CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT  CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu Student: Pham Thi So...
Author: Osborne Barnett
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HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 

CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu Student: Pham Thi Song Thuyet

HCM, December 30, 2009

English and Vietnamese Consonants 1

ABSTRACT Language is obviously a vital tool. Not only is it a means of communicating thoughts and ideas, perceptions, sentiments, and values characteristic of a community, but it forges friendships, cultural ties, and economic relationships (david-kilgour, par.2). Language is one of the most important areas of human development. However, to be honest, language is something very vague, abstract and unspecific. No one is confident enough to say that he or she understands some language deeply or speak fluently, even that is mother tongue. When we speak to someone by foreign language, to be easy for them to understand, you know not only grammar, vocabularies, function but pronunciation. In fact, only when do you pronounce exactly, it is not difficult for listener to understand. Unclear pronouncing may lead to misunderstand between speakers. Therefore, when learning any language, besides focusing on learning skills: speaking, writing, reading, and listening we should pay more attention to areas such grammar, pronunciation. As a Vietnamese student, a learner of English and a teacher-to-be of English, I find that phonetics is a useful and necessary subject, any teacher knows clearly about it, especially, we pay more attention to sounds. Based on the phonetic properties, the sounds of language can be divided into two major classes, vowels and consonants. Sounds in English and Vietnamese have some similarities and differences. In learning process, most learners have difficulty in pronouncing consonants more than vowels. Hence, this paper aims at exploring consonants in English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view. Then, some implications for language teaching are discussed. Correspondingly, I do this research and I hope that it will make my readers clear about all the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese consonants so that they can avoid making mistakes in their interruption between these two languages and help learner be easy to communicate.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 2

LITERATURE REVIEW Benjawan Becker said, "Since it is one of the critical factors in determining a syllable's tone, you must know the consonant class in order to correctly pronounce what you have read (par.1)”. In reality, at all school or center when teaching a foreign language, people usually focus on skills such as listening, reading, writing, and speaking. They require learners to speak exactly and fluently but they ignore the way to pronounce sounds. Pronunciation is also as important as other skills. To speak correctly and fluently, we pay attention to how a sound is pronounced. What is consonant? a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], which are noisy (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals) (Wikipedia, par.1).

How is consonants produced? To know this, we need know the Vocal Organs (“are any of the organs involved in speech production (thefreedictionary, par.1)”) places; because how consonant sound is pronounced depending on how the vocal organs work. The following figure shows us the vocal organs.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 3

Source: Ngo thi Thanh Van, p.3

When analyzing, contrasting and classifying consonants, we base on the two main phonetic features: places of articulations and manners of articulations.

Manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact (Wikipedia, par.1). For example, nasal (through the nose), plosive

(complete obstruction of air), fricative (a continuous airflow through the mouth), affricate (a slow release of the closure), lateral (the air escape laterally over the sides of the tongue), or approximant (vowel like) in English and stop, fricative in Vietnamese.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 4

The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved (Wikipedia, par.2). Places include bilabial (both lips), labiodentals( the upper teeth and inner lower lip), dental( tongue tip) alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), alveopalatal ( the tongue blade ), palatal (the tongue) and velar (tongue against soft palate) in English and “môi”, “đầu lưỡi”, “mặt lưỡi”, “góc lưỡi”, “thanh hầu” in Vietnamese.

Consonants in English According to Peter Roach, there are 24 consonants in English. Those are p, b, n m, f, v, t, d, k, g, T, w, s, z, l, j, h, n, n, r, j, w, f, g S.

Those consonants are classified based on the two above features:

English and Vietnamese Consonants 5

Source: Le Quang Thiem, 107 .

The above table show 24 Consonants in English and equivalent writings.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 6

Consonants in Vietnamese According to Doan Thien Thuat, meanwhile, there are 22 initial consonants (at initial position of syllable) in Vietnamese consonants. Those are b, m, f, v, t’, t, d, n, s, z, l, ţ, ʂ, ʐ, c, ɲ, k, n, x, γ, ʔ,h which are classified based on the two above features:

Source: Le Quang Thiem, p.100

English and Vietnamese Consonants 7

The following table shows 22 Vietnamese initial consonants and equivalent writings.

