Consonants in English and Arabic Phonetics Phonetics It

Consonants in English and Arabic

Phonetics • Phonetics: It is the study of the production and reception of speech sounds. It is concerned with the sounds of language, how these sounds are articulated and how hearer perceives them. • Articulatory phonetics (production) ﻋﻠﻢ ﺍﻷﺼﻮﺍﺕ ﺍﻟﻨﻄﻘﻲ • Auditory phonetics (perception) ﻋﻠﻢ ﺍﻷﺼﻮﺍﺕ ﺍﻟﺴﻤﻌﻲ • Acoustic phonetics (physical properties and transmission of sounds): intensity, duration and frequency. ﻋﻠﻢ ﺍﻷﺼﻮﺍﺕ ﺍﻟﻔیﺰیﺎﺋﻲ

Articulatory Phonetics

Consonants & Vowels • A vowel sound is produced with an open passage of air in the mouth. Vowel sounds produced are articulated with a free airflow. • A consonant sound is formed when the airstream is restricted or stopped at some point in the vocal tract. Consonants are produced with some narrowing (obstruction) of the articulatory passageway.

Consonants 1. The state of the glottis (voiced or voiceless vocal cords): When the vocal cords are open, the consonant sound is voiceless; When they are vibrating, the consonant is voiced. 2. The Place of articulation: It is the point where the contact between the articulators takes place. 3. The manner of articulation: how the airstream is modified by the vocal tract to produce sounds. It depends on the degree of closure or constriction of the articulators – how close together or far apart they are.

Bilabial Nasal [m] [b] Bilabial Stop [b] 6

[t], [d]: airflow stopped (at the alveolar ridge) Dental sounds [ð , θ ] 7

Activity 1 - Provide the phonetic symbol representing each of the following sounds: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Voiced labiodental fricative Voiced alveolar lateral Voicelss glottal fricative Voiced velar nasal Voiced dental fricative Voiced palatal fricative

Activity 2 - Provide the appropriate three-part articulatory description for the consonant sounds represented in by the following symbols: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. / dʒ / /n / /w / / f/ / p/ /ʃ /

Consonant Classifications q Natural Classes are groups of sounds in a language that share some articulatory or auditory features. In order for a group of sounds to be a natural class it must include all of the sounds that share a particular feature or a group of features. q [b, d, g ] voiced oral stops q [p, t, k ] voiceless oral stops q [ p, l, w ]

Consonant Classifications …Cont’d q Obstruents are consonants produced with an obstruction of the airflow. The sounds in this category are stops, fricatives, affricates. q Sonorants are consonants produced with a relatively open passage for the airflow. They include nasals, liquids and glides. q Sibilant Sounds: are characteristically intense consonants which are produced with a hissing sound by directing the air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth. They include all fricative and affricate sound consonants including [s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ ].

Activity 3 - List the members of the following natural classes: 1. 2. 3. 4. Alveolar obstruent consonants Voiced labial consonants Velar oral stop consonants dental fricative consonants 4 - Describe the following natural class: 1. [r, l ] 2. [f, s, ʃ , Ɵ ] 3. [ w , y ]

Consonants that exist in Arabic only 1. [q] ﻕ voiceless uvular stop 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. [h] ﺡ voiceless pharyngeal fricative [g] ﻍ voiced velar fricative [ ﻉ ] ؟ voiced pharyngeal fricative [x] ﺥ voiceless velar fricative [t] ﻁ voiceless dental stop [d] ﺽ voiced dental stop [s] ﺹ voiceless dental fricative [z] ﻅ voiced dental fricative

Mistakes with Sounds not Existing in Arabic 1. [p] as in /pat/ tends to be substituted with [b]: I baid fif bence a bicture of her. 2. [v] tends to be substituted with [f] the van hit the tree the fan hit the tree 3. [ŋ] as in /king/ and /thing/ would be pronounced like /s. Iŋə/ /s. Inŋə/ 4. [tʃ ] as affricate is pronounced [ʃ ] /tʃeə/ chair, becomes /ʃeə/ share. 5. /ʒ / does not exist in Arabic, it is replaced with [dʒ] əkeiʒən əkeidʒən 6. /t/ and /d/ are dental in Arabic rather than alveolar. 7. [r] in Arabic is an alveolar trill rather than alveolar retorfelx; English [r] is replaced by a schwa /ə/ in final positions; Arabic users tend to use [r] in all situations.

