Comparative study between English plosives and nasal sounds

This article aims to show an elaborate description of English plosives and nasal sounds. This essay also illustrates comparative studies between the phonetic symbols of English and Bengali plosives as well as nasals. Both plosive and nasal sounds are consonants. As a student of MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics, it is very important to know the phonetic alphabets of plosives and nasals. It will help us to pronounce English words correctly and scientifically. However, due to the short time, I have only shown similar sounds both in English and Bengali plosives and some major differences. 

Plosive: 

At first, we need to know the meaning of plosive. Plosives are known as consonant sounds. While making plosive sounds, the flow of air is completely blocked or stopped behind the articulators, such as the lips, teeth, or palate, and when it is suddenly released, it creates a bursting sound. This sound is known as plosive consonant. It is also called stop consonant. 

English plosive sounds: 

Let us take a look at the plosive sounds in English language. In English, there are six plosive sounds- /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/. These six plosive sounds can be divided into two different types depending on the vibration of the vocal cords. The plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ are voiceless while /b/, /d/, /g/ are fully voiced. 

There is another kind of plosive sound, which is known as aspiration. What makes it different from other kinds of plosive sounds is that this type of sound is pronounced with an extra puff of air for which we may hear an “h” like sound, such as /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /kʰ/. 

The above mentioned six plosive sounds can be divided into three different kinds based on the places of articulation. 

When we make /p/ and /b/ sounds, the lips are pressed together. For this reason, they are called bilabial sounds. When we make /t/ and /d/ sounds, the tip of the tongue is pressed against the alveolar ridge. So, they are known as alveolar sounds. The plosives /k/ and /g/ are called velar sounds because the back of the tongue is pressed against the velum. 

Nasal sounds:

Nose is one of the most important articulators. The production of sounds in which nose plays a vital role is known as nasal sounds. These are also called nasal consonants. In other words, a nasal is a consonant formed by sending out the air through the nose because it does not allow the air to escape out of the mouth. 

In English, we can find three nasal sounds- /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/. Most of the nasal sounds are voiced. We can feel a kind of vibration in the vocal cord while producing them. Of them, /m/ and /n/ are found being commonly used in most of the languages of the world. However, there are exceptions. We can also see the use of voiceless nasal consonants in a few languages, such as Burmese and Welsh. 

In mouth, the flow of air may be stopped at three places- lips, alveolar ridge and velum, resulting in bilabial, alveolar and velar nasals respectively. 

⦁    The nasal sound /m/ can be identified as bilabial nasal sound because when we pronounce it, two lips come closer to each other to make a stricture or blockage, allowing the air to pass through the nose. It takes place at the beginning of a syllable. For example, make, mother and hammer. 

⦁    The /n/ sound is recognized as alveolar nasal sound. While uttering this sound, the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, thus causing the flow of air being redirected from the mouth to exit through the nose. The position of Alveolar ridge is just behind the upper front teeth. It also takes place at the beginning of a syllable. For example, need, know and running. 

⦁    The /ŋ/ sound is known as velar nasal. The back of the tongue is pressed against the velum while producing such kind of sound, causing the flow of air to be transmitted from the mouth to exit through the nose. Velum is also known as soft palate or soft part of the root of the mouth, which is located farthest from the front teeth. 

So far, we have seen English plosive and nasal sounds. Now, let us look at Bengali plosive and nasal sounds. 

Bengali plosives: 

According to Wikipedia, the Bengali meaning of “Plosive consonant” is “স্পর্শ ব্যঞ্জনধ্বনি”. This refers to those consonants in which the articulator touches one of the articulatory organs completely in order to block the vocal tract so that all airflow ceases. 

There are more than 15 consonant sounds in standard colloquial Bengali. According to places of articulation, Bengali consonant sounds can be divided into five different groups- Velar, Alveolo-palatal, Alveolar-retroflex, Dental and Bilabial. 

Depending on the vibration of the vocal cord, Bengali consonant sounds can be divided into two separate groups- voiceless and voiced. 

