Consonants

/p/ Differences betw. Spanish & English

• Plosive, bilabial and voiceless

(Spanish/English)

• No aspiration in Spanish

• Never found in final position (except words

with foreign origin)
• Never followed by n (not nasal)
 Spellings
• P pin corporal
• pp nappy flipper
Exception : hiccough or hiccups
• Silent (NB not voiceless):
psalm /sɑː m/
pneumonia /nju:‘məʊnjə/
receipt /rɪ’si:t/
cupboard /[‘kʌbəd]
 Practice
• Pepsi •Impatient
• Spinster •supper
• Plenty
• April
• Pen
• Open
• Pebbles
 /b/ Characteristics
• Mode of articulation:Plosive

• Place of articulation: Bilabial

• Voiced / fortis
 Allophones
• Partial voiceless in initial position: ball

• Voiceless in final position: Bob, tub

• Voiced in intervocalic position: label

• Lateral plosion: bubble

 Allophones
• Nasal plosion cabin, ribbon
• Incomplete plosion followed by another
plosive or an affricate. Obtain, sob bitterly
 Differences betw. English & Spanish
 Spanish /b/ is:
(a) Fricative in middle or initial position
(not absolute)
(b) Plosive in absolute initial position &
after m
 English /b/:
(a) Partially voiceless (similar to p, but no
aspiration)
(b) Final position /b/ sounds like a short /p/,
but the vowel or diphthong before it is longer
 Phoneme /b/ in English always b (Spanish v or b)
 /t/: Characteristics
• Manner of articulation: Plosive

• Place of articulation: Alveolar

• Voiceless /lenis
 Allophones
• Aspirated /t/:
stressed syllable (mostly in initial position)
token, test

• Weak aspiration: final position; intervocalic

position; relaxed speech.
catty, pat
 Allophones
 Not aspirated: after /s/ stay

 Lateral plosion: followed by /l/ cattle

 Nasal plosion: followed by /n/ beaten

 Incomplete plosion: followed by another plosive

or affricate. that day
 Allophones
• Affricate /t/: followed by r (both sounds a
produced together)

tractor, trouble
 English /t/ Spanish /t/
alveolar dental

aspirated (except stone) not aspirated

final t is very frequent only in foreign words

can be followed by /l/ never followed by /l/ or or a

nasal consonant nasal consonant

Affricate /t/ (train) uncommon sound (tren)

 /d/ characteristics
• Manner of articulation: Plosive

• Place of articulation: Alveolar

• Voiced /fortis
 Allophones
• Partially voiceless in initial position deck

• Voiceless in final position dude, maid

• Voiced in intervocalic position bladder

• Lateral plosion peddle

 Allophones
• Nasal plosion trodden

• Incomplete plosion: followed by another

plosive or affricate a cod tray

• Affricate /dr/: the sound is affricate

drop, dream
 English /d/ Spanish /d/

alveolar dental

Fricative in middle
or non absolute position
Always plosive
Plosive after n, l or
in absolute initial position
English /d/ Spanish /d/

never followed by l
or nasal consonant

Affricate /dr/ uncommon sound

 Spellings
• d - disk, candy

• dd - paddy, teddy

• -ed (past ending/participle): when the verb

ends in a voiced consonant.
- played, loved
• Silent d - handkerchief, sandwich, handsome,
Wednesday
 /k/ characteristics
• Manner of articulation: plosive

• Place of articulation: velar

• Voiceless / lenis
 Allophones
• Aspirated /k/: stressed syllable, initial position
- Kingdom

• Weak aspiration: unstressed syllable

- Quaker, tank

• not aspirated after s

- skin
 /g/ characteristics
• Manner of articulation: plosive

• Place of articulation. Velar

• Voiced
 Allophones
• Partially voiceless in initial position
- goat

• Voiceless in final position

- tag

• Completely voiced in intervocalic position

-tiger
 Allophones
• Lateral plosion
- struggle

• Nasal plosion
- Logan

• Incomplete plosion: followed by plosive or

affricate
- big game
English /g/ Spanish /g/

plosive fricative: non-absolute

initial or mid-position
plosive: absolute initial
position or after a
nasal consonant

Final position never (foreign

words)
 English /g/ Spanish /g/

Nasal never

lateral plosion uncommon

 Spellings
• g - girl, anger, grizzle

• gg - egg, dogged

• Silent gh - sight, tight, taught, though

 Articulatory strength
• Fortis: more energy involved /muscular
tension

• Lenis: less energy involved

 Fortis vs. lenis
Voicing is an important feature of the distinction
in fricatives:
few-view (/f/ - /v/)
face-phase (/s/-/z/)
bath - bathe (/θ / - /ð/)
medial plosives (plosives with vowels on either
side of them):
later - lady
super cubic
 FRICATIVES
•Continuants

•The speech organs involved nearly touch

each other. They leave little space for the air
to come put: friction

•Narrowing of the mouth

• Fricatives that are fortis lose some of their
sonority in final position.
• minimal pairs:

Ice /aɪs/ eyes /‘aɪz/

The previous vowel is longer when fortis
 /f/ Characteristics
• Manner of articulation: Fricative

• Place of articulation: labio-dental

• Lenis /voiceless
 Allophone
• This is the only allophone for the English
phoneme /f/

• English vs. Spanish: almost the same.

