I as in bit
Ɛ as in bet
æ as in bat
Back:
ʌ as in putt
È as in bought
a or ɑ as in Mott, ma, spot

19. LONG VOWELS
 iyor i as in beet
 ey or ej as in bait
 ay as in bite
 oy as in boy
 uw or u as in boot
 ow as in boat
 aw as how

20. THANK YOU~
PISMP1.09 (K.D.S)