ALLOPHONES AND PLOSIVE SOUNDS IN CONSONANTS 1 Allophones

ALLOPHONES AND PLOSIVE SOUNDS IN CONSONANTS

1) Allophones of plosive consonants ■ Plosives are difficult consonants, they take more effort to articulate than other classes of consonants, this is because in the pronunciation of a plosive there is a complete obstruction 1) Aspirated and unaspirated voiceless plosives (p, t, k) ■ Aspiration is an interval of air heard between the end of the plosive: – Strong aspiration. - Voiceless plosives are strongly aspirated in initial stressed position. (Rememeber or check the rules for vowels) – Exception When /p, t, k, / are preceded by /s/ or when they are followed by /l. r, w, j/ – Weak aspiration Voicelss plosives are weak aspired in unstressed syllables.

3) Devoicing of voiced plosives ■ Voiced plosives are /b. d. g/ when these consonants are in the final position AND followed by silence. For instance the phrase “a black bacg”, sounds something like “a black bak, that is the viced velar plosive /g/ sounds like a voiceless /k/ 3) Non audible release of plosives ■ A plosive consonant is articulated in three stages: – Closure stage. - the articulators are approaching. – Stop stage The articulator form a complete obstruction. – Release stage The air is let out abruptly. ■ So the third stage may be realized in different ways: – Audible When the plosive is fully articulated and you can hear the sound without any problem. – Unreleased When a plosive is followed by anther plosive or an affricate /ʧ, ʤ/, the first plosive is unreleased, that means that you don’t hear the released of the first plosive. – Nasal Released plosives take place when the plosive is followed by an homorganic nasal consonant.

Plosive Nasal Plase Example /p, b/ [m] Bilabial Cheampemnt /t, d, / [n] Alveolar Written /k, g/ [ɧ] Velar organ – Lateral reléase of plosives. - This is produced laterally when /t/ or /d/ are followed by /l/. Other variants in British and American English: ■ Glottal stop. - the glottal stop ins represented by the symbol [ʡ] this sound is a kind of catch in the troath. ■ TAP. - in American English, the alveolar plosive /t, d/ are replaced by an alveolar tap which is represented by the symbol [ɾ] For instance the word “Lady” will sound as “leiɾɪ”.