Consonants 2

The trills keep coming

trrrrrills

• rolling your rs

• tongue raises and falls away and raises to the alveolar ridge [r]

• do it just once and you have a flap or tap

• The symbol for this is ɾ or ɾ• bilabial trills in Melanesia B

• Uvular trills for French ‘r’

Liquids

• Liquids are a subset of approximants and include l and the English r

• English [r] really upside r is not a trill• The tongue does not touch the alveolar ridge but

points to it. For some speakers there is a slight bending backwards of the tip of the tongue too

• [l] is a lateral. Tongue raises to the alveolar ridge, but the sides of the tongue are lowered allowing air to escape over the sides

Non-liquid approximants

• Called a semi-vowel or glides

• [j] front of the tongue raises near the palate so narrowing but not noisy. Palatal glide:

• [w] is also a semi-vowel the tongue raises like [j] but at the velum. Also note lip-rounding labio-velar glide.

retroflexible!

• Retroflex always appears as a place• but a cross between a place and a manner.• Bend backwards – tongue curls up further than

with other consonants• so you can get retroflex stops, fricatives,

affricates, nasals• all the symbols have a tail which points to the

right

Larger groupings• In language we often find that sounds of the same

manner behave the same way or sounds of the same place exhibit special behaviour

• But often these special behaviours are exhibited across larger groupings

• Obstruents Stops + fricatives + affricates• Stop flow of air, voiced and voiceless, frequently

voiceless• Sonorants nasals, liquids (l+r)• Louder, more frequently voiced in language • Non-Pulmonic, clicks, ejectives, and implosives