Content
Abstract 2
Introduction 3
Literature Review 3
Consonants 3
Consonant classification 4
Final Consonants 6
Contrastive Analysis 7
Final Consonants in English 7
Final Consonants in Vietnamese 11
Similarities and differences 13
Similarities 13
Differences 14
Conclusion 17
Discussion 18
Reference 20
Abstract
This paper sets out to explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese final consonants with a view to clarifying the difficulties that Vietnamese learners usually have while pronouncing English. The first part of this essay sees a brief introduction into the topic of study, followed by a literature review, where terms are defined and related issues are presented. The third, also the most important, section provides a thorough insight into the final consonant system of each language, which serves as a base for similar and different points to be drawn out. After the conclusion, some pedagogical implications will be proposed to assist ESL teachers in identifying the obstacles learners usually confront in pronunciation and planning their lessons to help students overcome them.
Keywords: final consonants
Introduction
In this era of globalization, the necessity of learning English cannot be underestimated, especially with the case of Vietnamese students, who desire to seek employment in foreign-invested companies or opportunities for studying abroad. Nonetheless, the process of acquiring this language poses some problems for Vietnamese learners, particularly in pronunciation due to inevitable differences in the sound systems. One of the most frequently countered trouble is that of final sounds, when students fail to produce the correct ones or just miss them. In this study, I will conduct a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese final consonants with a view to clarifying some similarities and differences between these two languages. The results of the research can serve as theoretical background for ESL teachers in planning their lessons and conducting activities in the classroom to help students overcome these obstacles. The analysis, therefore, will uncover the central question: Are there any differences between English and Vietnamese final consonants?
Literature review
Consonants
Generally speaking, speech sounds are categorized into two major types, vowels and consonants, which are often abbreviated to V and C respectively by linguists, according to the way they are articulated. While vowels are comparatively simpler to explain as sounds in the production of which the passage of air-stream is relatively “unobstructed”, or in other words, it can move freely from the larynx to the lips (Roach, 2000, p. 11), an exact and universal definition of consonants has puzzled linguists for decades. One of the reasons, according to Roach, is that different languages have dissimilar ways to separate vowels from consonants, so a consonant in English, in some cases, may be treated as a vowel in Chinese for example. Another view is that the major distinction between vowels and consonants lies in the positions in which they can appear in a syllable, but, again, the distribution of these two types is different for every language. Additionally, there exist some sounds which are normally considered as consonants in English but, as a matter of fact, do not make more obstruction to the air-stream than a vowel does, like the case of h and w.
Despite these complicated theoretical issues on the definition of consonants, in this paper, they will be referred to as sounds in the production of which, the flow of air, as claimed by Reetz & Jongman (2007), “is affected in a number of ways”, which can be either a block, a diversion to escape through the nose or an impediment (p. 7). Since it is a must for the air-stream to be “obstructed in some way”, consonants are usually classified according to the place where the air-stream is obstructed ( or the place of articulation), and the way in which it is obstructed (or the manner of articulation).
Consonant classification
Studies of places of articulation help phoneticians describe the point at which the articulators actually touch or at their closest to each other when producing a sound. The most significant places of articulation, according to Roach (2000) and Denes & Pinson (2012), for the production of consonants are the lips (bilabial); the teeth (dental); the combination of lower lip and upper teeth (labio-dental); the join of tongue with alveolar ridge (alveolar), with the back of alveolar ridge (retroflex), with the hard palate (palatal), the hard palate accompanied with alveolar ridge (palato-alveolar), the soft palate (velar); and the vocal cord (glottal). A diagram with clear display of the above articulators can be seen below.
Figure 1. Vocal tract configuration with raised soft palate for articulating
non-nasal sounds. (Denes & Pinson, 2012, p.65)
On the other hand, manners of articulation give descriptions of the types of obstruction caused by narrowing or closure of the articulators. The categories are stops, including oral (or plosive) and nasal ones, fricatives, affricates, laterals and approximants with vocal organs’ movements described by Roach (2000) and summarized in the following table.
