The main part

2. The general characteristics of consonants
1. The opposition plosive-fricative exists between the English labial consonants Ip - mI, Ip - fl, Ib - vI. As V.A. Vassilyev points out: «Since there are no bilabial fricative «opposite numbers» of the bilabial plosives Ip, bl in English, the above opposition is «skewed» into the opposition bilabial plosive vs. labiodental fricative, the difference between bilabial and labio-dental articulations being distinctively irrelevant»
1.The opposition plosive-fricative also exists between the forelingual consonants: It - S/, Id - l}1, It - sl, Id - zI, It - II, Id – 3/; between the backlingual and pharyngal consonants /k - hi, Ighi. There are the following plosive-fricative oppositions in Uzbek: Ip - fl, Ib - vI It - sl, Id - zI, It - shl, Id - j/, /k - hi, Ig - hi, /k - khI, Iq - g'l. The functional load of this opposition is higher in English than in U zbek. The power of this opposition is stronger in English (11 pairs of phonemes) than in Uzbek (10 pairs).
2. The single opposition plosive - affricate exists between It - tIl and Id - d31 in English and It - chi, Id - j/, in Uzbek. The polemics of whether to treat the English affricates as one phoneme or two dominated linguistic literature about three decades ago. Some American linguists regard English affricates ItS, d31 to be clusters, but most of them consider affricates to be «compound phonemes» by which they mean that two simple phonemes may function as a unit. There are discussions on the number of affricates in English. D. Jones and A. Cohen distinguish six affricates ItS, d3, ts, dz, tr, drP. I. Ward and A.C. Gimson add two more affricates: ItSI as in eightlh leltSI and IdSI as in width IWldSP. In fact, only two affricates ItI and Id31 exist in modem English as separate phonemes. From the phonetic point of view affricates consist of two elements: plosive - fricative, which are indivisible in articulation and cannot be divided into two syllables. It is also impossible to notice any differences between plosive - fricative in the production of affricates. The phonemic status of the affricates may be determined on the basis of the morpheme boundary. Two elements of the affricate do not belong to two morphemes. Even in such syntactic information like Why choose? Iwai tfu:zI - white shoes Iwait fu:zl which are usually regarded junctures, it is possible to notice the differences in their spectrograms. Another solution of the phonemic status of the affricates is that languages with affricates also have dental stops and palatal Fricativesю
4. That is to say the languages which have the affricate It’Il also have that of It! and Ifl. The phonemic status of affricates may be proved by the existence of threnary opposition affricateplosive-fricative: It - tf - fI, Id - d3 - 3/. All these criteria may be applied also to the Uzbek affricates.
3. The single opposition plosive-nasal exists between the Englishlb - mI, Id - nI, Ig - IJI and the Uzbek Ib - mI, Id - nI, Ig -ng/.The distribution of the phonemes IIJI and Ingl is extremely limited in both languages. In Uzbek Ingl may be separated into two elementsln - gI in word medial syllables.
4. Iz - 1/,/0 - 11, Iv - wI and Iz - rl may form the single opposition constrictive (fricative) - constrictive sonant. This opposition is represented by the only pair Iz - 11 in U zbek. The functional load of these oppositions is extremely low and its power is also weak (it is weaker in Uzbek). The opposition constrictive sonant - occlusive nasal sonant exists between the English Iw - mI, /1 - nI, Ir - nI and the Uzbek Iv - mI, /1 - nI, Ir -nJl. The opposition medial sonant-lateral sonant exists between Ir - II in both languages and in many other languages as well.
5. The opposition voiceless - voiced resp. fortis - lenis exists between the pairs Ip - bl, It - dI, Is - zI, If - vI If - 3/, Itf - d3/, 19 - 01, /k - gl in English and Ip - bl, It - dI, Is - zI, If - vI, Ishj/, /ch - jI, Ikh - g'l, /k - g/. Such pairs of phonemes which are distinguished by the absence and presence of one feature, are combined into the correlation. The correlation pairs are given naturally in the form of binary oppositions whereas all other single oppositions may be formed on the basis of choosing, i.e. we choose two phonemes which are distinguished by one distinctive feature. S. Pit Corder made up a table which shows a comparison of the relative functional load of some oppositions of English consonants in initial and final position in monosyllabic words without initial and final consonant clusters (the highest functional load is counted as the base for comparisony. S. Pit Corder pointed out that oppositions are very important in language learning for practical reasons while the principle of relative frequency is the right criterion for the selection of lexical material in the syllabus!
(1) On the basis of the relationship between oppositions in the entire system of oppositions we distinguish: a) bilateralmultilateral and b) proportional-isolated types of opposition. For example, the following oppositions between the English consonant phonemes are bilateral (<(2) On the basis of the relationship between the opposition members the following types are distinguished:
a) the privative oppositions, when one member of opposition is characterized by the presence (marked) and the other - by the absence of feature (unmarked) as voiced - voiceless, oralnasal etc. The oppositions Ip - bl, It - dI, Is - zI, II - 3/, It I - d3/, If - vi, /k - gI, IS - 31, and also 1m - bl, In - dI, III - g/, 1M - wi, In - II, In - rl are privative;
b)the gradual opposition, the members of which are characterized by different levels of gradation, may be formed between Ip - kI in which a localization level Itl is omitted, also /b - gl through Idl 1m -111 through In!, It - hi through /k/;
