Page 86 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes Table 6.1: Chart of English consonant phonemes

PLACE OF ARTICULATION
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Plosive p b f v θ ð t d   k g h
MANNER OF ARTICULATION Affricate m n t  d  ŋ
s z
Fricative

Nasal
l
Lateral
approximant
Approximant w r j

• Meaning depends on the difference of just one phoneme) like these: ‘sin’ sn - ‘sing’ sŋ; ‘sinner’
sns - ‘singer’ sŋ . e
• There are three main arguments against accepting ŋ as a phoneme:
(i) In some English accents it can easily be shown that ŋ is an allophone of n, which suggests
that something similar might be true of BBC pronunciation too.
(ii) If ŋ is a phoneme, its distribution is very different from that of m and n, being restricted to
syllable-final position (phonologically), and to morpheme-final position (morphologically)
unless it is followed by k or .
(iii) English speakers with no phonetic training are said to feel that ŋ is not a ‘single sound’
like m, n. Sapir (1925) said that “no native speaker of English could be made to feel in his
bones” that ŋ formed part of a series with m, n. This is, of course, very hard to establish,
although that does not mean that Sapir was wrong.
• We need to look at point (i) in more detail and go on to see how this leads to the argument
against having ŋ as a phoneme. Please note that I am not trying to argue that this proposal
must be correct; my aim is just to explain the argument. The whole question may seem of little
or no practical consequence, but we ought to be interested in any phonological problem if it
appears that conventional phoneme theory is not able to deal satisfactorily with it.
• In some English accents, particularly those of the Midlands, ŋ is only found with k or  following.
For example:
‘sink’ sŋk ‘singer’ sŋ e
‘sing’ sŋ ‘singing’ sŋŋ
• This was my own pronunciation as a boy, living in the West Midlands, but I now usually have
the BBC pronunciation sŋk, sŋ, sŋ , sŋŋ. In the case of an accent like this, it can be shown
e
that within the morpheme the only nasal that occurs before k,  is ŋ. Neither m nor n can occur
in this environment. Thus within the morpheme ŋ is in complementary distribution with m, n.
Since m, n are already established as distinct English phonemes in other contexts (mæp, næp,
etc.), it is clear that for such non-BBC accents ŋ must be an allophone of one of the other nasal
consonant phonemes. We choose n because when a morpheme-final n is followed by a
morpheme-initial k,  it is usual for that n to change to ŋ; however, a morpheme-final m followed
by a morpheme-initial k,  usually doesn’t change to ŋ. Thus:
‘raincoat’ reŋk  t but ‘tramcar’ træmk
e

80 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY