Week 4: Aspiration in English

What’s Aspiration?

In the study of consonants in English, and perhaps in some other European languages, we are bound to find this particular characteristic of a “special” group of consonants. But what is it? Aspiration can be defined as “an extra puff of air” in a given group of consonants. In other words, not all consonants suffer this phonological phenomenon.

In general terms, any voiceless consonant in English has aspiration, which is marked as a little /^h/ immediately after the consonant in transcriptions. However, for this course, BIN-06 Pronunciation II, we will concentrate on the use of aspiration with voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/, and /k/.

As pointed out before, aspiration is an extra puff of air that is present when /p/, /t/, and /k/ are pronounced. But aspiration is not a random event; it does follow some basic rules that need to be consciously developed by the pronunciation student as a way to eliminate his/her accent in the target language: English.

Aspiration Rules

Aspiration is a phenomenon that obeys three basic rules. Let’s pay attention to them in detail:

1. Aspiration is always present in one-syllable words, only when the first consonant of those words are voiceless stops.

Examples:

/p^h/: p^hen, p^hart, p^huck, p^hale, p^heel

/t^h/: t^hell, t^heam, t^hill, t^hold, t^hon

/k^h/: c^hase, K^hen, c^hare, K^him, c^hore

2. Aspiration only takes place in stressed syllables when we have two or more syllables in a word, only if the voiceless stop is the first consonant of that stressed syllable.

Examples:

/p^h/: p^hartly, rep^hlacement, p^hencil, p^haper, p^hermit (n.),

imp^hortant

/t^h/: t^hreasure, t^hrekking, t^hraining, ret^hirement, ret^harded,

ent^hicement

/k^h/: rec^hall, rec^hapture, rec^hord (v.), k^hetchup, k^hettle, c^hriminal

3. Aspiration becomes nullified when /p/, /t/, and /k/ appear immediately after /s/. Why does this happen? As mentioned before, all voiceless consonants contain aspiration, and /s/ is not the exception. Thus, there can’t be two consecutive aspirated consonants in a word. In case you need to transcribe one of these words, /^h/ does not need to be included.

Examples:

/sp/: spaced-out, spank, sparkling, speaker, specialist, speculate,

spelling

/st/: stab, stadium, staging, stairway, standard, starch, steamy

/sk/: scaffolding, scale, scalp, scarcely, scattered, school, scooter

Can voiceless stops be aspirated if they are not the first sound in a stressed syllable?

Depending on the variation of English you are learning or you have learned, it is possible to find native speakers that aspirated final voiceless stops. Although it is not a common phenomenon, you can expect to listen to it anywhere where English is spoken.

Example with past tenses:

/t^h/: walked, laughed, stepped, crossed, fixed

Example with words ending in /p/, /t/, or /k/:

/p^h/: steep^h, rap^h, lap^h, stomp^h, soap^h

/t^h/: tent^h, front^h, client^h, next^h, lot^h

k^h/: clock^h, rack^h, stuck^h, zinc^h, chic^h

Transcription Exercise:

Transcribe the following words by including the aspiration symbol.

01. Tablet

02. Tasty

03. Teacher

04. Tendency

05. Tight

06. Pacify

07. Package

08. Pauper

09. Pedestal

10. Pervert

11. Karma

12. Kingdom

13. Contract (n.)

14. Continent

15. Comedy

Additional links on aspiration to explore:

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1603

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspiration_(phonetics)

http://www.textkit.com/tutorials/20031222-phonetics-page2.php?aid=2&tid=5