Le Quang Thiem, p. 105

Apart from 22 initial consonants and zero ending consonants (endure and preserve the timbre of the main phoneme: for example: má, cho, đi ), in Vietnamese, there are 8 ending consonants (end by changing timbre at the last phoneme due to closing of the articulators):

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6 consonants : p, t, k, m, n, n . For example: /n/ chân, /k/ khóc, /t/ suốt.

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2 semi-consonants: i̭̯, u̯ (which have both feature of not only vowels but consonants). For instance: /u̯/ (đau), / i̭̯/ mai

English and Vietnamese Consonants 8

We localize ending consonants in criterions in the flowing table:

Le Quang Thiem, p. 101

English and Vietnamese Consonants 9

Because there are ending consonants in Vietnamese, we also have writings are equivalent to them

Source: Le Quang Thiem, p.106

Contrastive Analysis of some consonants in English and Vietnamese In Vietnamese, distinguishing between initial consonants and ending consonants, which make consonants increased in quantity. In contrast, there are no this situation in English.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 10

Consonants can be at initial position, medial position and final position in English. English have no discrimination between initial consonants and ending consonants, however, it distinguishes between fortis (voiceless) and lenis (voiced). For example: plosive consonants: /b, d, g / at final position called lenis-meaning (weak) and /p, t, k /called fortis-meaning (strong) According to Peter Roach, all consonants, except for /h/, are distinguished fortis – lenis. Articulation of final consonants is fortis or lenis, which depends on prior vowel is short, long or diphthongs:

-

If it is long vowel, final consonant is weak (lenis). For example: heard /hd d/, her /h d z/ rye /rai/ , rise / raiz/

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If it is short vowel, final consonant is strong (fortis). For example : hurt /hd t/ , right /rait/, hearse /h d s/, rice /rais/

Contrasting the two English consonant and Vietnamese consonant charts, we see that there are more detailed and more categorizing criteria for manner of articulation in Vietnamese. For example, manner of the articulation is divided into two manner of articulation for stop and fricative, and then stop and fricative are divided into nasal stop and oral stop (plosive), finally, nasal stop and oral stop are divided into unaspirated, aspirated, voiced (lenis) and voiceless( fortis). However, there are less categorizing criteria for place of articulation in Vietnamese than in English, for example, places of articulation in English are divided nine criteria such as bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal, velar, glottal, labiovelar . In addition, In Vietnamese consonants chart, there is more pay attention to tongue position (flat, retroflex,

English and Vietnamese Consonants 11

dorsal) whereas there is more pay attention to other articulators such as dental, alveolar, palatal alveolar in English consonants chart. Moreover, in the manner of articulation for stop, there is oral stop /t’/, oral voiceless stop / ţ , t, c, k / ,oral voiced stop /b, d/ , nasal stop / m, n , ɲ, n / in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, English plosive consonants combine between oral stop and / p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n,/ and affricate /, f, g/. In these sounds, /g/ (English) belongs to plosive, /γ/ (Vietnamese) belongs to fricative. Furthermore, in the manner of articulation for fricative, English consonants alveolar lateral /l/ and glottal fricative /h/ are the same as Vietnam consonants. English consonants are different from Vietnamese consonants such as T, w, s, z, l, j, f, g S. There are some English consonants that have no in Vietnamese such as bilabial approximant /w/ , palatoalveolar approximant / r/ and palatal approximant /j/. Furthermore, Vietnamese does not have consonant clusters (is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel). In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the word splits. (wikipedia, par.1) Finally, I find out that there are some initial consonants in English and Vietnamese are similar. Vietnamese

English

/m/ (m)

/m/ (m)

/b/ (b)

/b/ (b)

/v/ (v)

/v/ (v)

/f/ (ph)

/f/ (f, ph)

English and Vietnamese Consonants 12

/d/ (đ đ)

/d/ (d)

/s/ (x)

/s/ (s, c)

