Articulation Basis of English

The summary of all main principles of articulation of a certain language is called the articulation basis. The main points of difference between the articulation basis of English and Russian are as follows:

1. The tongue is tenser and bulkier in English and has a retracted position for most of the phonemes.

2. The lips are also tenser and less movable than in Russian. They are mostly spread (with the lower teeth revealed) or neutral (flat articulation).

3. Forelingual English consonants (they are 12) have an apical articulation: they are articulated with the tongue-tip against the alveoli /t, d; s, z; , ; , ; , l/ or against the teeth /; /.

4. All English consonants are hard (except for /, / and have no palatalized oppositions while the Russian ones have (был – быль; кон – конь). Palatalisation in English is a phonetic mistake.

5. The English word-final voiced consonants must not be devocalised (which is a norm for the Russian language), yet they are weak (bag, sad). The English word-final voiceless consonants are strong (night, weak, tape).

6. The English plosive voiceless /p, t, k/ are pronounced with aspiration which is foreign to Russian.

7. The English sonorants /m, n, l/ are tenser and longer than the corresponding Russian ones and they are syllabic when post-tonic and preceded by a consonant: /, l/

The English Consonant System

The consonant is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs has to overcome a certain obstruction on its way.

The English consonant system consists of 24 consonant phonemes which can be classified as follows:

1. According to the types of obstruction (occlusives, constrictives, occlusive-constrictives or affricates).

2. According to the articulatory organ (labial, lingual, pharyngual).

3. According to the prevalence of noise over the musical tone (noise consonants and sonorants).

4. According to the work of the vocal cords (voiced and voiceless).

5. According to the position of the soft palate (oral and nasal).

Chart of English Consonant Phonemes

			Labial		Lingual						Pharyngal
			Bilabial	Labio-dental	Forelingual				Media-lingual	Back-lingual
					dental	apico-alveolar	palato-alveolar	post-alveolar
Occlusives	Plosives (noise consonants)		 			t d				 
	Nasal sonorants									
Constrictives	Fricatives (noise consonants)			 	 	 	 				
	Sonorants	Medial							
		Lateral				l
Occlusive-constictives (affricates)							 