Alveolar consonants before(Q,6).

 

1)Loss of plosion.

When two plosive consonants having the same place of articulation, are in contact within a word or at a word junction, there is a complete loss of plosion of the first consonant, i.e. the obstruction is removed and a plosion is heard only after the second consonant. E.g: what time? What day?

When the contacting plosives have different places of articulation(pt, tk, db, gd) the obstruction of the first consonant is not removed until the articulation of the second consonant has started. The release of the first consonant is, therefore, very weak, and there is a perceptible plosion only after the second consonant. Thus, the phenomenon of the loss of plosion actually takes place in any cluster of two plosive consonants.

2)Nasal plosion.

At the junction of the plosive consonants(t,d,p,b,k,g) with the nasal sonorants(m,n) the articulation of the sonorant starts when the articulation of the plosive consonant is not yet finished. As a result, instead of the removing the obstruction in the mouth cavity, the air stream passes though the nasal cavity producing the effect of a nasal plosion.e.g: shouldn’t, wouldn’t. meet my aunt.

 

3)Lateral plosion.

At the junction of a plosive consonant with the lateral sonorant(l) the plosion is heard during the pronunciation of the sonorant as the air stream passes along the sides of the tongue, lowered for the articulation of (l). this phenomenon is known as lateral plosion.e.g: place, blow, kettle.

4)Fricative plosion.

When a plosive consonant precedes a fricative consonant in a word or at a junction of words it has its release during the pronunciation of the fricative. This phenomenon is the result of close coarticulation of adjacent consonants in English and called fricative plosion.e.g: let’s, what’s, stops,walks.

At the junction of the alveolar consonants(t,d,n,l,s,z) and the interdental consonants (Q,6) regressive assimilation affecting the place of articulation is observed: the alveolar consonants are represented by their dental variants(allophones): ninth ,sixteenth, about the text.