Speech Work: Consonant Sounds

Topic Content:

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 that represent the sounds we produce when speaking 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 or at the end of words.

For example:

/ŋ/ (the “ng” sound in sing /sɪŋ/):

• Occurs at the end (sing, long) or in the middle (finger).
• Never at the beginning of a native English word.

You will learn about all 24 consonants as we study them this term.