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For the musical concept, seeConsonance and dissonance.For the alternative rock group, seeConsonant (band).
This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Inarticulatory phonetics,aconsonantis aspeech soundthat is articulated with complete or partial closure of thevocal tract,except for the h, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are[p]and [b], pronounced with thelips;[t]and [d], pronounced with the front of thetongue;[k]and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue;[h],pronounced throughout the vocal tract;[f],[v], and[s],pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and[m]and[n],which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Most consonants arepulmonic,using air pressure from the lungs to generate a sound. Very few natural languages are non-pulmonic, making use ofejectives,implosives,andclicks.Contrasting with consonants arevowels.

Since the number of speech sounds in the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any oneAlpha bet,linguistshave devised systems such as theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguoussymbolto each attested consonant. TheEnglish Alpha bethas fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant sounds, sodigraphslike⟨ch⟩,⟨sh⟩,⟨th⟩,and⟨ng⟩are used to extend the Alpha bet, though some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled⟨th⟩in "this" is a different consonant from the⟨th⟩sound in "thin". (In the IPA, these are[ð]and[θ],respectively.)

Etymology[edit]

The wordconsonantcomes fromLatinoblique stemcōnsonant-,fromcōnsonāns'sounding-together', acalqueofGreekσύμφωνονsýmphōnon(pluralsýmphōna,σύμφωνα).[1][2]

Dionysius Thraxcalls consonantssýmphōna(σύμφωνα'sounded with') because in Greek they can only be pronounced with a vowel.[a]He divides them into two subcategories:hēmíphōna(ἡμίφωνα'half-sounded'),[4]which are thecontinuants,[b]andáphōna(ἄφωνος'unsounded'),[5]which correspond toplosives.[c]

This description does not apply to some languages, such as theSalishan languages,in which plosives may occur without vowels (seeNuxalk), and the modern concept of "consonant" does not require co-occurrence with a vowel.

Consonantsoundsand consonantletters[edit]

The wordconsonantmay be used ambiguously for both speech sounds and theletters of the Alpha betused to write them. In English, these letters areB,C,D,F,G,J,K,L,M,N,P,Q,S,T,V,X,Zand oftenH,R,W,Y.

InEnglish orthography,the letters H, R, W, Y and the digraph GH are used for both consonants and vowels. For instance, the letter Y stands for the consonant/semi-vowel/j/inyoke,the vowel/ɪ/inmyth,the vowel/i/infunny,the diphthong/aɪ/insky,and forms several digraphs for other diphthongs, such assay,boy,key.Similarly, R commonly indicates or modifies a vowel innon-rhotic accents.

This article is concerned with consonant sounds, however they are written.

Consonants versus vowels[edit]

Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of asyllable:The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that is easiest to sing), called thesyllabic peakornucleus,is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called theonsetandcoda) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world's languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world's languages.

One blurry area is in segments variously calledsemivowels,semiconsonants,orglides.On one side, there are vowel-like segments that are not in themselves syllabic, but formdiphthongsas part of the syllable nucleus, as theiin Englishboil[ˈbɔɪ̯l].On the other, there areapproximantsthat behave like consonants in forming onsets, but are articulated very much like vowels, as theyin Englishyes[ˈjɛs].Some phonologists model these as both being the underlying vowel/i/,so that the English wordbitwouldphonemicallybe/bit/,beetwould be/bii̯t/,andyieldwould be phonemically/i̯ii̯ld/.Likewise,footwould be/fut/,foodwould be/fuu̯d/,woodwould be/u̯ud/,andwooedwould be/u̯uu̯d/.However, there is a (perhaps allophonic) difference in articulation between these segments, with the[j]in[ˈjɛs]yesand[ˈjiʲld]yieldand the[w]of[ˈwuʷd]wooedhaving more constriction and a more definite place of articulation than the[ɪ]in[ˈbɔɪ̯l]boilor[ˈbɪt]bitor the[ʊ]of[ˈfʊt]foot.