 Spellings
Most frequent:

F – feather, Fond
Ff – bluff, cliff

Less frequent:
Ph – philosophy, elephant
Gh - in some words laugh, tough, cough

• Exception: lieutenant [lef’tenənt] British

 /v/ characteristics
• Manner of articulation: fricative

• Place of articulation: labio-dental

• Fortis / voiced
 Allophone
• Only this one
 Spellings
• V – very, vile, love

• Exceptional cases: of /ə v/
 /θ / Characteristics
• Manner of articulation: fricative

• Place of articulation: labio-dental

• Voiceless / lenis
 Allophone
• Only one allophone
 English Spanish

• Similar to zócalo
 Spellings
• It’s always th (but in only some cases it is
pronounced as /θ / .

• Initial position: thing, thought, thong

• Mid-position: diphthong, cathedral

• Final position (with or without –s): both, bath, month

 /ð / characteristics
• Manner of articulation: fricative

• Place of articulation: dental

• Voiced / fortis
• This is the only allophone for the phoneme /ð
/

• In Spanish it doesn’t exist

 Spellings
• Always as th

• Initial position: function words (grammar)

this, that, these, those, the*, they, them, their,
though, therefore p.87
• Mid-position (saxon words):
mother, brother, leather
• Final position:
1. words ending in the:
seethe, soothe
2. plural words ending in th:
mouths, clothes, paths, truths*, youths*
3. preposition with
4. other words: smooth
 /s/ characteristics
• Manner of articulation: fricative

• Place of articulation: alveolar

• Voiceless / lenis
• Allophone: only one for the phoneme /s/

• In Spanish is very similar.

 Spellings
• Most frequent
- s in initial position
suspect, soon
- mid-position (in front of a voiceless
consonant)
despair, respect
- final position (plurals after a voiceless
consonant) kicks, cakes
- Many words ending in se:
house, case, base, purpose
- ss kiss, passing
- c+e or i face, race, cinema
Less frequent:
- Sc + e or I scene science
- X followed by consonant or after stressed
vowel
- Silent s island
 Practice

The black feather is there.

(Those seen in class)

 /z/
• Fricative

• Alveolar

• voiced
 Allophones
• Completely voiced in intervocalic position

easy /´i:zɪ/

• Partially voiceless in final position

heads /hedz/
 Spanish

Phoneme (doesn’t exist)

Exists as allophone of /s/ before voiced

consonant
Chismorrear
 Fricatives
eyes /‘aɪz/
The previous vowel is longer when fortis
 Spellings
• Most frequent:

1) s: middle position, between vowels or

before a voiced consonant
busy, asda
Many words ending in –se lose, rise, l
Plurals ending in s after vowel or voiced
consonant toys
 Spellings
2) z: zeal, lazy

3) zz: drizzle, buzz

4) Less frequent:
x + stressed vowel or silent h: /gz/
exactly /ɪgːzæktlɪ/, exhausted
 /ʃ/
• Fricative

• Palato-alveolar

• Voiceless

• One single allophone

 Spanish

• Be careful! tʃ : alveolar plosion/stop

ʃ : friction

• /s/ vs / ʃ /
 Sea Shells by the Sea Shore
She sells sea shells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
 Spellings
• Most frequent:

sh: shine, fishy, dish

ti: station, nation

• Less frequent:
passion, machine, schedule
 /ʒ/
• Fricative
• Palato-alveolar
• Voiced

• A single allophone

• Not a Spanish sound

 Spellings
• Si: precision /prɪ´sɪʒən/
decision /dɪ`sɪʒən/
• Su: pleasure, leisure

• Ti: Borrowed words from French

prestige
• Borrowed words from French rouge, beige
• Gigolo, garage
 Special fricatives
• /r/ frictionless continuant

friction*: apex of the tongue slides in the

inmediate post-position of the top alveolars.
Back of the tongue touches top molar

* Approximant allophone
• Fricative / approximant

• Post-alveolar

• voiced
 /r/
• Final position: in standard pronunciation it is
not pronounced
bar /b ɑ:/

• Linking r: syntactically joined (alveolar as in

intervocalic position)
for all / fər ´ɔ:l/

• Intrusive r: when the words end with a schwa.

