Bilabial nasal: /m/
To create the 'm sound' /m/, the lips are pressed together, causing the air to be blocked from leaving the mouth. The soft palate drops, allowing air to pass out through the nose. The sound is voiced, so the vocal cords vibrate while producing it. /m/ is called the bilabial nasal. /m/ can be a consonant or a syllabic consonant.
Syllabic /əm/
A syllabic consonant usually comes after a stressed syllable. When schwa comes before nasals, the schwa disappears entirely and we only hear the consonant sound as a syllable.
/ðəm/
rhythm, algorithm
/zəm/
chasm, prism, feudalism, heroism, autism, racism, communism, criticism, symbolism
/səm/
alyssum, lissome
/rəm/
serum, theorem, decorum, forum
/təm/
system, victim, symptom
/dəm/
wisdom, seldom, boredom
Alveolar nasal: /n/
To create the 'n sound' /n/, we block the air from leaving the mouth with the tongue. The tip of the tongue presses against the alveolar ridge and the sides of the tongue against the side teeth. The soft palate drops, allowing air to pass out through the nose. The sound is voiced, so the vocal cords vibrate while producing it.
Syllabic /ən/
The syllabic /ən/ is common and typically occurs in an unstressed syllable immediately following the alveolar consonants. But it can occur in other phonetic environments as well.
/tən/ (When the syllabic /ən/ follows /t/ consonant, the consonant becomes a glottal stop, /əɁ/. That is, /t/ should be pronounced as its allophone, the glottal stop /t/, /ʔ/)
/əɁ/
kitten, button, cotton, important, certain, certainly, threaten, written, sentence, brighten, eaten, rotten
/dən/
sudden, suddenly, pardon, garden, didn’t, shouldn’t, burden
/sən/
listen, lesson, person, absence, medicine
/zən/
risen, prison, isn’t, brazen, raisin, reason
/ʃən/
education, function, mission, tradition, foundation, efficiency
/ʒən/
fusion, Asian, lesion
/fən/
often, soften,
/vən/
heaven, seven
Velar nasal /ŋ/
To create the 'ng sound' /ŋ/, air is prevented from leaving the vocal tract when the back of the tongue lifts and presses against the soft palate at the back of the mouth. The soft palate drops, allowing air to pass out through the nose. The sound is voiced, so the vocal cords vibrate while producing it. For this reason, /ŋ/ is called voiced velar nasal.
It is the sound of ‘ng’ in “sing” as well as ‘n’ before velar consonants as in “English,” “think,” “thank” and “ink.” The ‘ng’ sound normally does not include a ‘g’ sound. In English, /ŋ/ exists only at the end of a syllable. That is, no English words begin with /ŋ/. These are words with /ŋ/:
morning, young, long, longing, building, feeling, fooling, interesting, thankful, thanks, thinking, crinkle, finger, pink, bank, shrink, drink
In the following words, a ‘g’ sound follows the ‘ng’ sound:
angry, dangle, finger, hungry, language
Syllabic /əŋ/
Syllabic /əŋ/ is uncommon in words, and occurs in fast speech as a substitute of the word “and.” These are examples: “lock and key“(/lɑk ŋ ki/) and “go to the truck and get him.” The reason that “and” sounds like /ŋ/ is that /d/ is dropped in fast speech and /ŋ/ replaces /n/ when the next sound is /k/ or /g/. So, for example, “incredible” and “ungrateful” can be pronounced as “ingcredible” and “unggrateful.” This phenomenon of sound change is called assimilation, which we learn in detail in the next chapter on Connected Speech.
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