ENGLISH CONSONANTS

1. Voicing (voiceless; voiced)

2. Manner of articulation (oral/nasal stops, fricatives/affricates, approximants)
3. Place of articulation (bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal,
velar, glotal)
4. Spelling forms
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones

ORAL STOPS

1. Voiceless /p, t, k/; voiced /b, d, g/

2. Plosives, oral stops
3. bilabial /p, b/; alveolar /t, d/; velar /k, g/
4. /p/ <p, pp>; /t/ <t, tt, th>; /k/ <k, c, qu, ch>; /b/ <b, bb>; /d/ <d, dd>; /g/ <g, gh, gu>
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones:
-In initial stressed position, the voiceless stops are aspirated [ph, th, kh]
-In medial stressed position, the voiceless stops are also aspirated [ph, th, kh]
-In final position, the voiceless stops cause the shortening of the preceding
vowel [V:] > [V.]
-Voiceless stops can have a nonaudible release in final position [p>, t>, k>]
-The voiced stops in initial and final position lose part of their sonority (they
become devoiced) [b, d, g]
-The voiced stops remain fully voiced in medial position if they are in a
voiced context but they become devoiced in a voiceless context
-/g/ can have a non-audible release [g>] if followed by a nasal stop or a lateral
consonant

NASAL STOPS

1. Voiced /m, n, /
2. Nasal stops
3. Bilabial /m/, alveolar /n/, velar //
4. /m/ <m, mm>; /n/ <n, nn, kn, gn, pn>; // <ng, n+k, n+g>
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones:
-In English, /m/ and /n/ are found in initial, medial and final position
-// never occurs in initial position
-/n/ becomes devoiced [n] after the phoneme /s/
-/n/ becomes dentalised[n ] before a dental sound
-/n/ becomes velarised [] before a velar sound
-/n/ becomes bilabial [m] before a bilabial sound
-/n/ becomes labio-dental[]before a labio-dental sound
-/m/ and /n/ can be syllabic [m] and [n] can be the nucleus of a syllable
without a vowel

FRICATIVES

1. Voiceless /f, , s, , h/; voiced /v, , z, /

2. Fricatives
 3. Labio-dental /f, v/; dental /, /; alveolar /s, z/; post-alveolar /, /; glottal /h/
4. /f/ <f, ff, ph, gh>; /v/ <v, f, ph> (of, nephew); // / /<th>; /s/ <s, ss, c, sc, x>; /z/ <s,
ss, z, zz, x>; // <sh, ch, sch, s, ss>; //<si, s, z>; /h/ <h, wh>
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones:
-In initial and medial position /f/, // can occur alone or in a cluster, like <fr,
thr>
-The voiced fricatives become devoiced [v, , z] in initial and final position,
and in medial position they are fully voiced in a voiced context and devoiced
in a voiceless context. (Note that // does not occur in initial position)
-/h/ can occur only initially and medially in a word

AFFRICATES

1. Voiceless /t/ and voiced /d/

2. Affricates (stop + fricative)
3. Post-alveolar
4. /t/ <ch, tch, t+ure, t+eous, t+ion]; /d/ <j, g, dg>
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones:
-/d/ becomes devoiced [d,] in initial and final position; in medial position it
is fully voiced in a voiced context and devoiced in a voiceless context.

APPROXIMANTS

1. Voiced /l, r, j, w/
2. Approximants
3. Alveolar /l/; post-alveolar /r/; palatal /j/, labio-velar /w/
4. /l/ <l, ll>; /r/ <r, rr, wr, rh>; /j/ <y, i>; /w/ <w, wh>
5. Taxonomy and possible allophones:
-/l/ has two possible allophones in RP English: the clear alveolar [l] and the
dark velar []. In initial and medial position, only the clear one occurs. In final
position, the commonest is the dark one. The dark allophone also occurs
before a consonant.
-/r/ can occur initially, medially and in consonant clusters.
-/w/ becomes devoiced [w] when it follows accented /t, k/ as in twice, quite.
-/l, r/ can be syllabic, they can be the nucleus of a syllable without a vowel.

*voiceless labial-velar fricative // (Scottish English)

* voiceless velar fricative /x/ (Scottish English)