CHAPTER 7.

NASALS AND OTHER CONSONANTS

7.1. Nasals - Sounds are produced by the air escapes through the nose. (the soft palate must be lowered)

There are 3 types of closure:

(Which correspond to the three places of articulation for the pairs of plosives p b, t d, k g)

 /m/, /n/ are simple and straighforward with distributions quite similar to those of the
plosive.
 /ŋ/ is a sound that gives considerable problems to foreign learners, and one of the
phonemes of English at all. The place of articulation of /ŋ/ is the same that of /k/, /g/.
- Some ways in which the distribution of /ŋ/ is unusual.

Initially - /m/, /n/ can occur freely e.g: mother, nice,….

- /ŋ/ never occur in this position – this is the only English consonant
that does not occur initially.

Medially - /ŋ/ occur frequently

- When we find the letter ‘nk’ in the middle of a word in its
orthographic form ( a ‘k’ will always be pronounced)
- Some words with orthographic ‘ng’ in the middle will have a
pronunciation containing /ŋg/ or /ŋ/ with out /g/.

e.g:

- The difference of their morphology (the way the words are constructed)

- Column B the words can be divided into 2 grammmatical pieces: ‘sing’

+ ‘er’, ‘hang’ + ‘er’ – These pieces are called morphemes. So, we say
that B words are morphologically different from column A words
 because these just contain one morpheme each.

- The words ending with ‘ng’ – always end with /ŋ/; this /ŋ/ is never
followed by a /g/. e.g: sing, bang, long, song

- Some exceptions: the comparative (-er) and superlative (-ish) forms of

the word ‘long’ be pronounced with /g/ following

e.g: – longer /lɒŋge/ longest / lɒŋgəst/

- The rule must be modified: it must state that comparative and

superlative forms of adjectives are to be treated as single-morpheme
words for the purposes of this rule.

The following It rarely occurs after a diphthong or long vowel, so only the short vowels
vowels ɪ, e,ӕ, ʌ, ʊ, ɒ, ǝ are regularly found preceding this consonant.

7.2. The consonant /l/ - The /l/ phoneme (as in ‘long’, ‘hill’) is a lateral approximant ( the air through the mouth
does not go in the usual away along the centre of the tongue);
The only way for the air to
escape is along the sides of the - Instead, there is complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of
tongue. the mouth where contact is to be made (the alveolar ridge in the case of /l/)

- The lateral approximant is therefore somewhat different from other approximants, in which
there is usually much less contact between the articulators.

- If you make a long /l/ sound – feel the sides of your tongue are pulled in and down while the
center is raised.

- We find /l/ initially (e.g: leaf), medially (e.g: realise) and finally (e.g: ball), its distribution is
therefore not particularly limited.

- One unusual characteristic -

Clear /l/: the front of Dark /l/: the back of

the tongue raised the tongue raised

e.g: life, long e.g: milk

- will never occurs - will never occurs

before consonants or before vowels.
before pause.

- only before vowels. Phonetic symbol

 - Another allophone of /l/ is found when it follows p, k at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
The /l/ is then devoiced (i.e. produced without the voicing found in most realisations of
this phoneme) and pronounced as a fricative. The situation is similar to the aspiration
found when a vowel follows p, t, k in a stressed syllable: the first part of the vowel is
devoiced.

7.3. The consonant /r/ - The important thing about the articulation of r is that the tip of the tongue approaches the
alveolar area in approximately the way it would for a t or d, but never contact with any part of
the root of the mouth.

- The tongue in fact slightly curled backwards with the tip raised; consonants with this tongue
shape are usually called retroflex.

- The “curling back” process usually carries the tip of the tongue to a position slightly further
back in the mouth than that for alveolar consonants such as t, d, which is why this approximant
is called “post veolar”.

- A rather different r sound is found at the beginning of a syllable if it is preceded by /p/, /t/, /k/;
it is then voicless and fricative.

e.g: press, tress, cress

- The lips to be slightly rounded (lip-rounding) when pronounce /r/ sound.

- The distributional peculiarity of /r/:

Normal e.g: red, arrive, hearing

/r/ is followed e.g: car, ever, here

by a vowel. hard, verse, cares
There is no /r/
in the
pronunciation

- Those accents which have r in final position (before a pause) a before a consonat are
called rhotic accents
- Accents in which /r/ only occurs before vowels are called non-rhotic.
7.4. The consonants /j/ and /w/ - They are phonetically like vowels but phonologiacally like consonants (in earlier works on
phonology they were known as “semivowels”)

- /j/ is the same as that of a front close vowel such as /i/, but is very short. e.g: yet

- /w/ is closely similar to /u/ e.g: wet

- Be use like consonants ( added article):

Before a vowels An apple, an orange

The apple, the orange

Before a consonants A cat, a dog A way, a year

The cat, the dog The way, the year

Evidence illustrates j, w are phonologically consonants

- Pronounce them as fricatives, or as affricates, is a mispronunciation. Only in special context do

we hear friction noise in /j/ or /w/; this is when they are preceded by p, t, k at the beginning of a
syllable, as in these words:

- When p, t, k come at the beginning of a syllable by a vowel – aspirated

- E.g: play, tray, quick, cue
- The beginning of a vowel is voiceless
- When p, t, k are not followed by a vowel but by one of /l/, /r/, /j/, /w/ – they lose their
voicing and become fricative.
- E.g: lay, ray, wick, you