Consonant

Not to be confused with the musical concept of consonance
For the alternative rock group, see Consonant (band).
Places of
articulation
Labial
Bilabial
Labial–velar
Labial–coronal
Labiodental
Dentolabial
Bidental
Coronal
Linguolabial
Interdental
Dental
Denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Palato-alveolar
Alveolo-palatal
Retroflex
Dorsal
Palatal
Labial–palatal
Velar
Uvular
Uvular–epiglottal
Radical
Pharyngeal
Epiglotto-pharyngeal
Epiglottal
Glottal
Tongue shape
Apical
Laminal
Subapical
Lateral
Sulcal
Palatal
Pharyngeal
See also: Manner of articulation
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In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.

Since the number of possible sounds in all of the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. In fact, the Latin alphabet, which is used to write English, has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so digraphs like "ch", "sh", "th", and "zh" are used to extend the alphabet, and some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled "th" in "this" is a different consonant than the "th" sound in "thin". (In the IPA they are transcribed [ð] and [θ], respectively.)

Contents

Terminology

The word consonant comes from Latin oblique stem cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns (littera) "sounding-together (letter)", a calque of Greek σύμφωνον sýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna).[1][2]

Dionysius Thrax calls consonants sýmphōna "pronounced with" because they can only be pronounced with a vowel.[3] He divides them into two subcategories: hēmíphōna, semivowels (half-pronounced),[4] which correspond to modern continuant consonants, not semivowels,[5] and áphōna, mute or silent consonants (unvoiced),[6] which correspond to modern stops or plosives, not to modern unvoiced or voiceless consonants.[7]

This description does not apply to some human languages, such as the Salishan languages, in which stop consonants sometimes occur without vowels (see Nuxálk), and the modern conception of consonant does not require cooccurrence with vowels.

Letters

Main article: Writing system

The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that denotes a consonant sound. Consonant letters in the English alphabet are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually W and Y: The letter Y stands for the consonant [j] in "yoke", the vowel [ɪ] in "myth" and the vowel [i] in "funny", for example; W is almost always a consonant except in rare words (mostly loanwords from Welsh) like "crwth" "cwm". There are 21 letters that are consonants.

Consonants versus vowels

Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of a syllable: The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that's easiest to sing), called the syllabic peak or nucleus, is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called the onset and coda) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world's languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world's languages.

One blurry area is in segments variously called semivowels, semiconsonants, or glides. On the one side, there are vowel-like segments that are not in themselves syllabic but that form diphthongs as part of the syllable nucleus, as the i in English boil [ˈbɔɪ̯l]. On the other, there are approximants that behave like consonants in forming onsets but are articulated very much like vowels, as the y in English yes [ˈjɛs]. Some phonologists model these as both being the underlying vowel /i/, so that the English word bit would phonemically be /bit/, beet would be /bii̯t/, and yield would be phonemically /i̯ii̯ld/. Likewise, foot would be /fut/, food would be /fuu̯d/, wood would be /u̯ud/, and wooed would be /u̯uu̯d/. However, there is a (perhaps allophonic) difference in articulation between these segments, with the [j] in [ˈjɛs] yes and [ˈjiʲld] yield and the [w] of [ˈwuʷd] wooed having more constriction and a more definite place of articulation than the [ɪ] in [ˈbɔɪ̯l] boil or [ˈbɪt] bit or the [ʊ] of [ˈfʊt].

The other problematic area is that of syllabic consonants, segments articulated as consonants but occupying the nucleus of a syllable. This may be the case for words such as church in rhotic dialects of English, although phoneticians differ in whether they consider this to be a syllabic consonant, /ˈtʃɹ̩tʃ/, or a rhotic vowel, /ˈtʃɝtʃ/: Some distinguish an approximant /ɹ/ that corresponds to a vowel /ɝ/, for rural as /ˈɹɝl/ or [ˈɹʷɝːl̩]; others see these as a single phoneme, /ˈɹɹ̩l/.

Other languages use fricative and often trilled segments as syllabic nuclei, as in Czech and several languages in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China, including Mandarin Chinese. In Mandarin, they are historically allophones of /i/, and spelled that way in Pinyin. Ladefoged and Maddieson[8] call these "fricative vowels" and say that "they can usually be thought of as syllabic fricatives that are allophones of vowels." That is, phonetically they are consonants, but phonemically they behave as vowels.

Many Slavic languages allow the trill [r̩] and the lateral [l̩] as syllabic nuclei (see Words without vowels). In languages like Nuxalk, it is difficult to know what the nucleus of a syllable is, or if all syllables even have nuclei. If the concept of 'syllable' applies in Nuxalk, there are syllabic consonants in words like /sx̩s/ 'seal fat'.

Features

Manners of articulation
Obstruent
Plosive (occlusive)
Affricate
Fricative
Sibilant
Sonorant
Nasal
Flap/Tap
Approximant
Liquid
Vowel
Semivowel
Lateral
Trill
Airstreams
Pulmonic
Ejective
Implosive
Click
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
See also: Place of articulation
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
edit

Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features:[8]

All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop consonant" [t]. In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted.

Some pairs of consonants like p::b, t::d are sometimes called fortis and lenis, but this is a phonological rather than phonetic distinction.

Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts:

IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • audio
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal
↓ Manner Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post​alv. Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal
Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ ɲ̥ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ
Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ
Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ
Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я *
Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯
Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝
Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ
Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯
Non-pulmonic consonants
Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ
Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ
Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ
fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ
tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ
Affricates
p̪f b̪v ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ
tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊
Co-articulated consonants
Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ
Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ
Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants.
Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.
* Symbol not defined in IPA.