In speech India and Pakistan
 Strong pronunciation
• /r/
 Spanish
1) Alveolar flap : pera, cara

2) Alveolar trill: carruaje

 Spellings
• r- robot, ready

• rr - mirror
 Approximants/r/
• "frictionless continuant", "semivowel", "oral
resonant", "glide"and "liquid"
• The approximants are those consonants which
are most similar to vowels in their articulation
and hence their acoustic structure.
• Approximant articulation involves one
articulator approaching another but without
the tract becoming narrowed to such an
extent that turbulent airflow occurs.
Like vowels, approximants are:
• highly resonant
• produced with a relatively open vocal tract
• characterised by identifiable formant
structures
• continuant sounds since there is no occlusion
or momentary stoppage of the airstream
• non turbulent due to lack of constriction
• oral sounds
 Syllabic consonants
• Bottle*, button, cuddle
• A consonant followed by l or n (usually with a
vowel)

• Unstressed syllable

• Notice the blade of the tongue maintains

some kind of constriction from the / d / to the
/ n / or / l /
 /h/
• Special fricative

• Glottal

• voiceless

• No allophones
 /h/
• Friction of air between the glottis and the
uvular region producing aspiration.
 Contrast with Spanish /h/
• English /h/ aspirated
• Spanish /h/ is silent
• Don’t confuse with the sound /x/ represented
by j (velar)
 Spellings
 h – hat; hole; behave;behind; him; home;
hope;help; hollow; heal

 wh – who; whose; whom (**wh – silent in RP)

 Silent h– hour; honest; honour; why; vehicle;
 shepherd
 Silent gh– night; thought; brought; right;
 straight; though; high
 Semi-vowels
Vocalic sounds with a short durations that
slides quickly to another vowel(glide)
Voiced (/j/  palatal y /w/  bilabial)

Vocalic feature : no obstacle for the air.

Consonantic feature: they need a vowel to

form asyllable.
 /j/
• Approximant position in order to pronounce
/i:/

• Extended lips and the back of the tongue

lifted towards the palate and quickly moving
to the next vowel sound.

• Never in final position

 Spanish vs. English
• It doesn’t exist in Spanish, though the
allophone sound of i in rising diphthongs does
exist.
(ie, ia, iu)
hielo, hierro
 Spellings

y – yes /jes/; yield /ji:ld/; young /jʌŋ/;

yet /jet/; yesterday /jestədeɪ/;
you /ju:/; beyond /bɪjɒnd/
u (= ju:) – university /junɪvɜsɪtɪ/;
uniform /junɪfɔm/; tune /tju:n/

ew – few /fju:/; new /nju:/

eu – feud /fju:d/; Europe /ju:rəp/
varios – suit /sju:t/ (*/su:t/); queue /kju:/;
beauty /bjuti/; opinion /əpɪnjən/
 /w/
 Semi-vowel

 Bilabial

 Voiced

Approximant articulation /u:/

Rounded lips and quickly moves to the following vowel.
Never in final position
 Spanish vs. English
• It does not exist in Spanish
• Though the allophone for u exists in
diphthongs.
ue, ua, ui
huevo, hueso
 Spellings
w – weed /wi:d/; wet /wet/; wave /weɪv/;
wood /wʊd/; wool /wʊl/; woo /wu:/
wh – when /wen/; where /weə/;
why /waɪ/

u (q,g) – queen /kwi:n/; quick /kwi:k/;

language /læŋgwɪʤ/
varios – one /wʌn/; once /wʌns/;
choir /kwaɪə/

w (silent w+r) – write /raɪt/; wrong /rɒŋ/

answer /ɑnsə/; sword /sɔd/; two /tu:/; who /hu:/
 Minimal pairs

/ʤ /
yet /jet/ jet /ʤet/
you /ju:/ Jew /ʤu/
yolk /jəʊk/ joke /ʤəʊk/
jail /ʤeɪl/
Yale /jeɪl/
jaw /ʤɔ/
your /jɔː/ jam /ʤæm/
yam /jæm/
 Minimal pairs
/w/
g/
wood /wʊd/ good /gʊd/
wet /wet/ get /get/
guile /gaɪl/
while /waɪl/
gun /gʌn/
won /wʌn/ guest /gest/
west /west/
 Practice
• The young man arrived from York yesterday
• You are too young to have a yatch
• Would you like whisky or wine?
• We went for a walk after work
• She bought a yard of yellow ribbon
• They wanted quite quickly through the woods
 Practice
Yesterday we were buying a beautiful yellow
yacht
We went to get the water from the well
Where’s the white wine we want, William?
There were some young Yanks in super suits
playing youthfully
This white wine is the worst wine in the world
 Affricate consonants
a consonant sound that begins as a stop
(sound with complete obstruction of the
breath stream) and concludes with a
fricative (sound with incomplete closure
and a sound of friction).
Manner of articulation Affricate

