Allophonic variants for English Consonants (Part 1)

Allophones of Plosive Consonants

Plosives take more effort to articulate than other classes of consonants. This is because in the pronunciation of a plosive there is a complete obstruction. Their allophones can be classified in the following categories: 

• Aspirated and Unaspirated Voicless Plosives

Voiceless plosives are /p, t, k/

Aspiration is an interval of air heard between the end of the plosive and the following vowel. It is represented by the symbol [ʰ]

Only voiceless plosives may be aspirated. Aspiration may be strong or weak, depending on the context. 

Strong aspiration: voiceless plosives are strongly aspirated in initial stressed position. 

Example: pen, potato; [pʰen], [pə'tʰeɪtəʊ]

There're some exceptions we must consider:

(1) When /p, t, k/ are preceded by /s/. For example: pain vs Spain; [pʰəɪn], [spəɪn].

(2) When they are followed by /l, r, w, j/. In this case, /l, r, w, j/ are devoiced. For example: play, cry, tune.

Weak aspiration: voiceless plosives are weakly aspirated in unstressed syllables and in final position. For example: pot, tomorrow; [pʰɒt], [tə'mɒrəʊ]

• Devoicing of voiced plosives

Voiced plosives are /b, d, g/. When these voiced consonants are in final position and followed by silence, they normally lose their voicing, so they become devoiced.

For instance, the phrase "a black bag" sounds something like "a black bak"; that is, the vioced velar plosive /g/ sounds like a voiceless velar /k/. As /g/ has lost its voicing, so it has been devoiced. The symbol used to indicate devoicing is [º]

Examples: "my bag"  ---> [maɪ'bæɡ̊]

"this boy" ---> [ð̥ɪs b̥ɔɪ]

"She’s so good" ---> [ʃiːz̥ səʊ ɡʊd̥]

• Non-audible Release of Plosives

A plosive consonant is articulated in three stages:

Closure stage: the articulators are approaching
Stop stage: the articulators form a complete obstruction
Release stage: the air is let out abruptly

The third stage (the release) may be realized in different ways, depending on the consonant that follows:

• Audible release of plosives

This happens when the plosive is fully articulated and the sound is heard without any problem. The three stages of the articulation of the plosive are realized (closure, stop and release).

• Unreleased plosives

When a plosive (/p, t, k, b, d, g/) is followed by another plosive or an affricate (/ʧ, ʤ/) the first plosive is unreleased. This means that you don't hear the release of the first plosive.

• Nasal release of plosives

It takes place when the plosive is followed by a homorganic nasal consonant. Homorganic means that they share the same place of articulation.

• Lateral release of plosives

The release of the plosive is produced laterally when /t/ or /d/ are followed by /l/. 

Other variants in British and American English are: glottal stop and tap.

1. Glottal stop

The glottal stop is represented by the symbol [ʔ]

Voiceless oral plosives may be replaced by [ʔ] in final position in the syllable.

Example:

"A better bit of butter" [ə' beʔə ' bɪʔəv ' bʌʔə]

     2. Tap

In American English, the alveolar plosives /t. d/ are replaced by an alveolar tap [ɾ] when they are between vowels, the first vowel being normally stressed. Here some examples:

"lady" ['leɪɾɪ] ;  "rider" ['raɪɾər"]

This was the last thing of this post. In the next one I will continue with the second part of allophonic variants for English consonants. :-)

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