Classification of Consonants

Classification of Consonants

English consonants are classified according to the following principles:

1. According to the type of obstruction and the manner of the production of noise;

2. According to the active speech organ and the place of obstruction;

3. According to the work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation;

4. According to the position of the soft palate.

1. Accordign to the type of obstruction English consonants are divided into occlusive and constrictive.

Occlusive (11): [p, b,t, d, k, g, ʧ, ʤ, m, n, ŋ]

Constrictive (13): [f, v, ø, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h, w, r, j, l]

Occlusive consonants may be:

A. noise consonants (a noise component characteristic): [p, b, t, d, k, g, ʧ, ʤ].

B. sonorants (tone prevails over noise, the air passage is rather wide): [m, n, ŋ]

According to the manner of the production of noise occlusive noise consonants are divided into

1. plosive consonants (stops) (the breath is completely stopped at some point of articulation, then it's released with a slight explosion): [p, b, t, d, k, g];

2. affricates (they are produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air escapes from the mouth with some friction: [ʧ, ʤ].

Constrictive consonants may be:

A. noise consonants (fricatives): [f, v, ø, ð, s, z, ʒ, ʃ, h].

B. Sonorants: [w, r, j, l].

Constriclive sonorants may be median [w, r,] and lateral [l].

2. According to the active organ of speech English Consonants are divided into:

1) labial: [p, b, m, w, f, v];

2) lingual: [t, d, ø, ð, s, z, n, l, ʒ, ʃ, ʧ, ʤ, r, j, k, g, ŋ];

3) glottal: [h].

Labial consonants may be:

A. bilabial: [p, b, m];

B. labiodental: [f, v].

Lingual consonants may be:

A. forelingual: a) apical: [t, d, ø, ð, s, z, n, l, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ];

b) cacuminal: [r]:

B. medioligual: [j];

C. backlingual: [k, g, h].

According to the point of articulation forelingual consonants are divided into:

1) dental (interdental or post-dental): [ø, ð];

2) alveolar: [t, d, n, l, s, z];

3) palato-alveolar: [ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ];

4) post-alveolar: [r].

According to the point of articulation mediolingual consonants are called palatal, backlingual consonants are called velar.

3. According to the work of the vocal cords consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless.

According to the force of articulation consonants are divided into relatively strong and

relatively weak (fortis or lenis).

4. According to the position of the soft palate consonants are divided into oral and nasal. Nasal: [m, n, ŋ].

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04