Lesson from Wednesday 14th October about Nasals and Other Consonants- Phonetics and Phonology I

1. Fonética y Fonología I
2015

2. • CONSONANTS
• CONTINUANTS
• They usually have no FRICTION noise
• But in other ways different from each other

3. • Air escapes through the nose  soft palate is lowered
• Air does not pass through the mouth  complete closure
at some point
• 3 types of closure: bilabial, alveolar, and velar ( /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/)

4. • /m/ and /n/  distributions  similar to plosives
• /ŋ/  different
•  problems to foreign speakers
•  place of articulation is the same as /k/ and /g/
•  distribution is unusual
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcq9m2Q9Plo

5. • (i) Never in initial position
• (ii) In medial position  quite frequent  BBC English
(rule)
•  When may / ŋ/ be pronounced without a following
plosive? /g/ /k/

6. • “nk”  middle of a word  /k/ always  THINKING /θɪŋkɪŋ/
• “ng”  middle  sometimes / ŋg/ or /ŋ/
MORPHOLOGY  MORPHEMES
2 morphemes
“sing” +“er”
“hang” + “er”
-/ŋ/ without /g/ at the end of a morpheme
-/ ŋg/ if it is in the middle of a morpheme

7. • Words ending orthographically with “ng”  ALWAYS /ŋ/
e.g. song, bang, sing, thing, long
• EXCEPTION TO THE MORPHEME-BASED RULE
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives single
morpheme
longer /lɒŋgə/ longest /lɒŋgəst/
stronger /strɒŋgə/ strongest/stɒŋgəst/

8. • (iii) It rarely occurs after a diphthong or long vowel
PHONETICALLY SIMPLE BUT PHONOLOGICALLY COMPLEX
EXERCISE
- /ŋg/ or /ŋ/? Transcribe phonemically these words
younger – language – single – ringing
/jʌŋgə/ /læŋgwɪdʒ/ /sɪŋgl/ /rɪŋɪŋ/

9. • LATERAL APPROXIMANT
• Complete closure between the centre of the tongue
and the alveolar ridge
• Air escapes along the sides of the tongue

10. • DISTRIBUTION
• Initial, medial and final position /lɒk//pleɪ/ /kɔ:l/
• BBC English REALISATION of /l/ before vowel sounds
different in other contexts
DARK /l/ CLEAR /l/
“eel” /i:l/ “lea” /li:/

11. • Clear /l/ never occurs before consonants or a pause
• Dark /l/  never occurs before vowels
Allophones of the phoneme /l/ in complementary
distribution

12. • Another allophone of /l/  when it follows /p/,
/t/ beginning of a stressed syllable. e.g. “play”,
“clear”
• /l/  devoiced and pronounced as a fricative

13. • POST-ALVEOLAR APPROXIMANT
• (Approximant an articulation in which the articulators approach each
other but do not get close enough to produce a “complete” consonant)
• ARTICULATION  tip of the tongue approaches the alveolar area
never makes contact with any part of the roof of the mouth
(post-alveolar)
• Beginning of a syllable  preceded by /p/, /t/, /k/  voiceless
& fricative
• Tongue slightly curled backwards, tip raised (retroflex)
• Lips slightly rounded (don’t exaggerate)

14. • DISTRIBUTION BBC Accent  /r/ occurs only before
vowels
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Accents
• /r/ in final position and before a consonant  RHOTIC
• /r/ only before vowels (BBC English) NON-RHOTIC

15. • APPROXIMANTS
• PHONETICALLY like VOWELS
• PHONOLOGICALLY like CONSONANTS
• ARTICULATION
• /j/ practically the same as a front close vowel [i], but very
short
• /w/  [u]

16. • DISTRIBUTION
• We use them like consonants:
- They occur before vowel phonemes e.g. /ju:nɪvɜ:sɪtɪ/
- “ an apple” , “ an umbrella” – “a way”, “a yard”
- “the aunt” , “the wild”
• We hear friction noise in /j/ or /w/  Preceded by /p/ /t/ /k/ at
the beginning of a syllable.
• e.g. /pleɪ/, /treɪ/, /kwɪk/, /kju:/  have devoiced and fricative
/l/, /r/, /j/, /w/