Phonemic Interference of Mother Tongue o

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

There are many kinds of languages in the world. Every person is born and raised up
in a particular language community and as a result the language that the person is more
exposed to will become his or her mother tongue. For example, Indonesia, as an
independent country, has an official language called “Bahasa Indonesia” and people all
over Indonesia must learn the National Language. However, there are several other
dialects as well, as the result of the fact that there are various tribes living within the
country, and certainly each of the dialects serves as a distinction feature which is unique
to a certain group of society. In such kind of environment, Hokkien is also considered a
dialect, even though it originated from a foreign country.
The writer is interested in writing a thesis in the domain of formal linguistics,
where the topic as the field of study for the thesis, namely, the topic dealing with
English phonemes which are often pronounced incorrectly by speakers of other
languages. To be more specific, the writer investigates a problem in learning
pronunciation, where phonemic interference of the students’ mother tongue occurs
during utterance of English.
This research is conducted in Fakultas Sastra Universitas Methodist Indonesia
Medan, in the English Literature Study Program. The writer noticed that some Chinese
students of Fakultas Sastra have a problem with phonemic interference of their mother

1

2
tongue, i.e. “Medan Hokkien1”. Therefore, the subjects used for this research are
Fakultas Sastra students and the object of the study is their English pronunciation. In
this thesis, the part of language to be studied is phonemes – particularly phonemics.
According to the writer, learning other languages is interesting and useful because
of globalization era. We will face many people from all over the world in the future, at
least in public and working places. Some languages have similarities and differences
with other languages. In this case, when a Chinese student in Fakultas Sastra
Universitas Methodist Indonesia (UMI) Medan intends to learn English, he will easily
master English by learning the proper pronunciation of English. He can use his mother
tongue language as the foundation to comprehend English. However, there are mother
tongue interferences which affect the student in pronouncing English. So, in order to be
able to master English well especially the appropriate phonemes, the system and the
characters of English should be known well.
1.1 The Background of the Study
Every language has its own pronunciation characteristics also called the sound
system of a language. The production of language sounds involves the air pressure,
movement and position of organs of speech, such as tongue, lips and their position

relative to the palate, and the oral cavity. The combination of these aspects in different
languages can be very different. Thus, when one studies a new language, one has to
overcome the difficulty of mastering all the sounds in the new language, in terms of
ability to identify the different sounds and to produce them correctly.
1 Medan Hokkien is a local variant of Hokkien spoken in Medan, Indonesia. It is the lingua franca in
Medan as well as other northern city states of North Sumatra surrounding it, and is characterised by the
pronunciation of words according to the Zhangzhou dialect. (Wikipedia s.v. “Medan Hokkien”)

3
Based on this, the writer investigates this difficulty among college students in
Medan who are from the Chinese ethnicity background and are studying English
language. In this study, the writer chooses some Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra
Universitas Methodist Indonesia (UMI) Medan who still have their mother tongue
interference, Hokkien, which affects their way in pronouncing English appropriately
and fluently as how a native speaker does speak it. Therefore, the writer is interested in
conducting a study on the phonemics so that the Chinese students can easily learn how
not to mispronounce English. Then, the phonetic transcription of their utterances will be
represented by using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
1.2 The Problems of the Study

The problems of this study will be related to the phonemic interference of mother
tongue of English pronunciation. The problems of the study can be formulated as
follows.
1.

What are the phonemic interferences in English made by the Chinese students
in Fakultas Sastra Universitas Methodist Indonesia (UMI) Medan?

2.

Which ones of those interferences do build up gap between the listener and the
speaker?

1.3 The Objectives of the Study

Objectives are the goals to be achieved in conducting the research. In this case, the
objectives are related to the findings of answers based on the questions raised in the
problems of the study. Therefore, the objectives of the study are as follows.

4

a.

to find out the phonemic interferences in English made by the Chinese students
in Fakultas Sastra Universitas Methodist Indonesia (UMI) Medan.

b.

to identify the most dominant interference in English pronounced by the
Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra Universitas Methodist Indonesia (UMI)
Medan which builds up a gap between them and the listener.

Furthermore, the wider objective of this thesis is to contribute something to human
knowledge.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The subjects that the writer takes in this thesis are some Chinese students in
Fakultas Sastra UMI and the object is their English pronunciation as the writer has
observed that some students in this faculty, especially the Chinese, have not mastered
English pronunciation. The students still can not overcome their mother tongue
interference in pronouncing English which might affect the native speaker in
understanding the meaning of the words.

The scope of the study is essential in order to avoid the incorporation of irrelevant
information to the conducted research. Consequently, this study focuses on the study of
English phonemes pronounced by the Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra UMI.
Therefore, this thesis will only provide information about the English and Hokkien
phonemes as the core elements of this study by using the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) as a means of the data analysis and the mother tongue interference is
Medan Hokkien as the students’ mother tongue is Medan Hokkien.
1.5 The Significances of the Study

5
In this thesis, there are two significances of the study, namely:
1. Theoretically, this study deals with the Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra
Universitas Methodist Indonesia in pronouncing English properly by
overcoming their mother tongue interference. So, it is aimed to give information
to the readers about the competence of the Chinese students in pronouncing
proper English phonemes.
2. Practically, this thesis is significant for the students to pronounce English
properly. The students as the respondents will also know their problem by
reading the analysis. This thesis will help them to be aware of their mother
tongue interference on English pronunciation.

