Week 3: Consonants

During this third week, I am working on the consonants of Received Pronunciation, trying to listen to the salient feature of the consonants in this British accent in order to try to correctly imitate them.

Non-Rhoticity

The most salient feature of RP consonants that I first notice and have also mentioned on my previous blog post (Voice Quality Setting) is its non-rhoticity. It means that the /r/ sound is not pronounced unless when a vowel follows it. For example, the /r/ sound in start, square, and near is not pronounced, but the /r/ sound in Sarah, very, and sorry is pronounced since the /r/ is followed by a vowel. This is clearly different from NAE in which the /r/ sound is a retroflex approximant.

Dental Fricatives /θ/ and /ð/

I learn from the following video that voiced dental fricative /ð/ in RP is produced by placing the tongue tip between (or behind) the teeth and then touch the top teeth very gently with the top surface of the tongue. The voiceless dental fricative will be the same only without the vibration of the vocal cords. Here is the video:

However, when I listened to my archetype many times to try to hear the example sounds of these dental fricatives, I found that the voiced dental fricative /ð/ sounds a little bit like /d/ for my ear. The friction is very light and, especially in the word the and that, I feel like the tongue is a bit retracted so that it touches the top teeth lightly producing a sound that is almost like /d/ for my ear. For example, in the phrase that area I hear the sound /ð/ is pronounced almost as /d/ probably because it is preparing for the voiceless alveolar stop /t/ after the vowel. 

Stop Consonants

Voiceless stops or plosives /p/, /t/, /k/, are aspirated at the beginning of a syllable, and the aspiration is so obvious unless a completely unstressed vowel follows them. It is always so obvious in RP than in NAE. As it is in NAE, voiceless stops are not aspirated if they are preceded by /s/ in the same syllable as in start, street, and strut. What I notice from the recording is that the /t/ is almost always either pronounced as true /t/ or glottalized at the end of the word. For example in the words jacket and goat, the /t/ is clearly pronounced as a true /t/ with somewhat stressed.

Glottal Stops 

As I mentioned earlier, I notice that the /t/ and /k/ sound at the end of a word or syllable are sometimes glottalized so they becomes a glottal stop. In the recording it can be heard in the phrase private practice and Duke Street Tower. Interestingly not all the words ending with /t/ are glottalized. In the phrase "that area..." the /t/ is not glottalized. I then learn from this website that in RP, glottalization only occurs before another consonant as in partner and Batman, and after the glottal stop is produced the tongue touches the alveolar ridge as if the speaker were making a /t/ sound. Therefore, I did not here the glottal stop in "That area was much nearer...," but I could hear the glottal stop in "...superb private practice..."

Dark /l/ or Velarized /l/ symbolized as /ɫ/

Another thing that I tried to listen from the recording is the dark or velarized /l/ at the end of a syllable. In RP, it is expected that the /l/ sound at the end of a syllable be different from the /l/ sound at the beginning of a syllable. At the end of a syllable, the /l/ sound is pronounced by raising the tongue at the back of the mouth towards the velum as well as touching the alveolar ridge, giving a soft, almost inaudible sound. This /ɫ/ can be heard in the words sentimental, feel, and beautiful. 

Here is my recording for this week:

For the upcoming week, I will focus my practice on the production of vowels in RP.