/z/ (d)

/z/ (z, s,)

/l/ (l)

/l/ (l)

/n/ (n)

/n/ (n)

/k/ (c, k, qu)

/k/ (c, k, qu)

/h/ (h)

/h/ (h)

Source: Harvard. edu, p.7 Through a contrastive view into Vietnamese and English consonants, I find out differences and similarities between them as mention above, I would like to discuss some implications for English and Vietnamese teaching at high school in our country. Firstly, it is fact that most high school students have difficulty in pronouncing. High school teacher only focus on grammar, because teacher want to student get good mark in English exam. Although aims of studying English are make student confident to apply in future, it means they can communicate to foreigner. Therefore, I think in each lesson there should be a period to teach pronunciation for students at high school. Secondly, it is not easy for learners to articulate correctly and speak English fluently. This require learners must study and practice at the beginning. In reality, pronunciation part is concluded in high school textbook. I think that it should be added in secondary textbook. When teach someone to speak, we should teach when they were a child. When we was young If we pronounce wrongly it will form a habit. As a result, we are not easy to correct them. Therefore, we are not afraid that it should have pronunciation part in secondary textbook, or even primary

English and Vietnamese Consonants 13

textbook. I think that we should teach students how to pronounce a sound, but is not teach students read aloud mechanically. Thirdly, some consonants have no in Vietnamese, so it is difficult for students to pronounce. For example, some sounds such as / T, j, j, w, f, g S/. I think when teaching, teacher should compare 2 sounds (Vietnamese sound and English sound). This helps students to be easy to imagine how a sound is articulated. For example, s “sing” in English is pronounced as similarly as x “xinh” in Vietnamese. /w/ “what” in English is pronounced as similarly as qu “quát” in Vietnamese. In addition, /j/ “Yes” is articulated as similarly as /d/ “dạ” In conclusion, in my opinion, pronunciation part plays an important role in studying English. Articulating correctly, you will listen and speak well. Nowadays, the aim of learning is to communicate others. Therefore, if we only good at Grammar, it is not enough. Because when you speak correctly with grammar but your pronunciation is wrong, people will don’t understand. As a rural student, with good marks to pass entrance exam because my test only is grammar. Hence, when I study at the first year of university, I have much difficulty in learning English. The most difficulty is pronouncing wrongly many sounds; this lead to my listening and speaking are very poor. Many words are written I know meaning of them but when teacher speak those words I don’t understand. The reason is I don’t know exactly how those are pronounced. This is also reason why I do this topic; I want to find out more by contrasting my mother tongue and English. Moreover, the studies also suggest some implications for teaching , both English and Vietnamese for high school students. I hope that this paper, to a certain extent, will help much for further exploration in this area and language teachers some idea for their teaching.

English and Vietnamese Consonants 14

Reference Consonant cluster. Dec 16, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant_cluster Consonants. Dec 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant Celce – Murcia, M & Brinton, D.M. & Goodwin, J.M. 1996 Teaching Pronunciation A Reference to Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Langugages. Cambridge University Press. Đoàn Thiện Thuật. (1980). Ngữ âm tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Đại học và Trung học Chuyên nghiệp. Initial consonants. (n.d.), from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic543069.files/Lecture%20slides%20and%20hand outs/Vietnamese_Sounds.pdf Lê Quang Thiêm ( 2004). Nghiên Cứu Đối Chiếu Các Ngôn Ngữ. Hà Nội : Nhà xuất bản đại học quốc gia Hà Nội. Maner of articulation. Dec 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manner_of_articulation Ngô Thanh Vân (2005). Phonetics and Phonology. Ho Chi Minh: University of Education. O’Grady, W. & Dobrovolsky, M. & Arnoff, M (1987) Contemporary Linguistics An Introdution Toronto : Copp Clark Pitman. ThailandQA (2006). Oct, 2009, from http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19074 The Honourable David Kilgour (1999). The importance of language. Octorber 9, 1999, from http://www.david-kilgour.com/mp/sahla.htm Vocal organs. N.d, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vocal+organ

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