The other problematic area is that of syllabic consonants, segments articulated as consonants but occupying the nucleus of a syllable. This may be the case for words such aschurchinrhoticdialects of English, although phoneticians differ in whether they consider this to be a syllabic consonant,/ˈtʃɹ̩tʃ/,or a rhotic vowel,/ˈtʃɝtʃ/:Some distinguish an approximant/ɹ/that corresponds to a vowel/ɝ/,forruralas/ˈɹɝl/or[ˈɹʷɝːl̩];others see these as a single phoneme,/ˈɹɹ̩l/.

Other languages use fricative and often trilled segments as syllabic nuclei, as inCzechand several languages inDemocratic Republic of the Congo,andChina,includingMandarin Chinese.In Mandarin, they are historically allophones of/i/,and spelled that way inPinyin.Ladefoged and Maddieson[6][page needed]call these "fricative vowels" and say that "they can usually be thought of as syllabic fricatives that are allophones of vowels". That is, phonetically they are consonants, but phonemically they behave as vowels.

ManySlavic languagesallow the trill[r̩]and the lateral[l̩]as syllabic nuclei (seeWords without vowels). In languages likeNuxalk,it is difficult to know what the nucleus of a syllable is, or if all syllables even have nuclei. If the concept of 'syllable' applies in Nuxalk, there are syllabic consonants in words like/sx̩s/(/s̩xs̩/?) 'seal fat'.Miyakoin Japan is similar, with/f̩ks̩/'to build' and/ps̩ks̩/'to pull'.

Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phoneticfeatures:

  • Themanner of articulationis how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant orapproximant(vowel-like) sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, and nasals.
  • Theplace of articulationis where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places includebilabial(both lips),alveolar(tongue against the gum ridge), andvelar(tongue against soft palate). In addition, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such aspalatalisationorpharyngealisation.Consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation are said to becoarticulated.
  • Thephonationof a consonant is how thevocal cordsvibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is calledvoiced;when they do not vibrate at all, it isvoiceless.
  • Thelengthis how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in "wholly"[hoʊlli]vs. "holy"[hoʊli],but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries. Unrelated roots are differentiated in various languages such as Italian, Japanese, and Finnish, with two length levels, "single" and "geminate".Estonianand someSami languageshave three phonemic lengths: short, geminate, and long geminate, although the distinction between the geminate and overlong geminate includes suprasegmental features.
  • The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated.

All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop"[t].In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted.

Some pairs of consonants likep::b,t::dare sometimes calledfortis and lenis,but this is aphonologicalrather than phonetic distinction.

Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts:

Examples[edit]

The recently extinctUbykh languagehad only 2 or 3 vowels but 84 consonants;[7]theTaa languagehas 87 consonants underone analysis,164 underanother,plus some 30 vowels and tone.[8]The types of consonants used in various languages are by no means universal. For instance, nearly allAustralian languageslack fricatives; a large percentage of the world's languages lack voiced stops such as/b/,/d/,/ɡ/as phonemes, though they may appear phonetically. Most languages, however, do include one or more fricatives, with/s/being the most common, and aliquid consonantor two, with/l/the most common. The approximant/w/is also widespread, and virtually all languages have one or morenasals,though a very few, such as the Central dialect ofRotokas,lack even these. This last language has the smallest number of consonants in the world, with just six.

Most common[edit]

In rhotic American English, the consonants spoken most frequently are/n,ɹ,t/.(/ɹ/is less common in non-rhotic accents.)[9] The most frequent consonant in many other languages is/p/.[10]

