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Phonology

Chapter six discusses fricatives and affricates in phonetics, detailing the characteristics and classifications of various fricative sounds based on their place of articulation. It explains the differences between fortis and lenis fricatives, as well as the unique properties of glottal sounds and affricates in English. Additionally, it highlights the phenomenon of glottalization in fortis consonants and its effects on preceding vowels and consonants.

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4 views4 pages

Phonology

Chapter six discusses fricatives and affricates in phonetics, detailing the characteristics and classifications of various fricative sounds based on their place of articulation. It explains the differences between fortis and lenis fricatives, as well as the unique properties of glottal sounds and affricates in English. Additionally, it highlights the phenomenon of glottalization in fortis consonants and its effects on preceding vowels and consonants.

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3aliali88
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Chapter six

Fricatives and Affricates


Fricatives: They are sounds made with the air escaping through a narrow
passage making a friction. They are continuants, i.e., they are made
without interruption so long as enough air is there in the lungs. They are
(9) in number which can be represented as follows:

Place of articulation
Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post Glottal
alveolar
Fortis f θ s ʃ
(voiceless) h
Lenis v ð z ʒ
(voiced)

Fortis fricatives : sounds said with greater force than lenis, and their
friction is louder. They have a shortening effect on a preceding vowel.
For example, the words 'ice' and 'eyes' where 'ai' diphthong is shorter in
the first word than 'ai' in the second.

Lenis fricatives : sounds said with weaker force, have no voice in initial
and final positions, and can be heard as voiced when they occur between
voiced sounds.

Labiodental : sounds made with the lower lip in contact with the upper
teeth like / f, v/. The fricative noise is not strong.

Dental : sounds made with the tongue placed behind the teeth, with the
tip touching the lower front teeth and the blade touching the upper teeth
like / θ, ð /. The air escapes through the gap between the tongue and the
teeth..The fricative voice is weak.

Alveolar : sounds made with the tongue tip in contact with alveolar ridge
where the air escapes through a narrow passage along the center of the
tongue like / s, z /. The fricative sound is intense.

Post-alveolar : sounds made with the tongue in contact with an area


slightly further back than that for / s, z/. The air escapes through a
passage along the center of the tongue as in / s, z / but the passage is a
little wider. The difference between /s,z / and / ʃ, ʒ / is that most BBC
speakers round their lips for / ʃ, ʒ /.

All fricatives can be found in initial, medial, and final positions. The
distribution of the sound / ʒ/ is limited. Very few English words begin
with this sound (mostly French), and not many end with it. It occurs
medially in words like "measure and usual".

Glottal : a sound made with a narrow gap between the vocal folds like
/h/. It has two distributions :

1. Phonetically, h-sound is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the


voiced vowel that follows it. For example, in the word 'hat' h-sound
is followed by / æ / vowel. The tongue, jaw and lip positions for
the vowel are all produced simultaneously with the h-sound so that
the glottal fricative has a / æ / quality. The same is found for all
vowels following /h/ ; the consonant always has the quality of the
vowel it precedes.
2. Phonologically, h-sound is a consonant. It occurs in initial position
as well as in medial position as in "ahead", "greenhouse",
"boathook". When it occurs between voiced sounds, it is
pronounced as voiced slightly fricative sound called breathy voice.

There are (2) uncommon sounds linked with h-sound. The first is found
in words which begin orthographically with 'wh' (ex. which, why, whip,
whale) and pronounced as 'w', and most BBC speakers pronounce this
sound as 'w', but most American and Scottish speakers pronounce this
sound as a voiceless fricative with the same lip, tongue and jaw position
as 'w'. the symbol for this sound is / ʍ /. Examples :

Witch / wiʧ / which / ʍiʧ /

Wail / wail / whale / ʍeil /

Wye / wai / why / ʍai /

Wear / weǝ / where / ʍeǝ /


Although they are two different phonemes, all writers decide that this
sound / ʍ / is not a phoneme of English but a realization of a sequence of
two phonemes 'h' and 'w'. Anyway, there is no h-sound in the voiceless
'w'.

The second is the sound found at the beginning of words like "huge ,
human, hue". Phonetically this sound is a voiceless palatal fricative ;
there is no glottal fricative at the beginning of "huge". It is usual to treat
this sound as 'h' plus 'j' as in "yes and yet". The symbol for this sound is
/ҫ /.

English Affricates
They are the sounds which begin as plosives and end as fricatives. There
are only two affricate phonemes in English. They are /ʧ/ and /ʤ/. The
first sound is fortis, whereas the second is lenis.

Not all sequences of plosive plus fricative are affricates. For example, the
plosive /k/ and the fricative /f/ in the middle of the word "breakfast" are
not an affricate. An affricate (plosive plus fricative ) must be made with
the same articulators ,i.e., they must be homorganic. The sounds /k, f/ are
not homorganic, but /t, d/ and /ʃ, ӡ/ being made with the tongue blade
against the alveolar ridge are homorganic. Each of the two affricates are
regarded as single independent phonemes of English.

When /ʧ/ occurs in word initially, it will be aspirated like the sounds
/p,t,k/. When it occurs in word finally, it has the shortening effect on a
preceding vowel. These both sounds have rounded lips.

Fortis Consonants
As it is known that fortis consonants shorten preceding vowels, especially
long vowels and diphthongs, they also have a shortening effect on
consonants. For example, when /p,t,k/ occur in word finally preceded by
/l, m, n, ŋ /, theses consonants are shortened as in "belt, bump, bent,
bank"
As it is also known that English plosives are made with a complete
closure. This type of plosive articulation is called "glottalization". It
occurs immediately before /p, t, k, ʧ/. The most widespread of
glottalization is that of /ʧ/ at the end of a stressed syllable. The symbol
for glottalization is /Ɂ/. Examples :

with glottalization without glottalization


Nature neiɁʧ neiʧǝ
Catching kæɁʧiŋ kæʧiŋ
Riches riɁʧiz riʧiz

The glottalization can occur in the plosives /p, t, k/, but it is not so
noticeable. Examples :

with glottalization without glottalization


Actor æɁktǝ æktǝ
Petrol peɁtrǝl petrǝl
Mat mæɁt mæt
Football fʊɁtbɔ:l fʊtbɔ:l

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