Lesson 10: L, R, and Syllabic Consonants

The sounds /l/ and /r/ are formed with more movement of

the speech organs than most other consonant sounds.

These two sounds are called liquids. They are characterized

by extensive movements of the speech organs from one

position to another. Unlike other consonants that are made

with the speech organs in a fixed position, liquids are

sometimes described as vowel-like consonants produced

without friction. In English, /l/ is produced with the tip of

the tongue moving to or away from the tooth ridge, and the

sides are lowered so that the air goes out laterally. It is a

voiced sound. The sound /r/ hardly seems to be pronounced

in certain places except at the beginning of a word or

syllable. Most English speakers, however, pronounce it with

both sides of the tongue touching the back part of the tooth

ridge and the back teeth. The tip does not touch anything.

The middle of the tongue, including the tip, is lower than

the sides, and the air goes out through the channel formed

between the middle of the tongue and the roof of the

mouth. The lips are slightly open. This liquid sound is made

as the speech organs move to this position from a vowel

(are) or away from this position to a vowel (red). In

whatever direction it may end, it always begins by a motion

toward the back of the mouth, which is called retroflex.

As we know, /iy/, /ɪ/ , /ey/ , /ε/ and /æ/ are front vowels.

iy

ɪ

ey

ɛ

æ

The movements of /l/ and /r/, especially following a vowel

sound, are produced far in the back of the mouth. So it is

more complicated to pass from a front vowel sound to /l/

and /r/ than from a back vowel to either liquid. As the

tongue moves back from the position of the front vowel, it

passes through the middle, central zone where /ə/ is

formed. In doing so, it produces a centering glide that is

heard as /ə/. We may say that,

WHEN A FRONT VOWEL IS FOLLOWED BY /l/ or /r/, AN

INTERMEDIARY /ə/ IS INSERTED.

/iy/ + /ə/ seal /siyəl/ /ɛ/ + / ə/ well /wɛəl/

/i/ + / ə/ fill /fiəl/ wear /wɛər/

fear /fiər/ /æ/ + / ə/shall /ʃæəl/

/ey/ + / ə/ tale /teyəl/

Most of us are accustomed to thinking that every syllable

must include at least one vowel, yet in words such as little,

sudden, and wouldn’t there are only consonant sounds in

the final syllable. These are known as syllabic consonants,

since they may make up a syllable without the

accompaniment of vowel.

Syllabic consonants occur when a syllable ends in /t/, /d/, or

/n/ and the next syllable is unstressed and contains an /l/ or

/n/. This may be expressed by an equation:

/t/ /l/

/d/ } + unstressed syllable containing { > syllabic consonant

/n/ /n/

Three of the items in the following exercise are not

pronounced with a syllabic consonant.

1. little

2. didn’t

3. student

4. couldn’t

5. article

6. tunnel

7. Latin

8. harden

9. idle

10. important

11. mountain

12. hospital

13. travel

14. curtain

15. oriental

16. bottle

17. saddled

18. broadened

19. attention

20. battleship

21. suddenly

22. sentences

23. gardening

24. certainty

25. penalty

26. finally

27. fertilize

28. ordinary

29. ventilate

30. monotonous

31. bread and butter

32. bright and early

33. salt and peppe

Lesson 13

Consonant Substitution 1

The sounds /θ/ and /ð/ make up a voiced – voiceless pair

and neither is found in Spanish thus, they are often

substituted by /d/. Keep in mind that one of these two

sounds will be present with the spelling –th.

In the case of/ d͡ʒ/and/y/,the first one is often substituted

with the second one by Spanish speakers.

Classified as a semi-vowel, /y/ occurs after a vowel sound in

diphthongs such as /ɔy/ and /ay/, where /y/ begins in

position of the first vowel then moves towards the front of

the mouth. However, it also occurs before a vowel sound

like in young /yə ŋ/, where it is thought as consonant

formed as a glide but moving in opposite direction: from the

front of the mouth toward the back taking the position of

the following vowel.

As the symbol indicates /d͡ʒ/ is a stop plus a continuant.

This sound is classified as an affricate and it is voiced like the

phonemes that compose it.

On the other hand, /ʧ/ is also an affricate but it is voiceless,

as is /ʃ /, the counterpart of /ʒ/.