Sonority
/ʤ/

/ʧ/

Place of articulation Palato-alveolar

 General characteristcs
• Only two phonemes
• Affricate sounds for dr and tr are usually
considered two phonemes t + r, d + r (check
dental fricatives )
 /ʧ/
• Affricate

• Palato-alveolar

• voiceless
 English vs. Spanish
• In Spanish is palatal
• The phoneme cannot be found in final
position in Spanish.
 Spellings

ch – cheese; charge; rich

ture – future; adventure; picture

tion (precedido de s) – question
tch – catch; butcher; wretched
tune – fortune, Neptune
Minimal pairs
/ʃ/ /ʧ/
ship chip
shop chop
wash watch
dish ditch
 /ʤ/
• Affricate

• Palato-alveolar

• voiced
 Spanish vs. English
• There’s a similar phoneme in Spanish but it’s
linguopalatal.
• In Spanish this sounds does not occur in final
position.
 Spellings

j – jam; jug; jew

g + e, i – danger; general;
luggage; gin; Germany

dg – bridge; judge; dodge

varios – suggest; soldier; procedure;
Greenwich; Norwich
Minimal pairs
/ʤ/ /ʧ/
jeep cheap
jews choose
joke choke
gin chin
Jane chain
Madge match
 coalescence
A process whereby two separate speech sounds merge to
form a single new phoneme. (Also called coalescent
assimilation or reciprocal assimilation).

• Postonic syllable: /s/, /z/ followed by /j/, sound like a

/ʃ/ or /ʒ/:

definition; action; conclusion; patience.

CI, TI (media)  /ʃ/ - facial; special; motion; fiction

Consonant + SI, SU  /ʃ/ - sensual; expansion; mansion, etc.
Vowel + SI, SU  /ʒ/ - decision; vision; visual; casual, etc.
 Practice
• The German general stepped into the carriage
• John has a job in Germany in July
• Buy some cheap cheese for the children
• Put some orange juice in the jug
• Please, fetch my watch from the kitchen
• I’d choose some chips for my chicken
 NASAL CONSONANTS

voiced /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

Sonority

Bilabial /m/

Place of articulation Alveolar /n/

/ŋ/
 General characteristics
• The soft palate (up, and permits the air go
out) goes down so the air goes out the nose.

• All are voiced.

• velar /ŋ/ never in initial position

 /m/
• Nasal

• Bilabial

• voiced
 Spanish vs English
• Both phonemes a very similar.

• In English, it can occur in final position (not

very frequent in Spanish).
 Spellings

m – mum; mock; murder

mm – mummy; tummy; mammal
 /n/
• Nasal

• Alveolar

• voiced
 Allophones
• n interdental followed by /θ/, /ð/
anthem, tenth
• n followed by m: in Malta
• /n/ (followed by k, g)  /ŋ/
think; thing
• n partially voiceless (after s): sneeze; snap;
snake
 Spanish vs. English
• Very similar phonemes.

• Spanish /n/ tends to be more relaxed in final

position.
 Spellings

n – nun; bony; gone

nn – nanny; funny; sonny
n silent (-mn) – condemn; autumn; hymn; column
 /ŋ/
• Nasal

• Velar

• voiced
 Spanish vs. English
• This phoneme does not exist in Spanish,
though ithe allophone for /n/ exists followed
by /k/, /g/: manga; tanque.
 Spellings

ng – hang; wrong (*); thing; sing(ing); long

n + /g/, /k/ – finger; donkey; monkey; uncle
Minimal pairs
/n/ /ŋ/
sin sing
thin thing
ban bang
win wing
 Practice
 The lame man was dumb
 The girl sang a long song
 He was alone in the moon for nearly a
moon
 Mummy is going to make some marmalade
 Ring him and tell him he’s wrong
 John is making that funny noise again
 My middle finger is longer and stronger
than my little finger
 Many men play that game in summer
 Is the nurse listening to the man?
 Who’s ringing the singer this evening?
 Lateral consonant
• Lateral

• Alveolar

• voiced
 Two allophones
 Clear and dark

 /l/ clear  the appix and the sides of the tongue

rest on the alveoli, obstructing the air coming
out from the centre. The air come out through
the sides.
 initial – lip; lot
 Intervocalic – really, collar
 final (linking l) – fill it; spell it
• /l/ dark  the appix rests on the alveoli,
thought the postdorsal rises in the direction of
the palate. The centre remains concave.
• initial – pill; bill
• final – milk; salty
• Final: syllabic l– paddle; settle
 English vs. Spanish
• No problem to pronounce it.
• l – leap; let; light
• ll – fully; allow; cellar
• Silent l– could; should; would; half;
• calf; talk; walk; salmon; folk
 Practice
The lame looked long to me
Fill my glass with milk
Put the kettle in the middle
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P/fortlen.html