Topic Content:
- Speech Work: Consonant Sounds
You are familiar with the 21 consonants that form part of the English alphabet. These are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.
While the above are letters we use in spelling words, consonant sounds are symbols or phonemesphoneme, in linguistics, is the smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another, as the element p in “tap,” which separates that word from “tab,” “tag,” and... More we use to represent the sounds we produce when we speak English.
There are 24 consonant sounds in English. They are:
/b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /j/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /w/, /z/, /ŋ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʈʃ/, /dʒ/, /θ/, /ð/
It is important to note that consonant letters are different from consonant sounds. We normally write consonant sounds inside parallel lines to distinguish them from consonant letters. For instance, /s/ is a sound while ‘s’ is a letter. Consonant sounds occur in three positions in a word. These positions are:
1. At the beginning of words (initial position)
2. In the middle of words (medial position)
3. At the end of words (final or end position)
Study the following examples;
/b/ as in bad (initial position)
/b/ as in rubber (medial position)
/b/ as in grab (end position)
While most consonants can and do occur in all three positions, a few consonants do not occur at the beginning and at the end of words. You will learn about all the 24 consonants as we study them this term.
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