PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Segmental Aspects
THE MANNER OF ARTICULATION
The manner of articulation is stated according to the way “how the sound is made at the various locations in the vocal tract” (Crystal, 2011, p. 243). Jones explains this term as “the type of obstruction made by the articulators” (Jones, 2003, p. 35).
The two fundamental types of the contact between the articulators are recognised:
- CLOSURE (a total blockage)
- NARROWING (a narrow constriction)
Closure is realised as either complete or partial, the consonants are also pronounced with narrowing or narrowing without friction:
plosives, affricates and nasals are pronounced with a complete closure between the articulatory organs
lateral /l/ is pronounced with a partial closure
fricative consonants are pronounced when there is a narrowing between the organs of articulation
approximants are produced when a narrowing without friction is recorded
English:
PLOSIVES: p, t, k, b, d, g
FRICATIVES: f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h
AFFRICATES: ʧ, dʒ
NASALS: m, n, ŋ
LATERALS: l
APPROXIMANTS: j, w, r
Slovak:
PLOSIVES: p, t, ť, b, d, ď, k, g
FRICATIVES: f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, x, h, j
AFFRICATES: c, dz, ʧ, ʤ
NASALS: m, n, ň
LATERALS: l, ĺ, ľ
TAP/ TRILL: r, ŕ
PLOSIVES (STOPS) p, t, k, b, d, g
Plosives are articulated when there is a complete closure in the vocal tract which is made by a contact between the articulators. The airstream passing from the larynx to the lips first compresses behind the closure and then the air is released explosively (plosion – explosion). This could be a reason for calling plosives “spit sounds”. The soft palate is raised. Roach recognises four phases in the articulation of plosives: closure phase (the articulators take the position and create the complete closure), hold phase (the air compresses behind the closure), release phase (the closure is released, the consonant is pronounced), post-release phase (perceived as aspiration, defined as the additional puff of air similar to /h/) (Roach, 2009).
The voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are often “accompanied by aspiration (i.e. an interval of breath before the following vowel onset), especially when initial in a stressed syllable” (Jones, 2003, p. xi), e.g. pull /phʊl/, take /theɪk/, cake /kheɪk/. Loss of aspiration happens when the consonant /s/ precedes /p, t, k/, it means in sp-, st-, sk phoneme-combinations, e.g. in words like sport /spɔ:t/, stew /stju:/ or scream /skri:m/.
The voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ could also be glottalised, i.e. replaced by the glottal stop in pronunciation in British, as well as in American English, e.g. instead of football /fʋtbͻ:l/, pronunciation /fʋʔtbͻ:l/ occurs. In American English, glottalisation is also heard, e.g. international /ɪntə´næʃənl/ sounds /ɪnʔə´næʃənl/ (Jones, 2003).
In Slovak, neither aspiration nor glottalisation exist.
The glottal stop /ʔ/ as a substandard plosive “consonant“ is a very common sound in British English. Because it is made by closing the flow of air in the throat (glottis) what is recognised as a complete closure between the articulators, the glottal stop is classified as a plosive consonant used in non-standard way of pronunciation. Its pronunciation could be explained as “a short pause with no air being released at all, so it’s easiest to hear it within words“ (https://pronunciationstudio.com/glottal-stop-pronunciation-guide/).
FRICATIVES f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h
Fricatives are speech sounds pronounced in the way when “the obstruction is one which allows air to escape with difficulty, creating a hissing noise. It is a type of consonant made by forcing air through a narrow gap so that a hissing noise is generated. This can be accompanied by voicing or it may be voiceless. Fricatives make a considerable obstruction to the flow of air, but not a total closure” (Jones, 2003, p. 35). Crystal says that the narrowing between the articulators happens when “two vocal organs come so close together that the movement of air between them can be heard…the consonants /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ have a sharper sound than the others, because they are made with a narrower groove in the tongue, and are often grouped together as sibilants”, in Slovak sykavky (Crystal, 2011, p. 243).