Lesson 14

Consonant Substitution 2

Remember that /b/ is a voiced stop made between the lips,

while /v/ is a voiced continuant made between upper teeth

and lower lip.

The sound /hw/ is a consonantal glide and it is often

substituted by /w/. 1

The nasal sounds are /m/, /n/ and / ŋ/ and the name comes

from the fact that when making them, the air escapes from

the nose and not the mouth as in the orals. It is the soft

palate or velum that will determine which way the air will

escape (by being drawn up or relaxed).

It should be understood clearly that the g of the ending –ng

is silent; the g changes the preceding /n/ to / ŋ/, but it is not

itself pronounced. In the case of singer, the g not only

changes the n, but it is also pronounced.

The problem with /h/ is usually omission, probably

influenced by the fact that in a few common words in

English, the h should be left silent: heir /ɛər/, honor /´anər/,

1See e-mail with infomation for this sound.

and hour /awr/. Furthermore, native speakers often omit

the /h/ is short words such as he, him, his, her, has, have.

Lesson 15

Consonant Clusters

Consonant clusters are a sequence of two or more

consonants within one syllable. The simplified formula of

syllable structure of English is (C )(C )(C ) (V) (C)(C)(C )(C ).

An example of this structure would be strengths /strɛŋkθs/

Four of the clusters, which include an alveolar consonant

followed by /y/ as part of diphthongal vowel /yuw/, are

regularly heard in extensive regions of the United States,

but not in other regions. These are /dy/ as in due, /ny/ as in

new, /ty/ as in tune, and /sty/ as in stew. For a student of

English, either pronunciation - /yuw/ or /uw/ is acceptable.

In the pronunciation of words such as warmth, prince and

amongst a voiceless stop /p/, /t/ or /k/ (that is not in the

spelling) is inserted in the final cluster /wɔrmpɵ/, /prɪnts/,

/əməŋkst/. These inserted stops seem to occur most

regularly when a voiced nasal continuant /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/ is

present in a final cluster where it is followed by a voiceless

sound, usually a continuant. In passing from the voice nasal

to the voiceless sound, a speaker is almost forced to

produce the voiceless stop that corresponds to the voice

nasal in its point of articulation.

Phonetic syllabication can occur when a word ends in a

consonant sound and the following one begins with a vowel

as in has it, hide ´em, give up. The final consonant of the

first word can be pronounced at the beginning of the second

word: /hǽ-zɪt/, /hay-dəm/, /gɪ-vəp/.

In the same way, the consonant of a final cluster can be

moved forward and pronounced with the vowel of the

following word: /sɪks-ϴǽvənyuw/ and /ʧeynd͡ʒ-dədrƐs/.

The second way to make consonant clusters more

pronounceable is simply to omit one of the consonant

sounds:

Arctic - /artɪk/

Raspberry- /ræzbƐrɪ/

Handsome- /hǽnsəm/

Lesson 16

The Sandhi of Spoken English

The word Sandhi means “placing together” in Sankskrit and

it refers to the differences in the pronunciation of words or

endings that depend on the environment in which these

occur.

Examples:

Insertion of /ə/ after front vowel and /l/ or /r/

articles a / an

ed endings in /t/, /d/ and /ıd/

s endings in /s/, /z/ and /ız

syllabic consonants: /t/, /d/, /n + unstressed syllable + /l/,

/n/

medial /t/ that sounds like a /d/ between voiced sounds,

usually vowels but not at the beginning of a stressed vowel: /lɛdər/, /pardɪ/ also in /hɪd ɪm/ and /rayd ər rɔŋ/.

The basic reason for these phonological changes is that speakers tend to make the pronunciation of words easier. These are the main processes to do so:

Assimilation: changing the voicing or the point of articulation to make the adjacent sounds more similar

Obscuration: pronouncing a sound with reduced clarity

Omission: ignoring a sound present in spelling

Insertion: adding a sound that puts speech organs in a better position to pronounce the following sound

Highly literate speakers with more contact with written language tend to make less use of these processes. In formal situations some forms are acceptable but others are less; however, these forms are natural and even essential.

