English Phonetics: Voicing, Aspiration, and Fluency
Consonant Sounds
- /ʃ/ Lenis post-alveolar fricative
- /f/ Fortis labio-dental fricative
- /v/ Lenis labio-dental fricative
- /s/ Fortis alveolar fricative
- /tʃ/ Fortis post-alveolar affricate
- /m/ Lenis bilabial nasal
- /n/ Lenis alveolar nasal
- /ŋ/ Lenis velar nasal
- /l/ Lenis alveolar lateral approximant
- /r/ Lenis post-alveolar approximant
- /w/ Lenis labial-velar approximant
- /j/ Lenis palatal approximant
Vowels Before Fortis and Lenis Consonants
What is the difference between vowels before fortis and lenis consonants?
The vowel before a final fortis consonant is shorter than the vowel before a final lenis consonant. For example, “wade” → /weɪd/; “wait” → /weɪt/.
Voicing and Devoicing
What is the difference between voicing and devoicing?
Voicing is the sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes a voiced consonant due to the influence of its phonological environment, for example, as in “dogs” /dɒɡz/. Devoicing is the sound change where a voiced consonant becomes a voiceless consonant due to the influence of its phonological environment, for example, as the /r/ in the word “cream” /kriːm/.
Causes of Voicing
What causes voicing?
Voicing is the result of moving air causing the vocal folds (or vocal cords) to vibrate within the larynx behind the cartilage of the Adam’s apple.
The Process of Aspiration
When does the process of aspiration occur?
When there is a fortis plosive followed by a vowel (p, t, k + vowel = pʰ, tʰ, kʰ). For example, in the word “tell” [tʰeɬ] or “cold” [kʰəʊɬd]. But if the plosive is followed by a liquid, it causes devoicing as in the word “play”, “price” or “pure”. We also lose aspiration after s-, for example, in “spear”. Without aspiration, some minimal pairs would sound the same even if they had different consonant sounds (“tʰie” and “die”, “tʰan” and “Dan”).
Clear L and Dark L
What is the difference between the clear L and the dark L?
The phoneme /l/ is a voiced alveolar sound, but:
- If it is followed by a vowel, it is a clear [l]. “Play”
- If it is followed by a consonant or a pause, it is a dark [ɬ]. “Cold” [kʰaʊɬd]
Speaking Fluently in English
Which are the ways of speaking more fluently or quickly in English?
- Weak forms.
- Syllable reductions.
- Consonant elision: the omission of a consonant when there are two or more consonants together. Eg. “next week” → /nekstwiːk/ we remove the T → /nekswiːk/; “stopped now” → /stɒptnaʊ/.
- Linking liaison: the introduction of a consonant between a word that ends in a vowel sound and another word that begins with a vowel sound.
Linking R
It only takes place between two vowels as a way to speak more fluently.
ɔː
ɑː
ɜː for ever /fɔːr‿evə/
eə‿r‿ vowel/diphthong here‿and now
‿or five
ɪə for better‿or worse
ə
Intrusive R
Placing an R between two consecutive morphemes where it would not normally be pronounced. It is considered as bad English.
America is /əˈmerɪkər‿ɪz/