3. CHAPTER II
4. THEORETICAL REVIEW

5. In this chapter, the writer discusses the theoretical review used in this
study. The writer would like to begin by clarifying the terms used in the present
study, such as: interference, mother tongue and Hokkien. After this, the writer
shall explore phonology and phoneme. The writer hopes that the present chapter
provides a useful theoretical background to the present study.
2.1 Clarification of the Terms

6.

In second-language learning, there is always a source language as a

bridge to learn the target language. The source language in this case is mother
tongue. Therefore, in using both languages, there is something which influences
one another named interference. Glottopedia (s.v. “interference”) defines
interference as: “the influence of one language (or variety) on another in the
speech of bilinguals who use both languages.”

7. According to Weinreich (1953: 1), the interference happens due to the
familiarity of the speaker with more than a language. He states that, "those
instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the
speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language,

6

i.e. as a result of language contact, will be referred to as INTERFERENCE
phenomena."

7

8
8. Crystal (1987: 372) defines phonemic interference as:
9. “when we encounter a foreign language, our natural tendency is to hear it in
terms of the sounds of our own language. We actually perceive it rather
differently from the way native speakers do. Equally, when we speak a foreign
language we tend to attempt to do so using the familiar sounds and sound
patterns of our mother tongue. We make it sound, objectively, rather differently
from how it sounds when spoken by native speakers.”

10.
11.Chomsky (1968: 400) also adds further about the mother tongue interference
which may cause a problem for the learners as:
12.
“any sound-types in the L2 that have no obvious counterpart in the
L1 are likely to cause problems for learners. Thus the English dental fricatives,
[θ] and [ð], are a familiar stumbling-block for beginning learners from many
language backgrounds.”
13.
14.
Wells (1982: 96-97) mentions that sound types are also a stumblingblock for native speakers as being among the last sounds that children acquire and
tending to be replaced by [f, v] or [t, d] in various local accents.
15.

The influence of one language on another in the speech of bilinguals is
relevant both to the field of second language acquisition (where the interference
from the learner's native language is studied) and to the field of historical
linguistics (where the effects of interference on language change are studied).
There is a verb that is derivationally related to the noun interference, i.e. to
interfere. Then, the source language that is used in learning target language

named mother tongue is defined by Pokorn (2005: 3) as:

16.
"the speaker's dominant and home language, i.e. not only the first
language according to the time of acquisition, but the first with regard to its
importance and the speaker's ability to master its linguistic and communicative
aspects.”
17. From the quotation above, it is clear that mother tongue does not only mean the

9
18. language that a person gets from his mother or a person’s home language, but
also other
19. languages that he masters well. “Master” in this case means the linguistic and
the communicative aspects of the language. Tulasiewics and Anthony Adams
describe mother tongue in their book entitled "What Is Mother Tongue?"
Teaching the Mother Tongue in a Multilingual Europe (2005: 5) as:
20.
"the language community of the mother tongue, the language spoken
in a region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an
individual into a particular system of linguistic perception of the world and

participation in the centuries old history of linguistic production."
21.

So, the mother tongue can also be defined as a language spoken in a

region which enables the process itself. When a person was between 1 until 5 years old
and he is an Indonesian, his first language was Bahasa Indonesia. However, since the
age of 6, he has moved to the United States till present. Then, his mother tongue was not
only Bahasa Indonesia, but also English as he lived in the United States early and long
enough to acquire English naturally. In addition, he also masters English in linguistic
and communicative aspects which strengthen his ability in speaking English well.
22.

To prove this case, Calvet states the description of mother tongue as:

23.
"a mixture of myth and ideology. The family is not necessarily the
place where languages are transmitted, and sometimes we observe breaks in
transmission, often translated by a change of language, with children acquiring
as first language the one that dominates in the milieu." (2006: 159)

24.

After the descriptions of mother tongue, the term of Hokkien will be

defined due to the relationship of Hokkien as the mother tongue of the Chinese students
in Fakultas Sastra UMI. Hokkien is known as a division of Chinese dialect which has
spread widely to other areas or countries, namely, Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong,

10
Taiwan, Indonesia, etc. Suppose you are the one living in Medan, then you will agree
that Hokkien is the most wide spread dialect in town among several others that exist in
the Chinese society. This kind of fact can easily be proven, particularly, when two or
more persons gather together, either acquainted or not, they will be ready to apply the
dialect among themselves. Due to this fact, the application of the dialect is like a kind of
unwritten law. Therefore, in short, it can be said that Hokkien is also a “lingua franca”
for a certain country, like Indonesia, especially in Medan.
25.

However, when we are talking about Chinese, people always assume that

language or mother tongue used by the Chinese is Mandarin rather than Hokkien.
Moreover, specifically in Medan, not all Chinese people can pronounce Mandarin.
Mandarin is usually learnt at schools. So, the mother tongue that is used by the Chinese
in Medan is Hokkien. To differ both Mandarin and Hokkien, it is important to know
their backgrounds. Wikipedia (s.v. “Mandarin”) gives a description of Mandarin as:
“a group of related varieties or dialects spoken across most of
northern and southwestern China. Because most Mandarin dialects are found in
the north, the group is also referred to, particularly among Chinese speakers, as
the "northern dialect(s)". When the Mandarin group is taken as one language,
as is often done in academic literature, it has more native speakers (nearly a
billion) than any other language.”
26.

