Consonants Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Consonants?
Consonants are the most commonly used type of speech sound. They are produced with a partial or complete blockage of the air flow from the lungs. The consonant sounds in language can be divided into three broad categories: voiced, voiceless, and aspirated. Voiced consonants involve active vibration of the vocal cords, usually resulting in a higher pitch than voiceless consonants. Examples include b, d, g, j, l and v. Voiceless consonants are those that are produced without any vibration of the vocal cords. Examples include f, h, k p and s. Aspirated consonants involve an additional puff of air after they’re produced which results in a louder sound than either voiced or voiceless sounds. Examples include ch and th as well as some variants of s and z known as sh and zh respectively. Consonants play an important role in language production because they help to distinguish one word from another by creating different combinations of sounds that result in different meanings when spoken aloud or written down on paper. For example cat is distinguished from bat by its initial phoneme /k/, while sit is differentiated from fit by its initial phoneme /s/. Consonant clusters also provide extra emphasis for certain words or phrases such as the use of two plosives (p + t) to create the phrase stop it. In addition to being used for verbal communication purposes, consonants can also be used for nonverbal communication including stress relief exercises like humming or whistling as well as tongue twisters designed to help improve pronunciation accuracy when speaking a foreign language such as French or Spanish. Moreover they may also be used musically through their inclusion within instrumental compositions such as rap music where particular syllables may be emphasized using specific combinations of voices/voiceless/aspirated sounds positioned together strategically within a given verse/phrase/word etc. Overall it becomes clear that consonants form an important part within any language system providing us with not only various practical communication functions but also various musical possibilities too.