Consonants
Consonants
This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
| | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal |
| Nasal | m | | | n | | | ŋ | | |
| Plosive | p b | | | t d | | | k ɡ | | |
| Affricate | | | | | tʃ dʒ | | | | |
| Fricative | | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | ç | x | | h |
| Flap | | | | | ɾ | | | | |
| Approximant | | | | ɹ | | j | | ʍ w | |
| Lateral | | | | l | | | | | |
Notes
1. ^ The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /k/ and /ɡ/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas.
2. ^ a b c The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most speakers of General American realise (always rhoticised) as the retroflex approximant /ɻ/, whereas the same is realised in Scottish English, etc. as the alveolar trill.
3. ^ In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ has merged with dental /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives.
4. ^ The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most accents just an allophone of /h/ before /j/; for instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see this), the /j/has dropped, but the initial consonant is the same.
5. ^ The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in South African English. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool ) either [x] or the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker [dɒkxə].
6. ^ The alveolar tap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English. This is the sound of tt or dd in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it replaces /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single r in most varieties of Spanish.
7. ^ Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some varieties of American, New Zealand
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