Te EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT ON CONSONANT QUALITY: WHAT THE Teacher NEeDs To KNow ‘Thus far we have discussed the characteristics of twenty-five distinct consonant sounds as they are produced in isolation. However, sounds are rarely produced in this manner, rather, they are influenced by the environment in which they occur ~ by their position within « ‘word and by the sounds that precede or follow them. POSITIONAL RESTRICTION Consonants can potentially accur in five different environments: syllable inital, syllable final, intervocalic, initial clusters, and final clusters. Not all consonants occur in all of these environments, and the teacher should keep this in mind when teaching consonants, Consider, for example, the consonants /s) ff, and /a: Syllable Syllable Initial Final Phoneme initial final Intervocalic clusters clusters ist sing bus classic stream burst sat loss passive scratch mask Sally face adjacent slip cats KSI cheese each teaches (none) bunch chin touch butcher turch, chair ‘match watching gulch Jol (none) young singer (none) hanged tongue bringing thank ring, dinghy wings Notice in these examples that /s/ can occur in all positions; however, both /tf/ and /a/ are somewhat restricted. The following five consonants are also restricted in terms of where they can occur: /hw/, /b, /5/, w/, and /y/. For a complete taxonomy of where the twenty-five consonants of NAE can potentially occur, see Appendix 3. POSITIONAL VARIATION In addition to the positional restrictions on where consonants can occur, there is also posi- tional variation — that is, the same phoneme is pronounced differently in different positions or environments. Thus teachers need an awareness of the effect that this positional varia- tion has on the production of consonant sounds. This variation is often not obvious to native speakers, who produce the various allophones of a given phoneme unconsciously; yet such variation is often a source of difficulty in pronunciation and listening discrimina~ tion for leamers in the ESL/EFL classroom.INITIAL AND FINAL STOP CONSONANTS: ‘One example of how environment can affect the articulation of a sound involves the stop consonants /p, t, k/. Thus far, we have distinguished these sounds from fo, d, g/ in terms However, an additional significant feature of voiceless stop consonants in English is aspiration, the brief puff of air that accompanies the allophones of /p, t, k/ in ‘words such as pan, tan, and key. The presence or absence of aspiration is easiest to demon- strate with the bilabial stops /p/ and /b/. If an English speaker says pie, the aspiration will often extinguish a lighted match or move a strip of paper placed in front of the speaker's mouth. If the same speaker says buy, it will not noticeably affect the flame or the paper. Since /t/ and /k/ are articulated farther back in the mouth than /p/, the aspiration is harder to demonstrate visually than for /p/, but it is nonetheless present and salient In general, then, we can say that the voiced stop consonants are not aspirated, where- as the voiceless stop consonants are, However, we need to further qualify this statement, ince the occurrence of aspiration with /p, t, k/ depends on the position of the consonant within a word. Try saying the following words, in which /p, t, k/ occur word initially (col- umn 1) and at the beginning of a stressed syllable (column 2): 1 2 Pl peal rePRAL, ie test devest i) kin aKIN Notice how the stop consonant is aspirated both at the beginning of the words in column 1 and at the beginning of the stressed (i.e. , second) syllable in column 2. Now compare the unaspirated [p] and {k] that occur at the beginning of unstressed syl- lables (column 1) with the aspirated [p'] and [k*] at the beginning of the stressed syllables (column 2) (the consonant /t/ will be discussed separately): 1 2 (pl I'l opus oppose, opal appa 1 2 ikl Ik4) Record (n.) recorD (¥.) ochre occUR Notice the aspiration when these stop consonants begin a stressed syllable. ‘We can further see this difference in aspiration when there is a stress shift due to a dcrivational ending, as in the following case: ipl Rapid ip) raPiDity Again here, there is a noticeable difference between the unaspirated [p] in rapid and the aspirated [p'] in rapidity — clear evidence of the role positional variation plays in deter- mining the aspiration of vi less stop consonants,In casual speech, the same six stop consonant sounds /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ are often not released in final position. In other words, the process of articulation is not completed. For example, in the word cat, the final [t°] is produced with the tip of the tongue remain- ing in place on the alveolar ridge rather than being released at the end of the word. Similarly, in the word tub, the lips remain in place for the articulation of the final [b°); air is not released subsequently. Itean thus be hard for learners to distinguish minimal pairs ending in stop consonants, The real perceptual clue in distinguishing such word pairs tends to be vowel length; all things being equal, the vowel sounds in rip, hit, and pick are shorter than the vowel sounds in rib, hid, and pig, respectively. Note that the former words end in a voiceless consonant sound and the latter in a voiced sound. Therefore, leamers must be taught that English vowels are systematically shorter before voiceless consonants than before voiced conso- nants; this will be one of their most reliable clues in distinguishing these consonants in final position.'*In order to represent lengthened vowels, we use the symbol [:] following the vowel: Final voiceless consonants Final voiced consonants (shorter vowel) (longer vowel) ip Inp/ rib ieub/ hit font) hid Ioucd/ pick Iptky ig Ipxgl MAttematively, the final ft/in words such a cat, put, and but may become glotalzed, with the / accompanied or replaced by a glial stop [2] n such cases, the airstream is stopped inthe thrat bythe constriction ofthe vocal cords.FRICATIVES AND AFFRICATES, English fricatives can be divided into two groups: sibifants (those with a high-pitched turbulent sound) and nonsibilants (those produced with much less friction and energy). ‘The sibilant fricatives are /s, z, f, 3/, and the nonsibilants are /f, v, 0, 8, h/. Since the two affricates /tf, d3/ both have a sibilant fricative release, they also qualify as sibilant sounds, ‘The presence or absence of fricative /h/ is simply a matter of expelling air before the vowel or of having no air before the vowel. Speakers of French, Hebrew, and many other languages have problems producing and distinguishing pairs like these, of which English has many: No /h/ Jh/ present air hair art heart ear hear and hand ‘The sound /h/ generally occurs under the same conditions as aspiration; thus /h/ before unstressed vowels ~ especially in noninitial position ~ tends to be deleted: /h/ articulated Th/ often deleted innit in(hyinrtion prouIBit pro(h)isrrion historic pre(h)istoric The English dental fricatives /O/ and /0/ vary in place of articulation. Some speakers articulate the sounds with the tongue tip just behind and touching the upper teeth, in which case they are dental, as we describe them; some speakers articulate them with the tongue tip touching the upper teeth but also protruding very briefly and very slightly between the upper and lower teeth, in which case they are interdental. We have not emphasized the interdental articulation because we believe that this does not characterize the speech of most NAE speakers; however, the interdental description of the sounds may be of help pedagogically with the many learners who do not have these sounds in their languages.A final important observation concerning voiced and voiceless fricatives and affricates is their relation to vowel length. Vowels preceding fricatives and affricates behave similar- ly to those before stops. In other words, if one considers isolated word pairs, the vowel sounds are clearly longer before the voiced fricatives and affricates than before voiceless:'* Final voiceless consonants Final voiced consonants (shorter vowel) (longer vowel) grace /greys/ graze /gtey:2/ fife ayf/ five ffay:v/ teeth —_ftiy0/ teethe — /tiy:d/ batch — /beet / badge — /ow:d3/ On the other hand, the voiceless fricatives and affricates are perceptibly longer and more strongly released than the voiced ones; as a result, the words in each minimal pair are virtually the same length, "The fricative sounds /{/ and /3/ were not included in these lists because there are virtually no minimal pairs for word-final position. The sound /s/ occurs in word-final position in only a few French borrow- Ings, such as beige and rouge. One can pethaps appreciate the difference in vowel length nonetheless by ‘comparing the words beige /3/ and fresh [JSYLLABIC CONSONANTS ‘The nasal consonant /n and the liquid /1/ are unusual in that they have the capacity to become syllabic or vowel-like; in other words, they have allophones that can function as a weak syl- lable without the support of a vowel sound.!