Consonant

A consonant is a speech sound in which the air is at least partly blocked or any letter which represents this.^[1] Consonants may come singly (by themselves) or in clusters (two or more together), but must be connected to a vowel to form a syllable. All the letters of the English alphabet are both consonants and vowels.

Notice that the consonant (C) and vowel (V) notation does not match the letters of English spelling in a one-to-one relationship (e.g. 'th' is one sound), but rather individual sounds.

Words with single consonants include:

Go (CV), which has one consonant and one vowel in that order
On (VC), which has one vowel and one consonant in that order
Ton (CVC), which has a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant in that order

Words with consonant clusters include:

Pro (CCV), which has two consonants in-a-row and one vowel afterwards
Old (VCC), which has one vowel and two consonants in-a-row afterwards
Spree (CCCVC), which has three consonants in-a-row and one vowel afterwards, and finally one consonant
Arcs (VCCC), which has one vowel and three consonants in-a-row afterwards
Strengths (CCCVCCCCC), which has three consonants in-a-row, one vowel afterwards, and finally five consonants in a row

Consonants have friction when they are spoken, mostly using the position of the tongue against the lips, teeth and roof of the mouth. b and p are plosives, using the lips to produce a tiny sharp sound. Phonetics texts give more details, with diagrams. Consonants may be voiced^[2] or unvoiced.^[3] The th in the is voiced, but in breath is not.

There are 21 consonant letters in English, for 24 consonant sounds in most English accents.^[4]^p242 Because of the history of the English language, there is no neat one-to-one relationship between letter and sound. th and ch each stand for a single sound, and x in fox stands for two sounds (ks). All these letters are consonants:

B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y and Z (and sometimes A, E, I, O and U). W and Y are often used as consonants, but they are sometimes used as vowels. For example, in the word yellow, Y is a consonant, but in the word happy, it is a vowel.

The rest of the letters of the alphabet are called vowels. Vowels are underdone, for there are about 20 vowel sounds in most English accents.^[4]^p237 The vowels are:

A, E, I, O and U (and sometimes W and Y)

References

↑ Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
↑ Sound pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords
↑ Sound pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Crystal, David 1995. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge.

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[1] Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

[2] Sound pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords

[3] Sound pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords

[Crystal-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Crystal, David 1995. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge.

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