Consonant Cluster in English and Arabic A Consonant cluster is a group of consonants which comes together without a vowel sound between them such as spin, skin, and strand n n n Two consonants: sphere, sleep, cuts, dogs. Three consonants: street, risked, plunged, fix this. Five consonants: mixed sweets. Six consonants: first stream. Seven consonants: tempts strangers.

Clusters may come at initial or final positions in English words 1 - Two consonants at the beginning of words: n 1. /s/ followed by /p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w/ as in spare, steam, sky, sphere, smile, sneer, slow, and swear n /t/ followed by /r, w, j/ as in trim, twin, tune n /k/ followed by /l, r, w, j/ as in clip, crime, queen, queue n /b/ followed by /l, r, j/ as in blame, bright, beautiful n /d/ followed by /r, w, j/ as in dry, dwell, duty n /g/ followed by /l, r/ as in glare, gross. n /f/ followed by /l, r, j/ as in flare, frame, few n /Ɵ/ followed by /r, w/ as in three, thwart n /ʃ/ followed by /r/ as in shrink. n /v, m, n, h/ followed by /j/ as in view, mute, news, huge

Clusters may come at initial or final positions in English words 2 - Three consonants at the beginning of words: n /spr/ as in spray, spread, spring. n /str/ as in struggle, straw, stress, strict. n /skr/ as in scream, screen, screw, script. n /stj/ as in student, stupid. n /skj/ as in skew, (this sequence is rare in English). n /spl/ as in splash, splendid, split. /skw/ as in squad, square, squash, squeezes.

Clusters may come at initial or final positions in English words 3. Two or more consonants at the end of the word: n /s/ and /z/ at the end of nouns to form the plural as in facts, fields, books, dogs. n /s/ and /z/ at the end of verbs in the third person in the present tense: eats, gives, risks, yields. n /t/ and /d/ at the end of verbs in the past tense: as in wished, raised, risked, plunged. n /Ɵ/ at the end of nouns and numbers: as in width, strength, seventh. n /Ɵ/ followed by /s/ at the end of plural nouns and numerals as in breadths, sevenths. 4. Three or more consonants at word boundaries as in best man, long skirt.

Activity q Identify the consonant cluster in each of the following and decide the number of consonant sounds in each cluster: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. glimpsed finished perfect square my best frame extra angry boy songs girls next student script

Consonant Cluster in Arabic English Arabic initial medial final c cc ccc ccc - cccc c - c cc

Consonant Cluster in Arabic 1. Arabic has no more than two consonant cluster which occur medially or finally 2. Arabic users tend to add a vowel (intrusive vowel) to break the consonant cluster, e. g. floor filoor expensive exipensive plastic bilastik three thiree translate tiransilet grandfather grandifather

Gemination in Arabic and English In Arabic, gemination or consonant doubling involved some muscular intensity when pronouncing a sound, e. g. akala ﺃﻝ # akkala ﺃ ﻝ darasa ﺱ # darrasa ﺩ ﺱ In English, there is doubling of consonants in written English but not in pronunciation. Thus, words like /attack/ , /allow/ are doubled in writing only. Arabic speakers tend to double or lengthen the doubled letters, e. g. /allow/ /al-low/ /attack/ /at-tack/

Pedagogical implications q Differences in consonant systems of Arabic and English may lead to problems in pronunciation, comprehension and communication for users of the two languages. q Language teachers need to sensitize their learners’ awareness of problematic areas and design activities which address potential errors that are likely to arise due to these differences!