The English fricative consonants can occupy all word-positions: the initial, medial and final one. The exception is the phoneme /h/ which is never pronounced finally in words. Pavlík explains the way how h as the glottal consonant is articulated: “the vocal folds are narrowed and make friction without vibration” (Pavlík, 2000, p. 262). Phonetically, /h/ is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the following vowel, phonologically, it is a consonant because it functions at the edges of syllables. This phoneme always takes on the quality of the following sound. It is pronounced as voiced only in the word-medial intervocalic position (between two vowels), e.g. behave /bɪ´heɪv/. “When /h/ occurs between voiced sounds, e.g. ahead /ə´hed/, greenhouse /gri:nhaʋs/, it is pronounced with voicing – not the normal voicing of vowels but a weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice” (Roach, 1996, p. 51). Slovak /h/ is the voiced glottal fricative phoneme, it is oral. Its voiceless counterpart is ch /x/. When pronouncing /x/, the slot between articulators is narrower and friction is thus more evident (Kráľ, 1982). The voiced allophone of /x/ is the voiced velar fricative using the symbol /γ/ in the phonetic alphabet. The phoneme /γ/ occurs in speech as a result of the process of assimilation when ch /x/ is followed by voiced speech sounds (i.e. by vowels or by voiced consonants). It is heard for instance in expressions like prach a smeti /praγ a smeťi/ or prach je na podlahe /praγ je na podlahe/. Of all the phonemes, /h/ is a consonant that needs the highest amount of air for its pronunciation (Kráľ, Sabol, 1989).
AFFRICATES ʧ, dʒ
Affricates are complex consonants, defined as combinations of plosive plus a fricative sound. “A complete closure is made at some point in the mouth, with the soft palate raised, air pressure builds up behind the closure, which is then released relatively slowly (compared with the suddenness of a plosive release” (Crystal, 2011, p. 243).
NASALS m, n, ŋ
Nasal consonants are articulated with a complete closure created by the articulators. “A complete closure is made at some point in the mouth, with the soft palate lowered, so that air escapes through the nose” (Crystal, 2011, p. 243). In English, the consonants /m n η/ are considered nasal. In Slovak, /m n ň/ are nasal phonemes. The consonant /η/ is pronounced in Slovak words, but because it lacks the distinctive validity, it is an allophone of the phoneme n.
LATERALS l
“A partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, in such a way that the air stream is able to flow around the sides of the tongue” (Crystal, 2011, p. 243). Closure is made by the contact of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, but the air is escaping along one or both sides of the tongue, so the closure is only partial.
The consonant /l/ has two allophones (combinatory variants) in British English. These are clear l j (also called light l j) and dark ɫ. In the word e.g. little /l jɪtɫ), the first l is clear, the second one is dark. “The clear one (which has an /i:/-like quality) occurs before vowels, the dark one (which has an /u:/-like quality) before consonants or before a pause…the difference between clear and dark l is much less marked in American than in the BBC accent, so that even prevocalic /l/ in American pronunciation sounds dark to English ears” (Jones, 2003, p. xi).
The following picture clearly presents the different positions of the articulators when the allophones of the phoneme /l/ are produced:
APPROXIMANTS (SEMI-VOWELS/ SEMI-CONSONANTS) j, w, r
Approximant consonants are articulated through narrowing without friction. They are “articulated similarly to vowels, but functioning in the language in the same way as consonants… they are vowel-like consonants… they can be sounded continuously without any audible friction” (Crystal, 2011, p. 242). This definition means that approximants are closer to vowels according to the way how they are created (the articulators only approaching one another, not making a contact causing friction), but phonologically, it means according to their position and function in syllables, they are closer to consonants (hence they occur at the edges of syllables).
The consonant /r/ is pronounced and therefore also defined differently across languages. Owing to English and Slovak, the British English /r/ is considered approximant (meaning semi-vowel or semi-consonant), American English /ɹ/ is defined as retroflex (the tip of the tongue is curled back and makes contact with the hard palate), whereas the Slovak short /r/ is tap and its long realisation is considered trill /ŕ/.
