Лекция: Friction consonants

Friction consonantsare consonants made by narrowing the air passage at some point in our mouth, and when the air escapes through this narrowing it makes a hissing sound (friction). Friction consonants are continuants /kqn'tInjVqnts/ which means that you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs.

There are nine consonants in English that have friction as their most important feature. They are [f, v, T, D, S, Z, s, z, h].

/f/ and /v/

For both these consonants the soft palate is raised so that no air can go through the nose and it is all forced to go through the mouth. The lower lip is very close to the edge of the upper front teeth. There is a narrowing between them – this is the place where friction is produced. When the air passes through this narrowing, it causes a slight friction. The tongue is not involved in articulation of these sounds but it does not lie idle: it takes the position necessary for the following sound.

/f/ is voiceless, strong, long; /v/ is voiced, weak, short. /f/ makes the preceding vowel shorter, while /v/ makes it longer (e.g. /lJf/ and /lJv/).

/T/ and /D/

For the articulation of these consonants the soft palate is raised so that all the breath is pushed through the mouth and no air can go through the nose. Some teachers make their students pronounce these sounds with the tongue between the teeth. But normally the tip of the tongue touches the inside of the cutting edge of the upper front teeth: this is the narrowing where the friction is made. These sounds are produced with the least friction.

/T/ is voiceless, strong and long; /D/ is voiced, weak and short. /T/makes the vowel before it shorter, and /D/ makes it longer (e.g. /maVT/ and /maVD/).

/s/ and /z/

To pronounce these sounds correctly we need to raise the soft palate to block the nasal cavity and to force the air to go through the mouth. The tip and blade of the tongue are very close to the alveolar ridge. There is a considerable narrowing not near the teeth and not near the hard palate, between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. When the air passes through this narrowing it causes friction. The teeth are very close together. /s/ and /z/ are characterised by the greatest friction of all the fricatives.

/s/ is voiceless, strong, long; /z/ is voiced, weak and short. /s/ shortens the vowel before it and /z/ lengthens it (e.g. /bAs/ and /bAz/).

/S/ and /Z/

These two consonants are pronounced in the following way. The soft palate is raised so that all the breath is forced to go through the mouth and it cannot go through the nose. The tip and the blade of the tongue are close to the back part of the alveolar ridge. There is a narrowing between them, but it is wider than for /s/ or /z/. The lips can be slightly rounded.

/Z/does not occur at the beginning of English words. At the end it is very rare and it can be found only in a few words borrowed from French.

/S/ is voiceless, strong and long; /Z/ is voiced, weak and short. Though there are almost no cases in which /S/ and /Z/ distinguish words which are otherwise the same, but nevertheless, according to the rule, /S/ shortens the preceding vowel and /Z/ makes it longer (e.g. /hRS/ and /'gxrRZ/).

/h/

There are as many /h/-sounds in English as there are vowels, because /h/ always occurs before a vowel and consists of the sound of breath passing between the half-open vocal cords and out of the mouth which is already prepared for the following vowel. The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal which means that the narrowing that produces the friction noise is between the vocal cords. /h/ does not make very much noise, but it must not be left out when it should be sounded, for two reasons: (1) many words are distinguished by the presence or absence of /h/ (e.g. /hIq/ here and /Iq/ ear); (2) English speakers are very sensitive about pronunciation of this sound and consider that the leaving out of /h/ is the mark of an uncultivated speaker. Another error is to make /h/ too noisy producing a scraping sound by pushing the air between the back of the tongue and the soft palate.

/h/is a voiceless consonant.