Consonants are the letters of English alphabets that enunciate a speech sound by obstructing the airflow at one or more points completely or partially. In English alphabets, the letters a, e, I, o, u are known as vowels and the remaining ones are termed as consonants.
The speech sounds produced by the vowels experienced no obstruction in the vocal tract. Try to pronounce vowels like A, E, I, O, U. You’ll notice that your mouth or vocal tract remained open for the airflow. Now try to say the letter ‘T’. You’ll see that the front part of the tongue interrupts the airflow to make this sound.
In hat, H and T are consonants. A consonant can likewise be a descriptive word that portrays things that seem like they should go together, things that are “pleasing.” You could say a country’s proposal of help is consonant with their settlements.
At the point when you hear consonant sounds in music, they are satisfying, something contrary to “noisy” sounds which are brutal. There are 24 consonant sounds in the English language and are produced by 21 letters of regular English alphabets. Let us look closely into the class of speech sounds produced by the consonants.
To classify the consonant sounds we need three types of information – voiced or voiceless, Place of Articulation and Manner of Articulation.
The thing to remember is that consonants are pronounced by creating a barrier in the airflow.
1. Voiced OR Voiceless
The first most thing is to determine that are the consonants are voiced or voiceless? Some consonant sounds are produced by the vibration of vocal cords such as /z/ and /v/. These are called voiced consonants. While some consonants are produced without the vibration of vocal cords such as /s/ and /f/. The airflow is the only factor that produces these sounds. These are called voiceless consonants.
2. Articulation Place
The second thing is to know the portion of the vocal tract where the airflow is interrupted. This is known as the place of articulation. Don’t get intimidated by the word articulation. It is a technical term used in articulatory phonetics (the study of how we speak and pronounce). Let’s look at some places of articulation along with some examples of English alphabets.
- Bilabial
If the vocal tract is interrupted at lips by pressing both lips against each other, the place of articulation will be bilabial. You can experience this by pronouncing English alphabets like [p] and [b].
- Labiodental
The consonant sounds made by pressing upper teeth at the bottom lip fall in the category of labiodental. The alphabets like [f] and [v] produce this type of speech sounds.
- Alveolar
When you press the top of the tongue with the alveolar ridge, the place of articulation is alveolar. The alphabets like [t] and [d] are common examples of this category.
- Palatal
When the tongue approaches the hard portion of palate, the sounds like [j] are produced. This obstruction portion is called palatal.
- Velar
By pressing the tongue against the back portion of the palate to produce consonants sounds like [k], [g]. This place of articulation is classified as velar.
- Glottal
The English alphabets like [h] produce the sound right at the larynx and is classified as glottal fricative sound.
- Dental
In dental consonants, the tip of the tongue touches the upper teeth and the airflow is interrupted to produce a specific sound like ‘? [theta]’. These are known as dental consonant sounds.
3. Articulation Manner
The last thing we need to confirm is the way in which the vocal tract is obstructed. This is the last dimension to classify the consonant sounds completely. These terms are discussed in detail under the subject of articulatory phonetics.
- If the airflow is interrupted or blocked completely by the means of lips, teeth, or tongue, the consonant sounds are called Plosives (stops). There are six plosive consonants in English alphabets. These are [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g]. You can further classify based on the places of articulation.
- If the airflow is blocked by the mouth but the air is permitted to flow through the nasal cavity, the consonant sounds are then called Nasals. In English alphabets, [m] and [n] generate nasal sounds. Sometimes these are also termed nasal stops.
- It is also possible to don’t block the airflow completely but allow the air to pass turbulently through the small space in articulators. This type of consonant sounds is called Fricatives. [f], [v], [s], [z], [h] are some fricatives in English alphabets.
- Similarly, when the air flows smoothly through closely spaced articulators then the resulting sound is called Approximant. The alphabets like [j], [w] are approximants.
- The sound produced by [r] is called Trill. It involves the rapid vibrations of articulators by narrowing down the gap between them. The English alphabet ‘r’ has some touch of trill in it.
- Affricates are the consonant sounds that combine the features of plosives and fricatives.
- Note your tongue while saying the word ‘life’. The top of your tongue touches your alveolar ridge or upper teeth. The air flows from the opened sides of the tongue instead of stopping completely. Such sounds are called Laterals in which the air flows around the sides of the tongue.
To wrap up the discussion, these three properties are used to identify the type of consonant sounds. Based on these dimensions, the consonant sounds are may be voiced or voiceless, bilabial or alveolar and plosives or nasals. You can break it down further as you like to classify the sounds produced by the consonants.