The most universal consonants around the world (that is, the ones appearing in nearly all languages) are the three voiceless stops/p/,/t/,/k/,and the two nasals/m/,/n/.However, even these common five are not completely universal. Several languages in the vicinity of theSahara Desert,includingArabic,lack/p/.Several languages of North America, such asMohawk,lack both of the labials/p/and/m/.TheWichita languageofOklahomaand some West African languages, such asIjo,lack the consonant/n/on a phonemic level, but do use it phonetically, as anallophoneof another consonant (of/l/in the case of Ijo, and of/ɾ/in Wichita). A few languages onBougainville Islandand aroundPuget Sound,such asMakah,lack both of the nasals[m]and[n]altogether, except in special speech registers such as baby-talk. The 'click language'Nǁnglacks/t/,[d]and colloquialSamoanlacks both alveolars,/t/and/n/.[e]Despite the 80-odd consonants ofUbykh,it lacks the plain velar/k/in native words, as do the relatedAdygheandKabardianlanguages. But with a few striking exceptions, such asXavanteandTahitian—which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever—nearly all other languages have at least one velar consonant: most of the few languages that do not have a simple/k/(that is, a sound that is generally pronounced[k]) have a consonant that is very similar.[f]For instance, an areal feature of thePacific Northwestcoast is that historical *k has become palatalized in many languages, so thatSaanichfor example has/tʃ/and/kʷ/but no plain/k/;[11][12]similarly, historical *k in theNorthwest Caucasian languagesbecame palatalized to/kʲ/in extinctUbykhand to/tʃ/in mostCircassiandialects.[13]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Dionysius Thrax:
    σύμφωνα δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἑπτακαίδεκα· β γ δ ζ θ κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ τ φ χ ψ. σύμφωνα δὲ +λέγονται+, ὅτι αὐτὰ μὲν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὰ φωνὴν οὐκ ἔχει, συντασσόμενα δὲ μετὰ τῶν φωνηέντων φωνὴν ἀποτελεῖ.
    The remaining seventeen are consonants: b, g, d, z, th, k, l, m, n, x, p, r, s, t, ph, ch, ps. They are called 'sounded with' because they do not have a sound on their own, but, when arranged with vowels, they produce a sound.[3]
  2. ^Dionysius Thrax:
    τούτων ἡμίφωνα μέν ἐστιν ὀκτώ· ζ ξ ψ λ μ ν ρ σ. ἡμίφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι παρ᾽ ὅσον ἧττον τῶν φωνηέντων εὔφωνα καθέστηκεν ἔν τε τοῖς μυγμοῖς καὶ σιγμοῖς.
    Of these, eight are half-sounded: z, x, ps, l, m, n, r, s. They are called 'half-sounded' because, though a little weaker than the vowels, they are still harmonious [well-sounding] in their moaning and hissing.[3]
  3. ^Dionysius Thrax:
    ἄφωνα δέ ἐστιν ἐννέα· β γ δ κ π τ θ φ χ. ἄφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν κακόφωνα, ὥσπερ ἄφωνον λέγομεν τὸν τραγωιδὸν τὸν κακόφωνον.
    Nine are unsounded: b, g, d, k, p, t, th, ph, ch. They are called 'unsounded' because, more than the others, they are discordant [ill-sounding], just as we call the ill-sounding tragedist 'unsounded'.[3]
  4. ^Nǀu has/ts/instead.Hawaiianis often said to lack/t/,but it actually has a consonant that varies between[t]and[k].
  5. ^Samoan words written with the letterstandnpronounce them as[k]and[ŋ]except in formal speech. However, Samoan does have another alveolar consonant,/l/.
  6. ^The Niʻihau–Kauaʻi dialect ofHawaiianis often said to have no[k],but as in other dialects of Hawaiian it has a consonant that varies between[t]and[k].

References[edit]

  1. ^σύμφωνος.Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert;A Greek–English Lexiconat thePerseus Project
  2. ^Robert K. Barnhart,ed.,Chambers Dictionary of Etymology,Previously published asThe Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology,originally ©1988 The H.W. Wilson Company; Edinburgh, reprinted 2001: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., p. 210.
  3. ^abcDionysius Thrax.τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar),ς´ περὶ στοιχείου (6. On the Sound)
  4. ^ἡμίφωνοςinLiddellandScott
  5. ^ἄφωνοςinLiddellandScott
  6. ^Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian(1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages.Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN0-631-19815-6.
  7. ^Georges Dumézil and Tevfik Esenç, 1975,Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives.Adrien Maisonneuve: Paris.
  8. ^Naumann, Christfied (2008). "The Consonantal System of West!Xoon".3rd International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics.Riezlern.
  9. ^The most common sounds in spoken EnglishThe Language Nerds.
  10. ^"World Language Statistics and Facts".vistawide.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-01-14.Retrieved2019-01-13.
  11. ^Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984,Patterns of Sounds.Cambridge University Press
  12. ^"The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: Absence of Common Consonants".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-06-01.Retrieved2008-10-28.
  13. ^Viacheslav A. Chirikba, 1996,Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology,p. 192. Research School CNWS: Leiden.
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