Four variants of the phoneme /r/ occur in Slovak (Pavlík, 2000). It also depends on the position of r and on its neighbouring (adjacent) sounds which of these four allophones is heard. The flapped alveolar r is usually found in an intervocalic position (between two vowels), e.g. Orava /orava/ and its trilled counterpart is usually found between a vowel and a consonant, e.g. vrana /vrana/ or orba /orba/. It does not matter whether it occurs initially, medially or finally in words. The syllabic ṛ is an allophone of the non-syllabic tap consonant (i.e. from the manner of articulation, it is pronounced with the intermittent closure). Pavlík says that the pronunciation of the Slovak r, being the oral post-alveolar sonorant, is comparable to that of the Scottish r (Pavlík, 2000). Both – the short syllabic ṛ and the long one ṝ are trilled (or roll) consonants. They are only found between two consonants, thus always functioning as syllabic, e.g. vrch /vṛx/, vŕba /vṝba/. Though they are present at the edges of syllables in polysyllabic words, e.g. krmivo /kṛ-mi-vo/, hŕba /hṝ-ba/, they occur only medially in consonant clusters in monosyllabic words, e.g. krv /kṛŭ /, kŕč /kṝč/.
The term liquids is also found in specialised literature for defining /l/ and /r/ phonemes. To define this term, it is inevitable to say that the pronunciation of both consonants called liquids /l/ and /r/ has in common partial to minimal closure. The air escapes laterally for /l/, which means along one or both sides of the tongue. For both liquid sounds, closure follows or accompanies release. Hancock describes pronunciation of /r/ as that of “a long continuous sound… when you finish the sound, the jaw opens a little and the tongue goes straight again” (Hancock, 2015, p. 34). Liquid consonants are continuants. During their pronunciation the tongue produces only a partial closure in the mouth, so the result of such an articulation is a resonant, vowel-like consonant.
Summing up the previously mentioned ideas contrastively, in English, six plosive consonants exist, namely /p t k b d g/, while in Slovak, besides /p t k b d g/ also /ť ď/ are found. The English fricatives are /f v θ δ s z ʃ ʒ h/, Slovak recognizes /f v s z ʃ ʒ x h j/ as fricative consonants. The English affricates include sibilants /ʧ ʤ/, Slovak uses two more affricates being sibilant, too. These are the already mentioned /c dz/. The consonants /m n η/ are the English nasals, whereas the Slovak nasal consonants are /m n ň/. Lateral English /l/ and lateral Slovak /l ľ ĺ/ are found in the PI of the two languages. Pavlík says that in Slovak only one approximant exists, i.e. /j/ (Pavlík, 2000), whereas Mistrík (1984) includes /j/ among fricatives and classifies /ŭ/ and /ĭ/ as semi-vowels. The English phoneme /r/ is considered approximant (meaning semi-vowel or semi-consonant), the Slovak short /r/ is tap, and its long realisation is considered trill /ŕ/. The English approximants are /j w r/.
Table 2: The chart of English consonant phonemes, ROACH, P. 1996. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 62
Table of English Consonants | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palato-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal | ||||||||
Plosive | p b |
|
| t d |
|
| k g |
|
Fricative |
| f v | θ δ | s z | ʃ ʒ |
|
| h |
Affricate |
|
|
|
| ʧ ʤ |
|
|
|
Nasal | m |
|
| n |
|
| ᶇ |
|
Lateral |
|
|
| l |
|
|
|
|
Approximant | w |
|
|
| r | j |
|
|
Table 3: The chart of Slovak consonant phonemes – adapted by the author according to SIČÁKOVÁ, Ľ. 2002. Fonetika a fonológia pre elementaristov. Prešov: Náuka, 2002, p. 50
Table of Slovak Consonants | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palato-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal | ||||||||
Plosive | p b |
| t d |
| ť ď |
| k g |
|
Fricative |
| f v | s z | ʃ ʒ |
| j | x | h |
Affricate |
|
| c dz | ʧ ʤ |
|
|
|
|
Nasal | m |
| n |
| ň |
|
|
|
Lateral |
|
|
| l ĺ | ľ |
|
|
|
Tap/ trill |
|
|
| r ŕ |
|
|
|
|
The tables present the most obvious differences in the English and Slovak classification stated for the consonants. A closer and deeper insight into this area will bring even more questions concerning their categorisation not only because different criteria of classification are taken into consideration, but the sources offer slightly differing possibilities in description of the consonant quality.