The description of English fricatives

Fricative is defined, according to Tam Ha Cam (2005), as consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced, air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. They are continuant consonants, as you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs.

1.1.1.1. Labio- dental Fricatives :/f,v/

/f/ is a labio-dental, voiceless, fortis consonant. It is produced by pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth and forcing the air out between them. The sound can be spelt f - as in fine, flare, fringe, feud, loaf, stifle, ff - as in effort, snuff, ph - as in physics, graph, or even gh - as in enough, tough.

Figure 2: Place and manner articulation of the sound /f/

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html )

A.study.on.mistakes.commonly.commited.by.the.10th.grade.students.at.kim.thanh.high.school..hai.duong.in.the.pronunciation.of.english.fricative.and.affricative.consonants.and.some.possible.pedagogical.solutionsA.study.on.mistakes.commonly.commited.by.the.10th.grade.students.at.kim.thanh.high.school..hai.duong.in.the.pronunciation.of.english.fricative.and.affricative.consonants.and.some.possible.pedagogical.solutionsA.study.on.mistakes.commonly.commited.by.the.10th.grade.students.at.kim.thanh.high.school..hai.duong.in.the.pronunciation.of.english.fricative.and.affricative.consonants.and.some.possible.pedagogical.solutionsA.study.on.mistakes.commonly.commited.by.the.10th.grade.students.at.kim.thanh.high.school..hai.duong.in.the.pronunciation.of.english.fricative.and.affricative.consonants.and.some.possible.pedagogical.solutions

/v/ is the voiced, lenis pair of [f] with which it shares the place (labio- dental) and manner (fricative) of articulation. E.g. leaf / leaves, wife/wives, of. Derivational affixes can also voice the final consonant: life/liven.

Figure 3: Place and manner articulation of the sound /v/

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

1.1.1.2. Dental Fricatives: / θ, ð/

θ/ is an interdental, voiceless, fortis fricative. It occurs in word-initial, medial and final position. It is produced with the tip of the tongue between the teeth, the air escaping through the passage in between. The sound is rendered graphically by h- thin, method, path. The sound often occurs in clusters difficult to pronounce: eighths [eıtθs], depths [depθs], lengths [leŋθs].

Figure 4: Place and manner articulation of the sound / θ /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

/ð/ is the voiced pair of [θ] being an interdental, voiced, lenis fricative.

In initial position it is only distributed in grammatical words such as demonstratives: this, that, these, those, there; articles: the; adverbs: thus. It occurs freely in medial position: brother, bother, rather, heathen. In final position it often represents the voicing of [θ] in plurals like mouths [mauðz], wreaths [ri:ðz] which may prove difficult to pronounce, or in derived words like bath [ba: θ] (noun)/bathe [beıð] (verb) or breath [breθ] (n.)/ breathe [bri:ð] (v.).

Figure 5: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ð /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

1.1.1.3. Alveolar Fricatives: /s,z/

/s/ is an alveolar, voiceless, fortis fricative, produced with the tip and the blade of the tongue making a light contact with the alveolar ridge, and the side rims of the tongue a lose contact with the upper side teeth. The air- stream escapes through the narrow groove in the center of the tongue and causes fraction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. It is a hissing sound distributed in all major positions: at the beginning, within and at the end of a word. It is spelt s, ss or c in front of e, i or y: e.g. sour, say, hiss, assign, ceiling, cellar, cigarette, precise, cypress, bicycle. Sometimes the spelling can

be sce, sci or scy (e.g. science, scent, scene, scythe). s is silent in words like corps, island, viscount.

Figure 6: Place and manner articulation of the sound / s /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html /z/ is the voiced, lenis, alveolar fricative that corresponds to the voiceless /s/.It plays a important role in English as it is one of the main allomorphs of the plural morpheme (distributed after a voiced consonant or a vowel). Like its voiceless counterpart, /z/ is a hissing sound, produced with a high-pitched friction.

Figure 7: Place and manner articulation of the sound / z /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

1.1.1.4. Palato-alveolar Fricatives: /∫, ʒ /

/∫/ is an alveopalatal, voiceless, fortis fricative consonant. The blade of the tongue is raised against the region behind the alveolar ridge and the air is forced out through a groove a little wider than in the case of /s/, its more fronted counterpart. /∫/ is distributed in all three main positions in the word. It is often spelt sh in words like shoe, cushion or push. It can also be spelt s (e.g. sure, sugar) or ss (e.g. pressure, mission) or ci (ancient, delicious), sci (conscious) ce (ocean), si (pension, mansion), ti (tuition, retribution). It is a variant of /∫/ in words like issue, tissue; ch: champagne, charade, moustache.

Figure 8: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ∫ /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

ʒ/ is the voiced counterpart of /∫/. It is an alveopalatal, voiced, lenis fricative. It is never distributed in initial position, but it can occur in medial (pleasure, treasure, measure) or final position (garage, prestige). It can be spelt either when followed by u (visual) or i (decision), or z if followed by u (seizure) or ge (massage, espionage).

Figure 9: Place and manner articulation of the sound / ʒ /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html

1.1.1.5. Glottal Fricative : /h/

/h/ is a glottal fricative in English, a voiceless, fortis sound produced by letting the air pass freely through the mouth during expiration. /h/ freely occurs in initial position in English: home, hiss, hut. However, in a small number of words the sound /h/ is dropped in both in initial and medial position: hour, heir, honor, honest, vehicle, annihilate. The verb having /h/ is also silent in final position in the interjection ah or in words like shah.

Figure 10: Place and manner articulation of the sound / h /

(as achieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english /frameset.html)

The description of English affricates / tʃ/& /dʒ/

Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation

The description of English fricatives

The description of English affricates / tʃ/&amp; /dʒ/

Causes of the students‟ mispronunciation

The description of English affricates / tʃ/& /dʒ/