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Consonants and Semi Consonants

Consonants can’t be pronounced alone. They are always followed by a vowel or semi consonant. Only exception is “merging of consonants”, when two consonants are pronounced as one. E.g. Edgar [Edgзř]: [dg]. But even in these cases merged couple is always followed by vowel or semi consonant.

Semi consonants can take the role of vowels when they are coupled with other consonants. E.g.

glen [gлen]: [л]

gravel [gřevзл]: [ř]

amber [ambзř]: [m]

Consonants (and Semi Consonants) categorized by sound type

Consonants Harmony Chains Table

Glottal Sound	Lary- ngeal Sound	Velar Sound	Basic	Nasal Sound	Fricative Sound	Semi Soft	Soft
			B
			C
			Ч			Č	Ћ
			D		Đ		Dˆ
					F
		G
			Џ			Ğ	Ђ
H		X
					J
	Q	K
			Л			L	Љ
				M
		Ŋ		N			Ñ
			P
	Ŗ		R			Ř	Rˆ
					S
					Ш	Š	Ŝ
			T		Θ		Tˆ
			V		W
			Щ		Z
					Ж	Ž	Zˆ

Consonants in the upper table are organized by harmonies. There is a relation between position of phoneme in harmony chain and the way and place it is formed. This is a new perspective of looking at this topic. Terminology is not developed yet, and this is just to give a glimpse on a new perspective of looking at this topic.

Nasals have a free passage of air through the nasal cavity. If you close the nose and try to pronounce a nasal, the sound will significantly change. The most well known nasals are semi consonants [m] and [n]. Nasals cause surrounding phonemes to switch to their group. E.g. [ôn] and [âm] are usually in pairs. If this doesn’t happen the speed of speech is slightly decreased. It takes longer to pronounce [on] and [am] than [ôn] and [âm]. Nasals are semi consonants, they take the role of vowels when they are coupled with other consonants.

Soft: big part of tongue is stack to the palette, or is very close to the palette and is following the shape of palette. Tongue is bended upward.

Semi Soft: tip or smaller part of tongue is stack to the palette, or is very close to the palette and is following the shape of palette. Base of tongue is bended down.

Fricative is characterized by frictional passage of the expired breath through a narrowing at some point in the vocal tract. All fricatives are semi consonants.

Basic is characterized by brusque sound. Most of them are consonants.

[RR] (Rolling R) is the same phoneme as [R]; [RR] (Rolling R) is multiply pronounced [R]. When [R] takes the role of vowel it is always rolled.

[R] [RR]

Velar are formed in velar area.

Laryngeal are produced by or with constriction of the larynx.

The diacritic on the top of letters “Č, Ğ, Ř, Š, Ž” indicate that the tongue is bended down. Because tongue is bended down all of the phonemes from the “Č, Ğ, Ř, Š, Ž” group often cause surrounding vowels to switch to [з] or to semi-umlaut/umlaut group.

The diacritic on the top of letters “Dˆ, Rˆ, Ŝ, Tˆ, Zˆ” indicate that the tongue is bended upward.