Consonant Sound Essay

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Consonants Wednesday, 07 October 2009 19:18 Graham Williamson ABSTRACT: Phonetics studies articulation, i.e. how the sounds of particular languages are articulated in particular contexts. This article explains the articulation of the 24 English consonants. They are categorized as either plosives, nasals, fricatives, affricates or approximants. Introduction We have seen elsewhere (article about speech) that (articulatory) phonetics is the subcategory of speech that studies articulation, i.e. how the sounds of particular languages are articulated in particular contexts. [The other subcategory is phonology.] This article is restricted to a discussion of consonant sounds, for two reasons. First, vowel sounds are complex, and consequently difficult to describe. Second, in the majority of articulation disorders it is the consonants that are most disrupted, and so a focus on consonants can better help our understanding of speech disorders. Consonants Consonants are closed sounds. This means that there is some type of obstruction to the airflow from the lungs by parts of the mouth coming into contact with each other, or very nearly contacting, thus closing off the free flow of air. For example, the lips could come together for the sound ‘b’ as in the word ball, or the tongue tip could almost contact the gum ridge (alveolar ridge) just behind the upper incisors for the sound ‘s’ as in sun. These contacts, and near contacts, impede the free flow of air through the vocal apparatus1. It is this kind of closure that characterizes consonant sounds. In English there are approximately 24 consonants and these are arranged into five main groups: (1) plosives, (2) nasals, (3) fricatives, (4) affricates, and (5) approximants. We will now consider each of these in turn. [1] The vocal apparatus consists of the breathing mechanism, the larynx, and the vocal tract (i.e. the

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