27.

With the above description on Mandarin, it is clear that Mandarin is

widely spoken in the world. But as a second international language which can be learnt
through schools.
28.

The language which affected the Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra

UMI in pronouncing English is Medan Hokkien. Wikipedia (s.v. “Medan Hokkien”)
gives a description of Medan Hokkien as:

11
29.
“a local variant of Hokkien spoken in Medan, Indonesia. It is the
lingua franca in Medan as well as other northern city states of North Sumatra
surrounding it, and is characterised by the pronunciation of words according to
the Zhangzhou dialect, together with widespread use of Indonesian and English
borrowed words. It is predominantly a spoken dialect: it is rarely written in
Chinese characters, and there is no standard romanisation.”
30.

So, Medan Hokkien has been influenced by the Indonesian language as

well which makes it distinct from the original Hokkien in mainland China. With the
above description on Medan Hokkien, it is clear that Medan Hokkien is widely spoken
in North Sumatra, especially in Medan.
2.2 Phonology

In the study of a language, formal linguistics is based on a structural

31.

approach to the language. Formal linguistics is the approach to the study of
language, that see the formation of language and its elements to be the key to
understand linguistic processes and structures. Almost all linguistic theory has
its origin in practical problems of formal linguistics. One of the theory is
phonology. Phonology has developed to describe how sound is produced and
pronounced.
32.

To know obviously about phonology, it is necessary to clarify the

definition according to some linguists. The definition of phonology is defined by Lass
(1984: 1) as
33.
“the subdiscipline within linguistics concerned with ‘the sound of
language’ . . . phonology proper is concerned with the function, behaviour, and
organization of sounds as LINGUISTIC items; as opposed to phonetics, which
is a rather more ‘neutral’ study of the sounds themselves.”
34.

12
35.

Lass (1984: 4) also describes some other points of general agreement

relating to phonology as follows.
36.
“no language has consonants made with the tip of the tongue
against the vocal folds, or vowels made with simultaneous spreading and
rounding of the lips (for obvious reasons); but no language appears to have
segments made with the tongue-tip against the left premolars. . . including such
items as places of articulation, airstream), positions of the velum, states of the
glottis, etc., which can be used to classify.”
37.

It is clear that not all number of sound types can be used in human

languages based on the articulation, positions of the velum, states of the glottis, and etc.
To know more about the sound system, Crystal states the aim of the phonology in his
book entitled How Language Works (2005: 66) is:
38.
“to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are
organized in languages and to explain the variations that occur. . . by analyzing
an individual language to determine which sound units are used and which
patterns they form-the language's sound system. . . compare the properties of
different sound systems. . . .”
39.

He also states that phonetics and phonology are different. According to

Crystal, the difference between both of them as:
“phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds, phonology
studies the way in which a language's speakers systematically use a selection of
these sounds in order to express meaning. . . . No two speakers have
anatomically identical vocal tracts, and thus no one produces sounds in exactly
the same way as anyone else. Phonology is the study of how we find order
within the apparent chaos of speech sounds.” (2005: 67)
40.

41.

Therefore, when we are using our language, it is obvious that no one

will produce the sounds exactly in the same way. It also occurs when we are talking to
a native speaker. Sometimes, the native speaker can not understand well what we are
talking about. There is a great deal of evidence that native speakers rely very much on
the pronunciation when they are listening. According to Collins in Practical Phonetics
and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students (2003: 2) that:

13
42.
“the study of both phonetics (the science of speech sound) and
phonology (how sounds pattern and function in a given language) are going to
help you to learn more about language in general and English in particular. If
you’re an English native speaker, you’ll be likely to discover much about your
mother tongue of which you were previously unaware. If you’re a non-native
learner, it will also assist in improving your pronunciation and listening
abilities.”
43.

In addition, Trubetzkoy also describes that phonology concerns with

phonemes. He states that:
44.
“phonology is concerned not with the sounds of speech as physical,
physiological, or psychophysiological phenomena but rather with phonemes,
the sound intentions present in the linguistic conciousness and realized in
speech. . . study of such systems has shown that the relations among their
elements are of many different types.” (2001: 3)
45.

From the description above, we see that the phonology is a field in

learning not only the sounds of speech but also the phonemes in speech. For addition, it
also concerns in the phoneme systems. Nathan defines phonology in his book
Phonology: A Cognitive Grammar Introduction (2008: 10) as it is:
"not only about phonemes and allophones. . . also concerns itself
with the principles governing the phoneme systems--that is, with what sounds
languages 'like' to have, which sets of sounds are most common. . . there are
prototype-based explanations for why the phoneme system of the languages of
the world have the sounds that they do."
46.

47.

So

it is clear that phonology is the study which concerns about phonemes, allophones, and
the phoneme systems.
2.3 Phoneme

48.