Manners Movements of articulators
Stop Oral complete closure, air then released with a plosion
Nasal total stricture in mouth, air escaping through nose
Fricative narrowing, air escaping with a hiss sound
Affricate closure, then slightly open
Lateral closure at the center, air escaping along the tongue’s sides
Approximant slight narrowing, but not enough to make a “complete” consonant
Moreover, consonants are also classifiable based on the movement of the vocal cords (or vocal folds). If the vocal cords move towards each other, the air-stream then “repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect”, thus resulting in the voiced consonants. The others that are not produced in this way are then referred to as voiceless ones.
Final Consonants
Final consonants, technically, are ones that stand at the final position of a syllable, taking up the role of ending and classifying that syllable, as claimed by Lê et al. (2007).
Speaking of syllables, Yule (2010), in his study of language in general, stated that the component part of a syllable is the rhyme preceded by an onset, which is made up of one or more consonants. The rhyme itself is comprised of a vowel, which is considered as the nucleus, and any consonants following after that, known as the coda. The structure of a syllable, based on this theory, can be described as the diagram below.
In reality, some syllables have only an onset and a nucleus, with no coda, which are described by Yule and other linguists as “open”, while syllables with a coda is known as “closed” ones. In some language, such as Vietnamese, this distinction is very important, so is the role of final consonants.
Contrastive Analysis
Final Consonants in English
English has 24 consonants, any of which can stand at final position, apart from h, r, w and j (Roach, 2000). According to places of articulation, these sounds can be classified as bilabial (b, p, m), labiodental (f, v), dental (θ, ð), alveolar (t, d, s, z, n, l), palato-alveolar (tʃ, ʃ, dʒ, ʒ), and velar (k, g, ŋ) consonants. On the other hand, judged by manners of articulation, English final consonants fall into four main categorizations: stops, including plosives (b, p, t, d, k, g) and nasals (m, n, ŋ); fricatives (f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ); affricates (tʃ, dʒ) and lateral (l). A chart of English final consonants with details about their description can be seen below.
Place
Manner Bilabial Labio-
dental Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar Velar
Plosive p b t d k g
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Lateral l
(Where the sounds appear in pairs, the ones to the right are voiced consonants.)
In words, these 20 sounds can be represented by the following letters.
No. Sound Letters Examples No. Sound Letters Examples
1 p -p
-pe cap, lap
shape, ape 11 b -b
-be cab, rib
robe, tribe
2 t -t
-te hat, bat
plate, mate 12 d -d
-de hard, bad
side, decide
3 k -k
-ck
-ke
-que cloak, leak
clock, dock
make, wake
unique 13 g -g
-gue log, big
league, fatigue
4 f -f
-fe
-gh leaf, proof
safe, life
laugh, dough 14 v -ve
save, love
5 θ -th bath, cloth 15 ð -th
-the with
clothe, bathe
6 s -s
-ss
-se bus, gas
puss, cross
mouse, house 16 z -s
-se
-ze
-zz was, has
choose, ease
freeze, laze
buzz
7 ʃ -sh mesh, wash 17 ʒ -ge garage, beige
8 tʃ -ch
-tch rich, which
watch, match 18 dʒ -dge
-ge judge, edge
age, message
9 m -m
-me
-mn am, from
come, time
column, autumn 19 ŋ -ng sing, bang
10 n -n
-ne on, when
bone, line 20 l -l
-ll until, stool
all, hill
Besides these 20 single sounds, there exists a large number of final consonant clusters, which are defined as “a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them” (Gregová, 2010). Intensive investigations by Roach (2000) into the coda of English syllable have proven the possibility of up to four consonants at the end of a word. He even went on to examine the role of each sound in a consonant cluster. To put it simply, Roach described the maximum phonological structure of an English syllable as the following diagram.
According to this structure, there are two types of final two-consonant clusters, the former with a final consonant preceded by a pre-final one, while the latter with a post-final consonant following a final one, as illustrated by a couple of examples below.
