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Consonants are speech sounds produced with some degree of obstruction or constriction in the vocal tract. Unlike vowels, where air flows freely through the mouth, consonants involve the articulators (tongue, lips, teeth, palate) coming close together or making contact to modify the airstream in various ways. English has 24 consonant phonemes, and understanding how they are classified and produced is fundamental to phonological analysis at A-Level.
Every consonant can be described using three parameters: voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation. Together, these three features uniquely identify each consonant sound.
Voicing refers to whether the vocal cords (vocal folds) in the larynx vibrate during the production of a sound.
| Type | Description | Example Pairs |
|---|---|---|
| Voiceless (unvoiced) | Vocal cords are apart and do not vibrate | /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /h/ |
| Voiced | Vocal cords are close together and vibrate | /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/ |
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