Kno

wing a language means knowing what sounds are in the language and what sounds are
not. Almost every language spoken all over the world consists of a set of sounds

14
produced by organs of speech together with certain attributes. The picture of the organs
of speech can be seen in Figure 1 according to Nasr (1997: 7), below.
49.
50.
51. The Organs of Speech
52. 1-nasal cavity
2-lips
3-teeth
4-aveolar ridge
5-hard palate
6-velum (soft palate)
7-uvula
8-apex (tip) of
tongue
9-blade (front) of
tongue
10-dorsum (back) of
tongue
11-oral cavity
12-pharynx
13-epiglottis
14-larynx
15-vocal cords
16-trachea
17-esophagus
53.

54.

55.

56.
57.

Figure 1

The set of sounds is called the speech sounds language and represented

by phonemes. Webster’s II New College Dictionary defines phoneme as: “one of the set
of the smallest units of speech that distinguish one utterance or word from another in a
given language.” (s.v. “phoneme”)
58.

Roach defines phoneme (2009: 32) as:

15
59.
“an abstract set of units as the basis of our speech. . . and the
complete set of these units is called the phonemic system of the language. The
phonemes themselves are abstract, but there are many slightly different ways in
which we make the sounds that represent these phonemes.”
60.

Sounds are heard. Letters are seen. Letters provide a means of

symbolizing sounds. Murray explains in his book entitled The Structure of English
(1995: 75) that:
61. "the central concept in phonology is the phoneme, which is a distinctive

category of sounds that all the native speakers of a language or dialect perceive
as more or less the same. . . . [A]lthough the two [k] sounds in kicked are not
identical--the first one is pronounced with more aspiration than the second-they are heard as two instances of [k] nonetheless. . . . (In other words, we
cannot hear phonemes, but we assume they exist because of how the sounds in
languages pattern as they are used by speakers.)”
62.

To know more about phonemes, it can be seen through the analogy with

the letters of the alphabet. Greenbaum in his book entitled The Oxford English
Grammar states that:
63. "the concepts of phoneme and allophone become clearer by analogy with

the letters of the alphabet. We recognize that a symbol is a despite considerable
variations in size, colour, and (to a certain extent) shape. The representation of
the letter a is affected in handwriting by the preceding or following letters to
which it is joined." (1996: 62)
64.

Systematically, every phoneme can be identified into two main classes

known as vowel and consonant. According to Roach (2009: 2), it is important to learn
English pronunciation through the phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet:
65.
“we can identify a small number of regularly used sounds (vowels
and consonants) that we call phonemes;. . . the vowels in the words ‘pin’ and
‘pen’ are different phonemes, and so are the consonants at the beginning at the
words ‘pet’ and ‘bet’. Because of the notoriously confusing nature of English
spelling, it is particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation
in terms of phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet.”

16
66.

In learning one’s utterance, there are phonemic systems that should be

recognized. Pike (1947: 57) developed a phonemic theory for deriving an easily-learned
writing system from a spoken language:
67.
“the purpose of practical phonemics, therefore, is to reduce a
language to writing. The sounds of a language are automatically and
unconsciously organized by the native [speakers] into structural units, which
we call phonemes…a practical orthography is phonemic…it has one, and only
one, symbol for each sound unit…once a native learns an orthography which is
closely correlated with his sound units, there is no ’spelling’ problem.”
68.

Then, Swadesh (1934: 117-129) describes further about the phonemic

system concerning how the native speakers hear the speech with a foreign tongue
spoken:
69.
“the phonemes of a language are, in a sense, percepts to the native speakers of
the given language, who ordinarily hear speech entirely in terms of these
percepts. If they hear a foreign tongue spoken, they still tend to hear in terms of
their native phonemes. . . . If linguists occasionally have difficulty in
discovering the phonemes of a language, it is usually when the language is not
native to them. . . in dealing with their own language, they be confused by
some irrelevant or only partly relevant insight.”
70.

Phonetic symbols might represent the phoneme systems as the sound of
the language. They are called as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). IPA
is the standardized phonetic symbol in the world. Roach describes International
Phonetic Alphabet (2001: 5):

71. “one of the most important achievements in phonetics over the past century

has been to arrive at a system of phonetic symbols that anyone can learn to use
and that can be used to represent the sounds of any language. This is the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Taking English as an example of a
writing system that does not always give a reliable guide to pronunciation, we
find that for various purposes (including teaching the pronunciation) it is
helpful to use phonetic transcription instead of ordinary spelling. Many of the
symbols we use are the same as the familiar alphabetic ones."

17
72.

Phonetic transcription is a system for transcribing sounds that occur in a

language, whether oral or sign. The most widely known system of phonetic
transcription, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), provides a standardized set of
symbols for oral phones. The standardized nature of the IPA enables its users to
transcribe accurately and consistently the phones of different languages, dialects, and
idiolects. The IPA is a useful tool not only for the study of phonetics, but also for
language teaching, professional acting, and speech pathology. The use of IPA is very
important when we are learning languages. Especially when learning foreign languages,
the most important thing that we should know in advance is how to pronounce the word,
instead of how the word is written.
73.

The importance of IPA is mentioned by Trask (2007: 124) as:

74.
"though they are primarily designed for representing speech sounds
(objective
75.
physical events), the IPA symbols are naturally also widely used for
representing the phonemes of particular languages."
76.