Similarly, the final three-consonant clusters also fall into two main groups, one consisting of a final consonant, preceded by a pre-final and followed by a post-final, as shown in the following instances.
The other kind of final three-consonant clusters includes two post-final consonants together with a final one, proving that “more than one post-consonant can occur in a final cluster”, as claimed by Roach (2000, p. 75).
(Roach, 2000, p. 75)
As for four-consonant clusters, most of them follow the formula of pre-final plus final plus post-final one plus post-final two.
(Roach, 2000, p. 75)
Beside the majority, there are a few cases when it is more appropriate to be analyzed as a final consonant followed by three post-finals, like the examples below.
(Roach, 2000, p. 75)
All in all, according to Roach, as cited in Gregová (2010), there are 55 final two-consonant clusters, 40 three-consonant and 7 four-consonant ones. These, accompanied with 20 single final consonants above, make up a large number of possibilities for the ending position of English syllables.
Final Consonants in Vietnamese
Contrary to their English counterparts, the number of Vietnamese final sounds is quite limited due to the absence of consonant clusters. According to Đoàn (1999), Vietnamese has 8 final consonants as a separate part in the sound system, along with 22 initial ones. Among those, there are 6 consonants, including p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, and 2 semi-vowels, which are u̯ and i̯. The latter are also referred to as semi-consonants or consonants, depending on the degree of closure. These sounds are described according to places and manners of articulation, as summarized in the table below.
Places
Manners bilabial tongue
coronal dorsal
voiceless p t k
voiced nasal m n ŋ
non-nasal u̯ i̯
As can be seen from this table, Vietnamese final sounds are categorized into two groups in terms of the vibration of vocal cords, one with voiceless sounds (p, t, k) and the other with voiced ones (m, n, ŋ, u̯, i̯). When it comes to the criterion of nasal or non-nasal, they are classified into two types as well, with m, n, ŋ belonging to the former and u̯, j included in the latter.
Apart from manner of articulation, Vietnamese coda are also differentiated by places of articulation, particularly by the lips and tongue. There are three bilabial consonants in total, which are p, m, and u̯. The other is then subcategorized into two groups, coronal (produced by the front part of the tongue, for examples n, t) and dorsal (articulated with the help of the tongue body, like k, ŋ) consonant.
In words, these sounds are represented by the following letters, as stated by Lê (2004).
No. Sound Letter Examples
1 p -p lập, mép
2 t -t mát, nét
3 k -ch dịch, sách
-c thóc, bốc
4 m -m nam, làm
5 n -n dân, hạn
6 ɲ -nh tính, bệnh
ŋ -ng mong, dừng
7 u̯ -o lao, bao
-u đầu, tiu nghỉu
8 i̯ -y lấy, nay
One distinct characteristic of studies of Vietnamese coda is that great attention has been paid to the their appearance after nuclei. Đoàn (1999), in his book about Vietnamese phonetics, gives a clear account of this distribution. According to him, semi-vowels can only go after nuclei that have the opposite timbre, following strictly the rule of dissimilation. Therefore, u̯ can only follow acute and neutral vowels, apart from ɤ, for examples “áo”, “cầu cứu”, while i̯ comes after grave and neutral ones, like “tôi”, “gửi”. Moreover, short vowel nuclei – that is, ɛᵕ and ɔᵕ and hardly ever appear with codas. Final consonants also have a few rules in their combination with vowels. Some instances are that bilabials are never seen appear behind ɯ, or dorsal sounds like k, ŋ do not go with ɤ etc.
Similarities and differences
Similarities
Obviously, the final consonant system of two languages share many similar points, from their roles in a syllable, to the criteria for classification and the sounds.
To begin with, the presence of final consonants is optional in English and Vietnamese syllables. As mentioned before, the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, and some can pass with only an onset and a nucleus with no coda behind. (Yule, 2010). Even in Vietnamese, where the roles of final consonants are slightly more emphatic than their English counterparts, their absence does not pose any serious problems.
Another similarity is that both languages are described and classified based on the same set of criteria, which include the places and manners of articulation and the vibration of vocal cords. In terms of places of articulation, there are bilabial consonants in common. As for manners of articulation, both have nasal and non-nasal sounds.