°This can happen in words where {n] or []] con- stitute a weakly stressed syllable following a strongly stressed one, Note that the English spelling system often indicates the presence of a vowel where there is in fact a syllabie con- sonant; however, this is a spelling convention only. Syliabic consonants are transcribed with a small vertical line under the syllabic consonant sound. Syllabic [1] and {{] occur follow- ing stressed syllables ending in alveolar consonants, most frequently /y, /d/, and /n/: Syllabic [n] syllabic [1] kitten (ki?) kettle ker] button [ban] ite = [rel] didn't [ardnt] ladle —_leyrj] shouldn’t [fudnt]} tunnel [tan] A consonant sound often anticipates some following sound. Both /t/ (in words like button and kitten) and /d/ (in words like sudden and hadn't) exhibit unusual medial vari- ants before syllabic {n]. The /t/ is either glottalized (articulated with a momentary block- age of the airstream in the vocal cords) or it is replaced by a glottal stop [2], which is a sound formed by stopping the airstream at the vocal cords. When the consonant /t/ or /d/ is produced before syllabic (n}, the air used to produce the stop is released through the nose rather than the mouth. Because of these articulatory differences, words with medial J and /a/ before syllabic [n] are clearly distinguishable, for example, sudden vs. Sutton, biden vs. bitten. Before syllabic []] both /t/ and /d/ are usually realized as a laterally released flap [1] (ie., the flap is released by lowering one or both sides of the tongue for air fo escape as the syllabic [1] is produced), Words with medial /t/ and /d/ before syllabic [J] are therefore not consistently distinguished; there are very few minimal pairs to cause confusion (e.g. petalipeddle, metal/meddle, or family names such as Little/Liddle). In fact, some phoneticians maintain that /m/, /n/, and /t/ also have syllabic allophones. However, since syllabic [p] and {]) are more frequent and also have a significant effect on the pronunciation of the pre- ceding consonant, we restrict our discussion of syllabic consonants to these two consonant sounds only.SS ee ee eee ‘TABLE 3.4 DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF /1/ IN NAE Lightest /W)<————————————______ parkest [#] y Initial Initial Final Finat suffix position clusters position clusters timely Lee, Lou clear fill, fall fault dearly ip, look elib pill, pall bulk badly late, Toss blink well, wool holes “Darkest [1] in cluster configuration generally follows back vowels or co-oceurs with a velar consonant. LIGHT VERSUS DARK /I/ In Table 3.2, we listed two variants of /, alveolar Tight (or clear) // and velarized dark (#29 Generally light // occurs syllable-initially or before front vowels and is produced with the tip of the tongue in the alveolar area (c.g., leap, lip), whereas dark [¥] occurs syllable-final- ly or before back vowels and is produced with the body of the tongue approaching the velum (e.g., full, hole). In other words, the closer the tongue to the velum, the darker the /V/. In fact, there is @ great deal of variation among native speakers of NAE in where /l/ ‘may be produced. The general tendency in NAB is to use the so-called dark (#], with vary- ing degrees of “darkness” in different positions. Table 3.4 represents this continuum. Nineteen of the twenty-five NAB consonant phonemes can occur freely in initial, ‘medial, and final positions. However, they may differ significantly in articulation depend ing on where they occur in a word or syllable, as we have noted in the preceding discus- sion of their allophones, We have also introduced several additional symbols in our discussion of positional variation (note: C= any consonant; V = any vowel) Symbot Description (cy aspirated consonant (cl unreleased consonant iva Tengthened vowel {a flap Id syllabic consonant (21 glottal stop it] velarized or dark /l/ The best examples of light canbe found in languages other than English, If one compares the light ‘A used in all environments in German (e.g. Lic “ight” vel “much, many”) of in French (eit “bed,” He “island") with the kinds of // that native speakers of NAE produce in virtually any postion, one can appreciate the difference between light // and dark [3]. In fac, the dark quality of // Used by NAE speakers when they speak these two languages contributes significantly to ther foreign accent.