The chart of english consonants

According to the active speech organ and the place of obstruction According to the type of obstruction and the manner of producing noise			LABIAL		LINGUAL
			Bilabial	Labio-dental	Forelingual				Medio-lingual (palatal)	Back-lingual (velar)	GLOTTAL
					Interdental (apical)	Alveolar (apical)	Palato-alveolar (apical)	Post-alveolar
OCCLUSIVES	Plosives (noise consonants)		p b			t d				 
	Nasal sonorants		m			n				
CONSTRICTIVES	Fricatives (noise consonants)			f v	 	s z	 				
	Sonorants	Medial	w					r	
		Lateral				
	Occlusive-constrictives (affricates)						t d

Articulation of english consonants

PLOSIVES. Plosive consonants are formed by completely closing the air passage (by the lips or tongue-tip or tongue-back), then compressing the air and suddenly opening the passage so that the air is released with a slight explosion. There are three pairs of plosive phonemes in English /, /, /, /, /, /, which form 36 different combinations.

/, /

The consonants /, / are articulated with the lips pressed together. The soft palate is raised so that the breath cannot get out of either the nose or the mouth. Thus, the air-passage is completely blocked by closing the lips and raising the soft palate. Then the lips are quickly opened and the air escapes with a slight explosion. In the production of // the vocal cords are kept apart and do not vibrate, whereas in the articulation of /b/ they are drawn near together and vibrate. The English /p/ is a strong sound, pronounced with aspiration. Thus, /p/ may be defined as occlusive, noise, plosive, bilabial, voiceless, fortis consonant. The position of the organs of speech for /p/ is shown in Figure.

Fig. Tongue position of the English /p/

The English /b/ is a weak stop, and it is pronounced without aspiration. The most important thing, as with the other weak consonants, is to make it very gentle and short. The consonant /b/ is defined as occlusive, noise, plosive, bilabial, voiced, lenis.

Fig. Tongue position of the English /b/

/, /

The consonants /, / are articulated with the tip of the tongue firmly pressed against the middle of the alveolar ridge (apical articulation). The soft palate is raised, so the breath cannot escape through either the nose or the mouth. When the tongue-tip is quickly removed from the alveolar ridge the breath rushes out with a slight explosion.

In its production the vocal cords are kept apart and do not vibrate. The English /t/ is a strong plosive (stop) consonant. The plosive /t/ is aspirated in the same way as /p/, i.e., in a stressed syllable, when followed by a vowel and not preceded by /s/, it is pronounced with aspiration, as in taken. Thus /t/ may be defined as an occlusive, plosive, forelingual, apical, alveolar voiceless fortis consonant. The position of the organs of speech for /t/ is shown in Figure.

Fig. Tongue position of the English /t/

The English /d/ is a weak consonant. In the articulation of /d/ the vocal cords are drawn near together and vibrate.

Fig. Tongue position of the English /d/

Thus /d/ may be defined as an occlusive, noise plosive, forelingual, apical, alveolar, voiced, lenis consonant.

Typical mistakes. The Ukrainian learners often substitute the English /t, d/ by the corresponding Ukrainian consonants /Т/and /Д/ pronounced with the blade of the tongue touching the upper teeth, the tip being passive and lowered (having the so-called dorsal articulation). One has to remember the difference between the English /t, d/ and the Ukrainian/Т/and /Д/ lies in the position of the tongue tip: in the production of the English /t, d/ the tip of the tongue occupies apico-alveolar position, while in the pronunciation the corresponding Ukrainian sounds the tip of the tongue has the so-called dorsal position. To correct this mistakes the learner should know where the alveolar ridge is and remember to press the tip of the tongue slightly against it.

/, /

The consonants /, / are articulated with the back of the tongue raised and pressed against the soft palate. When the back of the tongue is quickly lowered from the soft palate, the breath rushes out of the mouth with a slight explosion. In the production of a plosive /k/ vocal cords are kept apart and do not vibrate; the sound /k/ is aspirated in the same way as /p/ and /t/. Thus, /k/ may be defined as an occlusive, noise, plosive, backlingual, velar, voiceless, fortis consonant. The position of the organs of speech for this sound is shown in Figure.

Fig. Tongue position of the English /k/

The English // is a weak consonant and it is never aspirated. In its production the vocal cords are drawn near together and vibrate. Thus, // may be defined as an occlusive, noice, plosive, backlingual, velar, voiced, lenis consonant. The position of the organs of speech for this sound is shown in Figure.

Fig. Tongue position of the English //

Note!!! The voiceless plosive consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ are pronounced with aspiration before a stressed vowel. However, the degree of their aspiration varies: (1) it is strongest in the word initial position when they are followed either by a long monophthong or a diphthong, e.g. pass, tall; pair, tear, care; (2) aspiration becomes weaker when the sounds /p/, /t/, /k/ are followed by short monophthongs, e.g.: pull, cut, pot, top; (3) when /p/, /t/, /k/ are preceded by the consonant /s/ they are pronounced without aspiration: park – spark, cool – school. In the word final position consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ have a weak degree of aspiration, e.g.: talk, stop, pit.

Typical mistakes in the production of English plosives. (1) Ukrainian learners may pronounce the English voiceless plosive consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ without aspiration. In order to pronounce a voiceless plosive consonant with aspiration it is necessary to let a puff of breath out of the mouth immediately after a quick separation of the articulating organs and just before the beginning of the vowel that follows the plosive consonant. The air-pressure against the complete obstruction should be strong, but muscular tension at the place of articulation should be weak. Care should be taken not to pronounce the Ukrainian sound /X/ instead of the puff of air (aspiration). (2) Very often Ukrainian learners pronounce voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ preceded by /s/ with aspiration, as in speak, skate, splash, etc. which is a rude mistake.