The IPA is not only used to represent speech sounds but also to

represent the phonemes of particular languages. However, the phoneme symbol
consisting of an IPA symbol in phoneme slashes might not be pronounced exactly as
how the IPA symbol is pronounced. Crystal (2008: 125) states that:
77. "the prestige British accent known as 'received pronunciation' (RP)

pronounces h at the beginning of words, as in hurt, and avoids it in such words
as arm. Cockney speakers do the reverse; I 'urt my harm. Most English accents
around the world pronounce words like car and heart with an audible r; RP is
one of the few accents which does not. In RP, words like bath are pronounced
with a 'long a' ('bahth"); up north in England it is a 'short a.' Accent variations
mainly affect the vowels of a language."

18
78. The influence of accent on how a person pronounces English is described by

Trudgill (2004: 7), "your accent is the way you pronounce English when you speak it-and of course everybody therefore has an accent. Your dialect, on the other hand, has to
79. do also with the grammatical forms that you use, as well, perhaps, as any

regional vocabulary that you employ.”
80.

So, the accent of Hokkien mother tongue affects the way how the

Chinese pronounce English, escpecially in terms of the phonemes or phonemic contrast.
Roach (2001: 6) describes accents as:
81. "differences between accents are of two main sorts: phonetic and

phonological. When two accents differ from each other only phonetically, we
find the same set of phonemes in both accents, but some or all of the phonemes
are realised differently. There may also be differences in stress and intonation,
but not such as would cause a change in meaning. . . . Within the area of
segmental phonology the most obvious type of difference is where one accent
has a different number of phonemes (and hence of phonemic contrasts) from
another."
82.

Therefore, due to the purpose of this thesis is to see the English

pronunciation of the Chinese students in Fakultas Sastra UMI, transcription based on
IPA is highly recommended to be used because readers are not expected to become
specialists in phonetics, but to become aware of the mother tongue accent which can
affect the phoneme of a language.
2.3.1 Sound

83.

Sounds are, in essence, waves in the air. The sounds which are made by

human, articulated by our own language are called speech sounds. When the air stream
comes from lungs, below the adam’s apple, there is a membrane which can be opened
and closed. The classification of sound are segmental (consonants and vowels), and

19
suprasegmental (stress and length, intonation, and juncture). The sound which passes
the vocal cord with vibration is called voiced sound. The sound which passes the vocal
cord without vibration is called voiceless sound.
2.3.1.1 Consonants

84.

Roach (2004: 240) defines consonants as they are produced by restricting

and then releasing the flow of air in three ways: vibrating the vocal cords, changing the
part of the anatomy which restricts the air flow, and changing the extent to which the air
flow is restricted. Consonants with relatively little vibration of the vocal cords are called
voiceless consonants (p, t, k, θ, s, ʃ, tʃ, f, h). Consonants with relatively more vibration
of the vocal cords are called voiced consonants (b, d, g, ð, z, dʒ, ʒ, v, m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, j).
85.

All articulated sounds are consonants. Consonants include all breathed

sounds,
86. all voiced sounds formed by means of an obstruction in the mouth, all those in
which
87. there is a narrowing of the air passage giving rise to a frictional noise, and
certain sounds which are gliding. The classification of English consonants can
be seen through these following descriptions by Roach (2004: 241-243):
A. According to the organs which articulate them.
1. Bilabial - Air flow is restricted with both lips. (p, b, m, w)
2. Dental - Air flow is restricted with the teeth. (θ, ð)

20
3. Labio-dental - Air flow is restricted with the top teeth on the bottom lip (if both
lips are used the sound is called bilabial). (f, v)
4. Alveolar - Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue on the hard plate (alveolum)
behind the top front teeth. (t, d, r, l, s, z, n)
5. Palatal - Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue on the soft palate behind the
alveolum. (j)
6. Alveo-palatal – Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue on the soft plate
behind the front teeth. (ʃ, tʃ, ʒ, dʒ)
7. Velar - Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue far back in the mouth. (k, g, ŋ)
8. Glottal - Air flow is restricted by tightening the folds in the vocal cords (glottis).
(h)
88.
B. According to the manner in which the organs articulate them.
1. Plosive - Air flow is stopped and released suddenly. (p, t, k, b, d, g)
2. Fricative - Air flow is released gradually and makes a kind of hissing sound. (s, z,
89.

θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, f, v, h)

3. Affricate - Air flow is stopped and released gradually (resembling a plosive but
90.

with separation of the articulating organs performed less quickly, with

the result that a fricative sound is perceived during the process of separation). (tʃ,
dʒ)
4. Nasal - Air flow is channeled through the nasal cavity. (m, n, ŋ)
5. Liquid - Air flow is channeled around the sides of the tongue: lateral (l), flap (r)

21
6. Glide - Air flow is only partially restricted (these sounds are often called semivowels). (j, w)
91. English Consonants in Details

92. To understand more about the manner and the organs of articulation, Silitonga
(2008: 1-35) describes the English consonants as:
A. English Plosive Consonants

93.

The explosion of a consonant is formed by the air as it suddenly escapes

at the instant when the stop is released. Plosive consonants are formed by completely
closing the air passage, then compressing the air and suddenly opening the passage,
so that the air escapes making an explosive sound. There are six plosive consonant
phonemes in English. They are represented in phonetic transcription by the letter p, t,
k, b, d, g.
1. /p/
94.

