Voices and aspirations
We have so far learned that there are five points of pronunciation.
- The soft palate. The soft palate is the fleshy region at the very back of the mouth.
- The hard palate. The hard palate is the bony region on the top of the mouth.
- The area behind the hard bump on the roof of the mouth. This bump sits behind the teeth.
- The base of the teeth.
- The lips.
Interestingly, we have four stops and nasals for each point of pronunciation, but only one consonant for them. Hence, there arises a need to produce three other consonants, but how?
In order to understand consonants, we have to segregate them into two categories; they are; voiced and unvoiced consonants. For example, the letter b is voiced whereas, letter p is unvoiced, just like the English words “pale” and “bail”
Apart from this, there is another factor that needs to be considered, that is whether the sound is aspirated or non-aspirated. The aspirated sounds are followed by a puff of air while speaking, for instance, “g” in “log” when heard carefully; you can sense an extra puff of air while speaking this word. Such aspirated sounds are present in English too.
So let us take a look at each of the sounds example;
The soft palate sounds:
Letter | Approximation |
ka | k in “skill” |
kha | k in “kill” |
ga | g in “great” |
gha | Aspirated g |
na | ng in “lung” |
One thing you must’ve noticed here is that the first two sounds are unvoiced and the rest two are aspirated. The last one whereas is a nasal one.
Following table will you help you understand the concept more clearly;
Letter | Voiced | Aspirated | Nasal |
ka | No | No | No |
kha | No | Yes | No |
ga | Yes | No | No |
gha | Yes | Yes | No |
na | Yes | No | Yes |
The hard palate sounds
Letter | Approximation |
ca | – |
cha | Aspirated ca |
ja | – |
jha | Aspirated jha |
na | – |
The retroflex sounds:
Letter | Approximation |
ta | – |
tha | Aspirated ta |
da | – |
dha | Aspirated da |
na | – |
Tooth consonants:
Letter | Approximation |
ta | “th” in “thumb” |
tha | Aspirated “ta” |
da | “th” in “the” |
dha | Aspirated “da” |
na | “n” in “now” |
Lip consonants:
Letter | Approximation |
Pa | “p” in “spill” |
pha | “p” in “pill” |
ba | “b” in “bill” |
bha | Aspirated “b” |
ma | “m” in “mail” |