Examples

The extinct Ubykh language had only 3 vowels but had 80 or 81 native consonants;[9] the Taa language has 77 consonants.[10] The types of consonants used in various languages are by no means universal. For instance, nearly all Australian languages lack fricatives; a large percentage of the world's languages, for example Mandarin Chinese, lack voiced stops such as [b], [d], and [ɡ]. Most languages, however, do include one or more fricatives, with [s] being the most common, and a liquid consonant or two, with [l] the most common. The approximant [w] is also widespread, and virtually all languages have one or more nasal consonants, though a very few, such as the Central dialect of Rotokas, lack even these.

Most common

The most common consonants around the world are the three voiceless plosives [p], [t], [k], and the two nasals [m], [n]. However, even these common five are not universal. Several languages in the vicinity of the Sahara Desert, including Arabic, lack [p]. Several languages of North America, such as Mohawk, lack both of the labials [p] and [m]. The Wichita language of Oklahoma and some West African languages such as Ijo lack the consonant /n/ on a phonemic level, but do use it as an allophone of another consonant (of /l/ in the case of Ijo, and of /ɾ/ in Wichita). A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack both of the nasals [m] and [n]. The 'click language' Nǁng lacks [t],[11] and colloquial Samoan lacks both alveolars, [t] and [n].[12] Despite the 80-odd consonants of Ubykh, it lacks the plain velar /k/ in native words, as do the related Adyghe and Kabardian languages. But with a few striking exceptions, such as Xavante and Tahitian - which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever - nearly all other languages have at least one velar consonant: the few languages that do not have a simple [k] usually have a consonant that is very similar.[13] For instance, an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest coast is that historical *[k] has become palatalized in many languages, so that Saanich for example has [tʃ] and [kʷ] but no plain [k];[14][15] similarly, historical *[k] in the Northwest Caucasian languages became palatalized to /kʲ/ in Ubykh and /ʧ/ in most Circassian dialects.[16]

The most frequent consonant (that is, the one appearing most often in speech) in many languages is [k].

Audio samples

IPA chart pulmonic consonants with audio
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal
↓ Manner Bila­bial Labio­dental Den­tal Alve­olar Post­alve­olar Retro­flex Pal­a­tal Ve­lar Uvu­lar Pha­ryn­geal Epi­glot­tal Glot­tal
Nasal
Plosive
Fricative
Approximant
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fricative
Lateral approximant
Lateral flap
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants
This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key •  audio help • chart • view
IPA chart non-pulmonic consonants
Clicks
Implosives
Ejectives
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants
This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key •  audio help • chart • view
IPA chart affricate consonants
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants
This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key •  audio help • chart • view
IPA chart co-articulated consonants
Fricatives
Approximants
Stops
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants
This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key •  audio help • chart • view

See also

References

  1. ^ σύμφωνος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at Perseus Project
  2. ^ Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, Previously published as The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, originally ©1988 The H.W. Wilson Company; Edinburgh, reprinted 2001: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., p. 210.
  3. ^ Dionysius Thrax. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar), ς´ περὶ στοιχείου (6. On the Sound):
    σύμφονα δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἑπτακαίδεκα· β γ δ ζ θ κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ τ φ χ ψ. σύμφοναι δὲ +λέγονται+, ὅτι αὐτὰ μὲν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὰ φωνὴν οὐκ ἔχει, συντασσόμενα δὲ μετὰ τῶν φωνηέντων φωνὴν ἀποτελεῖ.
    The remaining seventeen are consonants: b, g, d, z, th, k, l, m, n, x, p, r, s, t, ph, ch, ps. They are called consonants because they do not have a sound on their own, but, when arranged with vowels, they produce a sound.
  4. ^ ἡμίφωνος in Liddell and Scott
  5. ^ Dionysius Thrax:
    τούτων ἡμίφωνα μέν ἐστιν ὀκτώ· ζ ξ ψ λ μ ν ρ σ. ἡμίφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι παρ᾽ ὅσον ἧττον τῶν φωνηέντων εὔφωνα καθέστηκεν ἔν τε τοῖς μυγμοῖς καὶ σιγμοῖς.
    Of these, eight are semivowels [half-pronounced]: z, x, ps, l, m, n, r, s. They are called semivowels, because, though a little weaker than the vowels, they are still harmonious [well-sounding] in their moaning and hissing.
  6. ^ ἄφωνος in Liddell and Scott
  7. ^ Dionysius Thrax:
    ἄφωνα δέ ἐστιν ἐννέα· β γ δ κ π τ θ φ χ. ἄφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν κακόφωνα, ὥσπερ ἄφωνον λέγομεν τὸν τραγωιδὸν τὸν κακόφωνον.
    Nine are silent [unpronounced]: b, g, d, k, p, t, th, ph, ch. They are called silent, because, more than the others, they are discordant [ill-sounding], just as we call the ill-sounding tragedy "silent".
  8. ^ a b Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. 
  9. ^ Georges Dumézil and Tevfik Esenç, 1975, Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives. Adrien Maisonneuve: Paris.
  10. ^ World Language Statistics and Facts
  11. ^ Nǀu has a [ts] instead. Hawaiian is often said to lack a [t], but it actually has a consonant that varies between [t] and [k].
  12. ^ Samoan words written with the letters t and n are pronounced with [k] and [ŋ] except in formal speech. However, Samoan does have an alveolar consonant, [l].
  13. ^ The Niʻihau–Kauaʻi dialect of Hawaiian is often said to have no [k], but as in other dialects of Hawaiian it has a consonant that varies between [t] and [k], with [t] before [i] but [k] at the beginnings of words, though they are often in free variation.
  14. ^ Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press
  15. ^ The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: Absence of Common Consonants
  16. ^ Viacheslav A. Chirikba, 1996, Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology, p. 192. Research School CNWS: Leiden.

External links

References

Ian Maddieson, Patterns of Sounds, Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-521-26536-3