In pronouncing the principal member of the English p, the air passage is

completely blocked by closing the lips and raising the soft palate; the air is
compressed by the pressure from the lungs, and in doing so makes an explosive
sounds; the vocal cords are not made to vibrate. The formation of the sound may
95.

be expressed shortly in defining it as a voiceless bilabial plosive

consonant.
2. /t/

22
96.

In pronouncing the principal member of the English t, the air passage is

completely blocked by raising the soft palate and raising the tip of the tongue to
touch the teeth-ridge, the air is compressed by pressure from lungs, and when the
tongue is removed from the teeth-ridge, the air suddenly escapes through the
mouth, and in doing so makes an explosive sound, the vocal cords are not made to
vibrate. The formation of the sound may be expressed shortly by defining it as a
voiceless alveolar plosive consonant.
3. /k/
97.

In pronouncing the common varieties of k, the air passage is completely

blocked by raising the back of the tongue to touch the fore part of the soft palate,
the soft palate being at the same time raised so as to shut off the nose passage, the
air is compressed by tongue with the palate is released by lowering the tongue, the
air suddenly escapes through the mouth, and in doing so makes an explosive
sound; the vocal cords are not made to vibrate. The forming of the principal
member of English k may be expressed shortly by defining it as a voiceless velar
plosive consonant.
4. /b/
98.

The principal English b is formed like the principal English p that the

force exhalation is weaker and the vocal cords are made to vibrate so that voice is
produced during the articulation of the sound. The formation of the principal
English b may therefore be expressed shortly by defining it as a voiced bilabial
99.
5. /d/

plosive consonant.

23
100.

The principal member of the English d is formed like the principal

English t except that the force of exhalation is weaker and the vocal cords are
made to vibrate so that voice is heard. The formation of the principal English d
may be therefore be expressed shortly by defining it as a voiced alveolar plosive
consonant.
6. /g/
101.

The principal English g is formed exactly like the principal English k

except that force of exhalation is weaker and the vocal cords are made to vibrate
so that voice is heard. The formation of the principal English g may therefore be
expressed shortly by defining the sound as a voiced velar plosive consonant.
102.
B. English Fricative Consonants

103.

Fricative consonants are formed by a narrowing of the air passage at

some points so when the air is expelled by pressure from the lungs, it escapes with a
kind of hissing sound. In English, there are ten fricative consonant phonemes. They
are represented by the letters s, z, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, f, v, h, r.
1. /s/
104.

The English s may be considered for practical language teaching as

comprising only one sound. This sound is articulated by the blade of tongue
against the teeth-ridge, the front of the tongue being at the same time somewhat
raised in the direction of the hard palate. The teeth are closed together, the sound
cannot be pronounced with the wide opened mouth. The space between the blade

24
of the tongue and the teeth-ridge is extremely narrow. The soft palate is in its
raised position, and the vocal cords are not made to vibrate. The formation of the s
may be expressed shortly by defining the sound as a breathed blade-alveolar
fricative consonant.
2. /z/
105.

The principal English z is the voiced consonant corresponding to the

breathed s. The formation of the sound may be expressed shortly by defining it as
a voiced blade-alveolar fricative consonant. It is articulated by the blade of the
tongue against the teeth-ridge, the front of the tongue being at the same time
slightly raised in the direction together, and the hard palate. The teeth are brought
closed together, and the passage between the blade of the tongue and the teethridge is extremely narrow. The soft palate is in its raised position, and the vocal
cords are made to vibrate so that voice is produced.
3. /θ/
106.

The sound θ is articulated by the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth,

the main part of the tongue being fairly flat, the air passage between the tip of the
tongue and the upper teeth is narrow, the soft palate is in its raised position and the
vocal cords are not made to vibrate. The formation of θ may be expressed shortly
by defining it as a breathed dental fricative consonant.
4. /ð/
107.

The principal member of the English phoneme represented by ð is the

voiced consonant corresponding to the breathed θ. Its formation may be expressed
shortly

25
108.

be defining it as a voiced dental fricative consonant.

5. /ʃ/
109.

The normal English ʃ is articulated by the tip and blade of the tongue

against the hinder part of the teeth-ridge, the whole of the main body of the tongue
being simultaneously held in a raised position after the manner. The teeth are
closed or fairly closed together, the sound cannot be properly pronounced with the
wide opened mouth. The space between the blade of the tongue and the teethridge is narrow, though wider than for s; on the other hand, the air channel in the
region of the palate is narrower than in the case of s. There is protrusion of the
lips. The soft palate is in its raised position, and the vocal cords are not made to
vibrate. The formation of ʃ may be expressed shortly by defining the sound as a
breathed alveo-palatal fricative consonant.
6. /ʒ/
110.

The principal English ʒ is formed like ʃ except that the air pressure is

weaker and the vocal cords are made to vibrate so that voice is produced during
the articulation of the sound. It may be described as a voiced alveo-palatal
fricative consonant.
7. /f/
111.

The sound f is formed by pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth

and allowing the air to force its way between them and through the interstices of
the teeth, the soft palate is in its raised position and the glottis is left opened. This
forming may be expressed shortly by defining the sound as as breathed labiodental fricative consonant.

26
8. /v/
112.

The principal English v is formed like the principal English f except that

the vocal cords are made to vibrate so that voice is produced during the
articulation of the sound. The formation of v may therefore be expressed shortly
by defining it as a voiced labio-dental fricative consonant.
9. /h/
113.