The reduction of unstressed function words is pervasive and it is accompanied by the obscuration or omission of some sounds that are heard when the words are fully stressed. The main factors responsible for the degrees of reduction are the following:

Sentence stress: the less stress, the more reduction

Frequency of use: the more often a word is used and the more its presence can be assumed

Speed of utterance: the faster a speaker talks, the more reduction

Formality of situation: the more informal, the more reduction

A great deal of formality is inappropriate in most other social environments beside the classroom.

The disappearing /t/ In the following environment, the /t/ is omitted:

Stressed syllable ending with nt + unstressed syllable

-winner /wɪnər/

-winter /wɪnər/

-twenty /twɛnɪ/

-plenty /plɛnɪ/

-Atlanta /atlænə/

-county /kaunɪ/

-quantity /kwanɪtɪ/

In phonetic terms, the reason seems to be that the speaker pronounces the stressed /n/ then introduces the following unstressed vowel by a nasal release of the consonant sound.

The disappearing t is much more common in American English than in British English. And in American English it is more informal than, for example, syllabic consonants. You may or may not want to incorporate this form into your speech, but you should certainly be prepared to recognize such forms and to understand words where they occur.

Omission of to The unstressed particle to is used frequently, so I can it often be assumed which makes the word susceptible to reduction.

1. going to gonna /gənə/ or /gownə

2. got to gotta /gadə/

3. has to hasta /hǽstə/

4. have to hafta /hæftə/

5. ought to oughta /ɔdə/

6. used to usta /yuwstə/

7. want to wanna /wanə/

See processes on page 195. Palatalization

The hard palate is that part of the roof of the mouth just behind and above the tooth ridge. The chief difference between /z/, /s/ and /ʒ/ /ʃ/ is that the first two are made just a little farther back and higher up, with the blade of the tongue near the hard palate. Another closely related sound /y/, is made with the blade of the tongue approaching the hard palate still farther back and higher up.

With the above relationship in mind, it is instructive to consider the historical changes in the pronunciation of –tion, a very common ending for nouns in a number of Germanic and Romance languages, including English. The –ti- of the ending was once pronounced /ty/, which required the tongue to move to all the way from the dental position for /t/ backward an upward through the position of /s/ and /ʃ/ , to the high palatal position of /y/.

In modern English the two distant sounds of /t/ and /y/ were reduced to the one intermediate sound /ʃ/, as in nation /neyʃən/ and position /pəsɪʃən/. This change fro /ty/ to /ʃ/ is a type of palatalization (the raising of the tongue toward the hard palate.

The same type of palatalization also occurs across word boundaries:

-miss you /mɪʃuw/

-loves you /ləvʒuw/

-hit you /hɪʧuw/

-did you /dɪʤuw/

The formulas are as follows:

Final /-s/ + initial /y-/ give /-ʃ/

Final /-z/ + initial /y/ give /-ʒ/

Final /t/ + initial /y/ give /ʧ/

Final /-d/ + initial /y/ give /ʤ/

Although English teachers may sometimes be too conservative about the use Sandhi-forms, there are indeed some of these forms that are so informal as to be inappropriate on most occasions. Some may be interpreted as sings of inadequate education. Others label speakers as having a particular ethnic background or social status. When you are talking with close friends, it may be very satisfying to use the special language of the social group to which you belong. But there are surely many occasions on which it would not be in your best interests to emphasize through your speech a particular ethnic or social background. There are finally Sandhi- forms that are so reduced as to lessen the intelligibility of what is said:

What did you do ? /wəʤə duw/

Why don’t you say it? /wayownʧə seyɪt/

Did you eat yet? / ʤɪyʧɛt/

Surprisingly, native speakers of English often create unnecessary and unexpected consonant clusters by omitting some unstressed vowel that are ordinarily heard:

ballon /blown/

believe /bliyv/

below /blow/

collapse /klæps/

correct /krɛkt/

parade /preyd/

It is suggested to avoid these pronunciations which do not make the formation of words easier and hearers may label you as somewhat illiterate.*

There are other words in which vowels that look as though they should be pronounced are regularly omitted by even the most literate speakers:

Average /ævrɪʤ/ different /dɪfrənt/ every /ɛvrɪ/ natural /næʧrəl/ separate /sɛprɪt/ several /sɛvrəl/ Prator, C. H. & Robinett, B. W. (1985). Manual of American English Pronunciation (4th Edition). Orlando, Fl: Harcourt Brace & Co.