Last but not least, there are some sounds that exist in both language, which are p, t, k, m, n, ŋ.
Differences
Despite these similarities, one cannot ignore the differences between English and Vietnamese final consonants.
First and foremost, there is a large discrepancy in the number of English and Vietnamese final consonants. Except for 4 special cases of h, r, w and j, there are 20 in English in total, not to mention the vast number of consonant clusters that can take up the position of coda. On the contrary, Vietnamese has only 8 sounds performing the role of ending a syllable, among which two are semi-vowels. Despite the limited number, these sounds have greatly contributed to the distinction of closed and open syllables in Vietnamese as discussed earlier.
Secondly, in Vietnamese, syllables contrast each other by ending differently. Some, with no coda, prolong and maintain the timbre of the main phoneme, like “má”, “đi”, “chợ”, while others end with a change in the timbre at the last phoneme by closing the articulators, for examples “mau”, “chân”. The former is often called zero-coda syllables, while in latter case, the coda is semi-vowels or final consonants.
On the other hand, English consonants are categorized as either a fortis or a lenis ones depending on the preceding vowel. According to Roach (2000), apart from h, all English consonants follow this rules. If the vowel is short, the final consonant is fortis, or strong, like the case of “hurt” /hɜːt/, “rice” /raɪs/. In contrast, if the vowel is long, the consonant is then lenis. or weak, for instance “hers” /hɜːz/.
Thirdly, as shown in the tables earlier, there are more criteria for manners and places of articulation in describing English final consonants, while Vietnamese chart is more detailed. Obviously, beside lips and tongue, English phoneticians also note the participation of other articulators, which results in some categorizations that do not exist in the latter, such as labio-dental, dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar and velar. However, in Vietnamese, more attention is paid to the position of the tongue, which leads to the distinction of coronal and dorsal consonants. In addition, in terms of manners, Vietnamese consonants are classified into two types, voiced and voiceless. Then the voiced ones are continued to be put into two different sub-groups of nasal and non-nasal ones. Things are different with English final consonants, nonetheless, with various manners included and the discrimination between voiced and voiceless represented by the position of the sounds.
Fourthly, each language has some distinct sounds that do not exist in the other. In English, there are many consonants that never appear in the ending position of Vietnamese syllables, namely b, d, g, f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ, l. Similarly, two semi-vowels u̯ and i̯ of Vietnamese are also absent in the other language final consonant system. These distinct sounds may cause some problems for Vietnamese learners while pronouncing English. For example, they may fail to produce the correct ʒ, tʃ, dʒ or just skip them.
Finally, even in the few sounds that both languages share, there still exist some light differences, especially in the cases of p, t, k, ŋ.
To begin with, two languages are dissimilar in the articulation of some consonants. According to Roach (2000), p, t, and k are plosives, which means after the compression phase, the air is released with an audible noise. At the final position, this plosion is relatively weaker but still in existence, especially heard when we pronounce the words with final consonant cluster, like /p/ in “stamp”, /k/ in “desk”, /t/ in “want”. On the contrary, there is no audible release in their Vietnamese counterparts, since all final consonants are closed, which means there is no release phase in the articulation, as explained by Đoàn (1980, p. 229).
Another point is that, there are different rules for allophonic variations in two language consonant systems. One example is, as claimed by Ladefoged and Johnson (2014), when standing at the final position and right after a vowel, the voiceless stops above are accompanied by “an overlapping glottal gesture” [ʔ], thus “tip” will be pronounced as [thɪʔp̚], and “pit” as [phɪʔt̚]. This glottal stop overlapping, nonetheless, has not been recorded in studies on Vietnamese final sounds.
