LG204 background.pdf

LG204-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background
out that all the other obstruents of English may occur in most positions of the word
(initial, medial and final), although, again, there may be gaps in certain contexts – a
matter I shall also take up in the second term.
Missing ‘obstruents’ and states of the glottis
I remarked at the beginning that the basic definition of ‘consonant’ would seem to
preclude the inclusion of the sounds [h] and [] (glottal stop) from the category. As
we know, the type of sound made with no oral obstruction is known as a vowel. We
shall be looking at these in a few weeks.
The two sounds in question, then, leave us with a characterisation problem. It’s clear
that [h] must be included in the inventory of English consonants, since it occurs in
minimal contrast with other true obstruents (for example hot vs. cot and got). One
wouldn’t normally want to include [] in this inventory, although it is a very common
sound in the language. This is because it never contrasts with any other consonant,
but is generally recognised as a contextual variant of a voiceless stop phoneme, in
particular [t]. The reason for its inclusion in this list is that it helps to exemplify a
certain state of the glottis.
The phoneme [h] is described in much of the literature, including CP and the IPA
chart, as a voiceless glottal fricative. It is possible that some frication does occur at
the glottis, since there appears to be more sound emitting than would occur if this
were merely produced by opening the glottis and letting air pass through. However,
another way of describing this sound is to characterise it as a burst of aspiration
similar to that we shall be discussing with regard to voiceless stops. This involves
what is known as a ‘spread glottis’. It has also been described in the literature as a
‘voiceless vowel’. This is because, [h] is always followed by a vowel and the mouth
will be formed into the shape of the vowel which is to follow it, but a puff of air will
be released, to introduce the vowel. Clearly, [h] is voiceless, since the vocal folds
remain open. It does, however, have a voiced counterpart, which isn’t phonemic,
merely contextual. When /h/ occurs between two vowels, as in behind or ahead, then
vocal fold vibration does take place. This feat is accomplished by allowing vibration
to take place in one part of the glottis whilst the other part remains open (see fig. 1.14
in CP). The phonetic symbol is [].
The glottal stop involves a momentary total closure of the glottis, with the vocal folds
tight rather than slack as for voicing. A term used for this state of affairs is
‘constricted glottis’. This can also refer to the situation where we get creaky voice,
where the total closure would occur at one end and a slacker closure at the other.
Creaky voice isn’t a distinctive feature of English, although it occurs in some
circumstances for certain types of effect. We won’t be discussing this in this course.
Fricatives that don’t usually appear in the basic inventory
In some dialects of English (in particular Scottish and perhaps American), there is a
contrast between the words which and witch. In other dialects, these words are
homophones. The second of these starts with [w], which will be discussed in due
course, but the first has a fricative initially. This sound is a labio-velar fricative. The
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