The letter h denotes the sound of pure breath having a free passage

through the mouth. This letter is used in transcribing English and many other
languages to represent any one of the sounds produced when the mouth is held in
a vowel position and the air is emitted through the wide opened glottis. The
different varieties of h are known as breathed glottal fricative consonants, since
the friction produced by the air passing through the glottis is the feature common
to all of them.
10. /r/
114.

The most usual English r is a fricative lingual sound. It is articulated by

the tip of the tongue against the back part of the teeth-ridge, the main body of the
tongue being kept low and the front being held concave to the palate, and the
whole tongue being laterally contracted. The distance between the jaws is
immaterial, the sound can be pronounced with a wide aspiration between the
upper and lower teeth. The soft palate is in its raised position, and the vocal cords
are made to vibrate so that voice is produced during the articulation of the sound.
The formation of this r may be expressed shortly by defining the sound as a
voiced alveolar fricative consonant.

27
C. English Africate Consonants
115.

An affricate consonant is a kind of plosive in which the articulating

organs are separated more slowly than usual. In pronouncing ordinary plosive, the
separation is made with great rapidity, and the acoustic effect of the consonant might
be called ‘clean-cut’; the plossion itself may be regarded as an instantaneous noise, if
a vowel or an aspiration h follows, the ear cannot detect any intermediate glide
between the plossion and the vowel or aspiration. In English, there are two common
affricates which may be represented phonetically by tʃ, dʒ.
1. /tʃ/
116.

In pronouncing the principal member of the English tʃ phoneme, the air

passage is completely blocked by raising the soft palate and raising the tip and
blade of the tongue into the position, that is a closed position in which the main
part of the tongue is shaped nearly as for ʃ, while the stop is being held, the air is
compressed by the pressure from the lungs, when the tongue is removed from the
teeth-ridge, the air escapes through the mouth: the removal of the tongue is
performed in such a way as the effect of the audible homorganic fricative ʃ before
any following sound is reached; the vocal cords are not made to vibrate. The
formation of tʃ may be expressed shortly by defining it as a voiceless alveo-palatal
affricate consonant.
2. /dʒ/
117.

The principal member of the English dʒ phoneme is formed like tʃ

except that the

28
118.

vocal cords are made to vibrate so that voice is produced during the

articulation of the sound. The formation of the sound may therefore be expressed
shortly by
119. defining it as a voiced alveo-palatal affricate consonant.
D. English Nasal Consonants

120.

Nasal consonants are formed by closing the mouth passage completely at

some points, the soft palate being held in its lower position so that the air is free to
pass out through the nose. There are three nasal consonant phonemes in English
which are represented phonetically by the letters m, n, ŋ.
1. /m/
121.

The principal member of the English m phoneme is formed when the

mouth passage is completely blocked by closing the lips, the soft palate is
lowered. So when the air is emitted by the pressure from the lungs, it passes out
through the nose, the tongue is held in a neutral position, the vocal cords are made
to vibrate so that voice is produced. The formation of the sound may be expressed
shortly by defining it as a voiced bilabial nasal consonant.
2. /n/
122.

The principal member of the English n phoneme is formed when the

mouth passage is completely blocked by raising the tip of the tongue to touch the
teeth ridge, the soft palate is lowered. When the air is emitted by the pressure from
the lungs, it passes out through the nose, the vocal cords are made to vibrate so

29
that voice is produced. This formation may be expressed shortly by defining the
sound as voiced alveolar nasal consonant.
3. /ŋ/
123.

The principal member of the English ŋ phoneme is formed when the

mouth passage is completely blocked by raising the back of the tongue to touch
the fore part of the soft palate, the soft palate is in its lower position. When the air
is emitted by the pressure from the lungs, it issues through the nose, the vocal
cords are made to vibrate, so that voice is produced. The formation of this ŋ may
be expressed shortly by defining it as a voiced velar nasal consonant.
124.
E. English Glide (Semi-vowel) Consonants

125.

Semi-vowels are defined as independent vowel glides in which the

speech organs start by forming a weakly closed articulated vowel immediately move
to another sound of equal or greater prominence; the initial vowel position is not held
for any appreciable time. It is the rapid gliding nature of the sounds, combined with
the use of rather weak force of exhalation that renders them consonantal. In English,
there are two semi-vowel consonants which are represented phonetically by the
letters w and j.
1. /w/
126.

The position of the starting point may therefore be describe as: the lips

are closely rounded, there is considerable rising of the back of the tongue in the
direction of the soft palate, the soft palate is in its raised position, the vocal cords

30
are made to vibrate so that voice is heard. The formation of w may be expressed
shortly by defining the sound as a labio-velar semi-vowel consonant.
2. /j/
127.

The position of the starting point of the principal English j may be

described as: the front of the tongue is raised rather high in the direction of the
hard palate, the lips are spread, the soft palate is in its raised position, the vocal
cords are made to
128.

vibrate so that voice is heard. The formation of j may be expressed

shortly by
129.
130.

defining the sound as an unrounded palatal semi-vowel consonant.
Through the descriptions above, English consonants and their features

can be formulated as Table 1, below:
131.
132.
157.
Consonan
182.
207.
232.
257. L
282.
307.
332.
357.
382.
407.
432.
458.
483.
508.
533.