Instead, Vietnamese linguists did notice some changes according to the timbre of preceding vowels. Specifically, the final consonants are more or less palatalized if they follow acute vowels and labialized, or soft-palatalized, after grave ones, as claimed by Đoàn (1980, pp. 231-232). This variation is especially obvious with the cases of ŋ and k. After i, e, ɛᵕ – the front, acute vowels, these sounds are extremely palatalized and become ɲ and c, for examples, “sinh”, “bệnh”, “dịch”, “hạch”. In contrast, after the grave vowels like u, o, ɔᵕ, they become [ŋm] and [kp] through labialization, such as in “xúc động”.
Last but not least, the difference lies in the letters that represent the sounds as well. In general, English final consonants have more representing letters than their Vietnamese counterparts. While p, t, m, n can be found in English words with the letters -p (“lap”) or -pe (“tape”); -t (“hat”) or -te (“mate”); -m (“mom”), -me (“come”) or -mn (“column”); -n (“when”) or -ne (“bone”), they are only seen by -p (“nắp”), -t (“hát”), -m (“cam”), -n (“ăn”) in Vietnamese. Similarly, the sound k in English can be represented by various letters like -k (“dark”), -ke (“bake”), -que (“unique”) for one phoneme alone. Its corresponding consonant in Vietnamese, however, has only two representatives, one for each allophone – that is, -ch (“ách”) for [c] and -c (“thóc”) for [k]. The opposite case occurs with the sound ŋ, which has two examples of representing letters, -ng (“sông”) for [ŋ] and -nh (“bênh”) for [ɲ], in Vietnamese, while its English counterpart is only represented by -ng (“sing”).
Conclusion
In summary of this contrastive study, there are some similarities and differences that should be noted. In terms of the resemblances, first, their presence in a syllable is optional. Second, these consonants are described and classified based on the same set of criteria. Finally, both languages share some similar sounds that can assist Vietnamese learners in learning English.
On the other hand, there are certain differences between the two languages. To begin with, there is a big gap between the numbers of English and Vietnamese final consonants. Another point is that, in Vietnamese, syllables contrast by ending differently, while in the other, such distinction is not emphasized. Instead, phoneticians put an emphasis on classifying final consonants as fortis or lenis ones based on the vowels preceding them. Moreover, there are more criteria of places and manners of articulation in describing English consonants, while Vietnamese one is more detailed and pay more attention to the tongue positions. In addition, it is undeniable that each language has its unique sounds that do not exist in the other one. Even among the few similar sounds that they share, there are some slight differences that can cause confusions for Vietnamese learners as well.
Discussion
The results of this study have led me to some pedagogical implications presented below.
First, as mentioned before, there are many English sounds that do not exist in Vietnamese final consonant system, which can pose problems to Vietnamese learners. Some frequently encountered situations are students may get confused, mispronounce them, split them into separate sounds (in the cases of consonant clusters) or simply skip them. Therefore, in teaching pronunciation, accurate, clear, and easy-to-imitate models should be provided. If teachers are not confident enough with their own pronunciation, audios spoken by native speakers are highly recommended. Moreover, aural drills with minimal pairs should be included in the lessons to help students identify the differences between the sounds and lessen the chances of confusion. Additionally, enough oral practice should be conducted to familiarize learners with these foreign consonants and have chances to perfect their pronunciation.
Second, one should not ignore the small yet important differences between the sounds that both languages have in common. In those cases, for example p in t, teachers should draw out the gaps between the points of teaching and their Vietnamese counterparts, so that learners do not regard them as the same and make mistakes.
Third, learning to pronounce a foreign language is difficult and sometimes boring. It would be more interesting if teachers can vary their lessons by conducting games, incorporating them with speaking activities, using visual aids like pictures or videos when presenting the sounds etc. In addition, encouragements and positive feedbacks should be given generously since students are easily put off with mistakes.
Finally, the difficulties that learners face cannot be solved if teachers do not pay enough attention to this aspect. At public schools, testing, teaching and learning just focus on grammar and vocabulary (for answering multiple choice questions, not communication), which leads to the inevitable scenario that students can write the words, but fail to pronounce them correctly. Therefore, to help learners overcome the obstacles, one should first change his attitudes toward pronunciation teaching, considering it as an essential step in reaching the aim of learning a language – being able to communicate effectively, not just passing a test in papers.
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