Voiceless- ক, চ, ট, ত, প 
Voiced- গ, জ~য, ড, দ, ব 

In standard Bengali consonants, we can find a large number of aspirated sounds, which are given below with phonetic symbols- 

Bengali nasal sounds: 

According to Wikipedia, the Bengali meaning of “Nasal consonant” is “নাসিক্য ব্যঞ্জনধ্বনি”. There are also three nasal sounds in standard colloquial Bengali. These sounds are shown with IPA symbols in a below chart: 

Comparison: 
Here, I will make the comparison between plosives and nasal sounds found both in English and Bengali. If we look carefully then we will find some similarities and differences both in Bengali and English sounds. 

The first difference that we come across is the use of place of articulation. English uses three places of articulation while Bengali uses five places of articulation. 

Another difference that is most visible is the position of plosives. It shows where the sound is produced in mouth. In English, consonant sounds are produced from left to right- lips (p, b), alveolar ridge (t, d) and soft palate (k, g). On the other hand, Bengali consonant sounds are produced from right to left- Velar (ক), Alveolo-palatal (Palato-alveolar) (চ), Alveolar-retroflex (ট), Dental (ত) and Bilabial (প). Differences are shown below with two different pictures: 

Post-alveolar consonants: 

Another noticeable similarity between English and Bengali plosives is two post-alveolar consonants. The phonetic symbols for English consonants are /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. They are called affricates because when they are pronounced, the tongue touches alveolar ridge and palate at the same time. In Bengali, similar types of sounds are pronounced as plosives rather than affricates. The symbols are /c/ and /j/. 

Velars: 
We can find velar plosives both in English and Bengali. Velar sounds are produced when the back of the tongue touches the velum, thus creating a stricture, where air is hold and when it is released, it creates a sudden plosion. English has two velar plosives- /k/ and /g/, while Bengali has four plosives- ক (k), খ (kh), গ (g), ঘ (gh). 

Alveolar plosives: 
We can also find similar types of alveolar plosives both in English and Bengali. In English, we find two alveolar plosives- /t/ and /d/. On the other hand, in Bengali, there are four alveolar plosives- /t/ (ট), /th (ঠ)/, /d/ (ড) and /dh/ (ঢ). If we look at English plosives, we can see that /t/ is voiceless while /d/ is voiced. As there is no hissing sound or an extra puff of air, they are called unaspirated. However, /th/ and /dh/ in Bengali plosives are aspirated because there is an extra puff of air for which we can hear an “h” like sound. While we pronounce /t/, /th/, /d/, /dh/ in Bengali language, the tongue is curled back towards palate for which they are called retroflex. 

Bilabial: 
English has two bilabial plosives- /p/ and /b/, while Bengali has four- /p/ (প), /ph/ (ফ), /b/ (ব), and /bh/ (ভ). /p/ is voiceless and /b/ is voiced and both of them are unaspirated. /ph/ and /bh/ are aspirated. These are called labials because they are produced with the touch of two lips or with lip to teeth contact. 

Voicing and aspiration: 
Voicing is regarded as an important feature both in English and Bengali plosives. Plosive consonants can be divided into two groups- voiceless and voiced. Now, let us make a comparison between English and Bengali plosives based on voiceless and voiced. In English, there are three voiceless plosives- /p/, /t/, /k/, but in Bengali, there are five: /k/ (ক), /c/ (চ), /t/ (ট), /t/ (ত), /p/ (প). /b/, /d/, /g/ are English voiced plosives while /g/ (গ), /z/ (জ), /d/ (ড), /d/ (দ), and /b/ (ব) are Bengali voiced plosives. Except for voicing, we can also find the use of aspiration both in English and Bengali language. However, compared to the English language, aspiration plays a more important role in the Bengali language. It is a distinctive feature in this language. Despite having the same strings of sounds, aspiration differentiates meaning in words. Unlike the Bengali language, aspiration is not a distinctive feature in the English language. In Bengali, the members of a four-strong group are identified as voiceless unaspirated, voiced unaspirated, voiceless aspirated and voiced aspirated. 

Nasals:
If we make a comparison between English nasal sounds and Bengali nasal sounds then we will not find any difference. Both English and Bengali have similar nasal consonants. However, for three similar types of Bengali nasal sounds ঞ ~ ণ ~ ন, there is only one English nasal sound which is /n/. 

In this article, I have tried to make compare and contrast between phonemes of two languages- English and Bengali. I have particularly focused on plosives and nasal consonants. I have tried my level best to make a vivid picture of plosive and nasal sounds typically found in English and Bengali languages. As both languages belong to Indo-European Family, they have many similarities and differences in their phonemic systems.