A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound of speech in English which distinguishes a word from another. Since sounds cannot be written, we use letters to represent or defend sounds. A grade is the written representation (a letter or a group of letters) of the sound of the phoneme.
In total, in English, there are 44 sounds (phonemes), 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds. In The previous post, we saw 20 vowel sounds. In this article, we will see the 24 consonant sounds (phonemes).
The ventilation of these 24 consonant phonemes is:
The English alphabet has 21 consonant letters, but some of these letters can represent more than one sound. For example, the letter “C” can be pronounced as / k / (as in “cat”) or / s / (as in “city”). Certain sounds of consonants are represented by combinations of letters, such as “ch” (as in “chair”), “sh” (as in “shoe”), and “th” (as in “thin” or “this”). When you explain all the distinct consonant sounds, including those represented by combinations of letters, you get a total of 24 consonant phonemes. In addition, “X”, “Q” and “C” have no unique phonemes.
- C-outs that make a / k / in culture, crack, flipper and
- C-outs that make a / s / In the center, the hundred and the quotes.
- The Q-Sounds are also in words which contain the letters “KW” as in Walkway, Parkway and Awkward.
- The X-Sounds are also in words with “CKS” as in the backstop, the rocks and the cousles
SO, 21 less “x” consonants, “q” and “c” are 18 sounds. However, there are also combinations of consonants that lead to unique sounds. These combinations are called diagraphs.
Now, by coming to consonants' digests, combinations of consonants that make unique sounds. You can combine two consonants, then it can produce a single sound. Now there is a little subjectivity here. For example, if you combine ‘p' and ‘h', ‘pH', some will say that it is a unique sound because you exhale, while some will say that it is already covered in the consonant sound ‘f' as in “fat”.
To settle this debate, there is an organization called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA currently recognizes 6 consonant diagraphs. He could add more to the future, but currently he recognizes 6 Consonnel Digraphs Are they:
- ‘Ch' as ​​in “watch” or “child”
- ‘sh' as ​​in “wish” or “short”
- “ZH” as in “treasure” or “genre”; Please note that the consonant “G” (counted among 18) will have the sound of “shine” or “go”. It is also an additional sound of “G” consonant.
- ‘ng' as in “ring” or “sting”
- ‘CK' as in “back”
- ‘PH' as in “phone”
So, in total, according to iPa the Consonant sounds are 24 (18 simple digests). Now you can say that there are a lot of diagraphs that are present. For example, “SS” as in “Chess” or “Wh” as in “What” or “Th” as in “Thing” or “Thunder” and many combinations of this type are possible. In total, there could be around 75 consonant diggers and 50 vowel digests which are possible. But, there is a debate according to which “WR” as in “WRENCH” is nothing other than the sound “R” when someone will say that this is not the case. So, currently, The recognized sounds are 44 in total – 24 consonant sounds (18 unique consonant sounds and 6 digraph sounds) and 20 vowel sounds (12 monophtongons (single vowel sounds) and 8 diphthongs (two vowel sounds)).
I hope it's useful, thank you.
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