ESL Vietnam Zone

Glottalization is the production of sounds with completely closed glottis. This type of articulation is often found in English pronunciation. Voiceless consonants are articulated with open glottis in most cases and always in the case of fricatives where airflow is very important for successful production.

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tʃ and dʒ are the only two affricate phonemes in English language. Exactly like in the case of plosives and most of the fricatives, the affricate phonemes tʃ and dʒ come in fortis/lenis pair. The voicing characteristics are the same as for other consonants.

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Examples: head, ahead, playhouse etc.
The place of articulation of the consonant h is glottal. The narrowing that produces the friction noise is placed between the vocal folds.
When we produce h in speaking, different things happen in different contexts and situations.

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Fricatives are consonants that when they are produced the air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. There are fricatives in all languages and they are considered continuant consonants. That means someone can make them continuously as long as there is air in the lungs (plosives are not continuant).

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When we speak, we produce a continuous stream of sounds. This stream of sounds is then divided into small pieces that are called segments. For a better understanding let’s take the word man. It is made up of three segments: the first segment /m/, the second segment /æ/, and the third segment /n/.

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The most frequently occurring vowel in English is schwa (ə) and it is always associated with weak syllables. In quality it is mid (half-way between close and open) and central (half way between front and back). Most specialists describe the schwa sound as lax, not articulated with much energy. The quality of this vowel is not always the same, but in my opinion, the variation is not important.

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