Table 1. English Consonants and Their Features

133.134.135.136.137.138.139.140.141.142.143.144.145.146. 147.148.149.150.151.152.153.154.155.156.
158.159.160.161.162.163.164.165.166.167.168.169.170.171. 172.173.174.175.176.177.178.179.180.181.
p 184.
t 185.
k 186.
θ 187.
s 188.
f 191.
h 192.
b 193.
d 194.
g 195.
ð 196.
z 197.
d 198.
v 2m00.201.202.203.
n ŋ l 204.
r 2w05.206.
j
ʃ 1tʃ89.190.
ʒ 199.
183.
208.209.210.211.212.213.214.215.216.217.218.219.220.221. 222.223.224.225.226.227.228.229.230.231.
233.234.235.236.237.238.239.240.241.242.243.244.245.246. 247.248.249.250.251.252.253.254.255.256.
258.259.260.261.262.263.264.265.266.267.268.269.270.271. 272.273.274.275.276.277.278.279.280.281.
283.284.285.286.287.288.289.290.291.292.293.294.295.296. 297.298.299.300.301.302.303.304.305.306.
308.309.310.311.312.313.314.315.316.317.318.319.320.321. 322.323.324.325.326.327.328.329.330.331.
333.334.335.336.337.338.339.340.341.342.343.344.345.346. 347.348.349.350.351.352.353.354.355.356.
358.359.360.361.362.363.364.365.366.367.368.369.370.371. 372.373.374.375.376.377.378.379.380.381.
383.384.385.386.387.388.389.390.391.392.393.394.395.396. 397.398.399.400.401.402.403.404.405.406.
408.409.410.411.412.413.414.415.416.417.418.419.420.421. 422.423.424.425.426.427.428.429.430.431.
434.435.436.437.438.439.440.441.442.443.444.445.446.447. 448.449.450.451.452.453.454.455.456.457.
459.460.461.462.463.464.465.466.467.468.469.470.471.472. 473.474.475.476.477.478.479.480.481.482.
484.485.486.487.488.489.490.491.492.493.494.495.496.497. 498.499.500.501.502.503.504.505.506.507.
509.510.511.512.513.514.515.516.517.518.519.520.521.522. 523.524.525.526.527.528.529.530.531.532.
534.535.536.537.538.539.540.541.542.543.544.545.546.547. 548.549.550.551.552.553.554.555.556.557.

31
558.
583.

559.560.561.562.563.564.565.566.567.568.569.570.571.572. 573.574.575.576.577.578.579.580.581.582.
584.585.586.587.588.589.590.591.592.593.594.595.596.597. 598.599.600.601.602.603.604.605.606.607.
608.
609.

Final Consonants in English

610.

A final consonant is any consonant that is the last sound in a word.

Consonant sounds that end words are very important as they can determine a
grammatical aspect as well as word meaning.
611.
2.3.1.2 Vowels

612.

According to Roach (2004: 240), vowels are produced by directing the

flow of air into different parts of the mouth. They can be adjusted by changing the
position of the tongue, by rounding of the lips, and by the degree of opening of the
mouth. All vowels are voiced. The position of the tongue can be described in terms of
how far forward the tongue is and how high it is. All vowels can be described in terms
of their location on both vertical and horizontal axes. Roach (2004: 241-243)
categorizes vowels as follows, depending on the position of the tongue:
1. Front - The tongue is in the front of the mouth. (i:, ɪ, e, æ)
2. Central - The tongue is further back in the mouth. (ə:, ə, ʌ, ɑ:)
3. Back - The tongue is in the back of the mouth. (ʊ:, ʊ, ɔ:, ɔ)
4. High - The tongue is high in the mouth. (i:, ɪ, ʊ:, ʊ)
5. Mid - The tongue is lower in the mouth. (e, ə, ə:, ʌ, ɔ:, ɔ)
6. Low - The tongue is low in the mouth. (æ, ɑ:)

32
7. Rounded - The corner of the lips come close to each other. (ʊ:, ʊ, ɔ:, ɔ, ɑ:)
8. Neutral - The corner of the lips in between. (ə:, ə, ʌ)
9. Unrounded - The corner of the lips stay away from each other. (i:, ɪ, e, æ)
613.

English Vowels in Details

614.

Vowels in English can be divided and described into following according

to Silitonga (2008: 36-54):
1. /i:/
615.The letter i: is the member of the English i phoneme used when the vowel is
relatively long. The following is a formal description of the manner of forming the
vowel:
a. Height of tongue: nearly closed.
b. Part of tongue which is the highest: centre of front.
c. Position of lips: unrounded.
d. Opening between the jaws: narrow to medium.
2. /ɪ/
616.The letter ɪ or i without the length mark : stands for the members of the English i
phoneme used when the sound is relatively short. The following is a formal
description of the manner of forming this English short ɪ or i as:
a. Height of tongue: nearly half-closed.
b. Part of tongue which is the highest: the hinder part of front.
c. Position of lips: unrounded.
d. Opening between the jaws: narrow to medium.

33
3. /e/
617.The following is a formal description of the manner of forming the sound:
a. Height of tongue: intermediate between half-closed and half-opened.
b. Part of tongue which is the highest: the front.
c. Position of lips: unrounded.
d. Opening between the jaws: medium.
618.
4. /æ/
619.The following is a formal description of the manner of form