c)the equipollent opposition, when the members are equal from the logical point of view and there is no gradation level in it: Ip - tI, /b - dI, If - sl, If - S/, Iv - 3/, Iv - zl, Ir - 11, II - til, 13 - d3/, It - kI, Ip - fl, /b - vi, It - S/, Id - at, /k - hi, /b - dI, It - dI, Id - gI. As we can notice from the given classification' different names and terms are given to one and the same opposition. For example, /b - dJ, It - dJ, Id - g/ are bilateral, proportional and equipollent, whereas the opposition Ir - 1/ is bilateral, isolated, equipollent. Therefore, this principle is complex and not suitable in all cases. B. Trnka attempted to simplify this principle and applied it to English. He distinguished two principal types of opposition: conjunct and disjunct. The conjunct opposition is distinguished by a single relevant feature while disjunct opposition is distinguished by two or more features2. This classification is similar to V.A. Vassilyev's single and double oppositions. However, the further stage of B. Trnka's classification is made according to N. S. Trubetzkoy's principle¹.
According to the extent of the distinctive force, oppositions may be constant and neutralizable. N.S. Trubetzkoy stated that only bilateral, privative oppositions may be neutralizable but further investigations of this problem have shown that multilateral oppositions may also be neutralizable. The bilateral privative, proportional oppositions Ip - bl, It - dJ, Is - zI, /k - gl etc. may be neutralized in English in word final position: cap /krepl - cab /kreb/, bet - /bet! - bed /bedJ, course /k'J:sI - cause /k'J:zI, back /brek/ - bag /bregl etc. In word final position voiced consonants of English do not become fully voiceless otherwise the given words become homophones. The voiced - voiceless feature is accompanied by the fortis-Ienis feature which is not neutralized in many English words. But there are cases when fortis-voiceless and lenis-voiced oppositions are neutralized and both distinctive and recognitive functions are transferred to the preceding sounds, which are half long before a voiced consonant and quite short before voiceless consonants as in the words bed /bed/ - bet /bet/, bid /bid/ - bit /bit/ etc. This transference of the distinctive and recognitive functions of some phonemes in the structure of a word is possible owing to the principle of compensation. Here the neutralization of voiced-voiceless opposition may be compensated by fortis-Ienis feature or by longshort resp. unchecked-checked features in the word or syllable structures CVC.
As a result of such neutralization two phonemes /t – d/, /p – b/ which form the opposition, may have common distinctive features in word final position. The combination of distinctive features cornmon to two phonemes is called an archiphoneme. But this term cannot express the nature of neutralization in English, as we cannot establish two phonemes (t/d or s/z) having combination of distinctive features owing to the compensation principle. Therefore, it is convenient to call such a phonemic alternation by the term «an alternophoneme» (suggested by V.A. Vassilyev). In such languages as Uzbek and Russian it is possible to use the term an archiphoneme (suggested by N.S. Trubetzkoy), because in these languages voiced consonants in word final position may become fully voiceless: qand /qant/, kelib /kelip/, barg /bark/ in Uzbek and луг – лук /лук/, пруд – прут /прут/ in Russian. The nasals before labial and velar consonants may also be neutralizable: lamp, slumber, comfort, sink, longer, English. In these examples /m/ before /p/, /b/; /m/ before /f/ as /m/; /n/ before /v/, /n/ before /k - g/ are neutralizable: envy, anvil, length, Stamford, comfort, Humfrey, Banff.
On the basis of the above given examples it is possible to distinguish two principal types of neutralization:
a) paradigmatic neutralization, which takes place in the system of oppositions, for example, voiced-voiceless opposition in /p – b/, /t - d/ etc.;
b) syntagmatic or contextual neutralization, when a phoneme may drop or obtain some of distinctive features, for example nasals before labial and velar consonants in words but not in minimal pairs. The latter may more often appear in connected speech. It is also possible to distinguish the terms used in neutralization. The terms an «alternophoneme» (in English) and an «archiphoneme» (in Uzbek and Russian) may be used in paradigmatic neutralization. The term a «neutralized variant» (suggested by B. Trnka) may be used in the syntagmatic neutralization. Thus, the phonemic systems of the English and Uzbek consonants differ by the quality and quantity of oppositions and by the different nature of neutralization. The above given distinctive features of the English consonants have been explained in articulatory and acoustic terms. The authors of the dichotomic phonology have represented the distinctive features in mixed terms.
G.P. Torsuyev distinguishes two types of variations of the English phonemes: a) diaphonic variation which does not depend on the position, i.e. the constant quality and quantity of the phonemes; b) allophonic variation which depends on the position and their meaning.
Here are some examples of words that include voiced consonants:

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  traveled
  
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  gloves
  
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  shells
  
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  started
  
• 
  changed
  
• 
  wheels
  
• 
  lived
  
• 
  dreams
  
• 
  exchanged
  
• 
  globes
  
• 
  phones
  
• 
  listened
  
• 
  organized
  

Voiceless Consonants

Voiceless consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard, percussive sounds. Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound.