THE SOUNDS CONSIDERED SEPARATELY
Consonants—stops.
21. The sounds which present least difficulty to the student are the stops, in producing which the flow of breath is completely checked. We have already seen in § 11 that every stop, strictly speaking, consists of three parts, the closing and the opening of the passage and the pause between, and that only the closing or only the opening need be heard for the ear to distinguish the sound. The interval between the closure and the opening may be noticeable, in which case we call the consonant double.
Stops may be voiced or voiceless, that is, they may be produced with or without vibration of the vocal chords (see § 7).
Stops may be produced by stopping the breath at some point in the mouth and then letting it burst through the obstacle; these are oral stops.
The breath, stopped at some point in the mouth, may be allowed to pass out through the nose; the sounds thus produced are called nasal.[14]
Utter the following sounds, and determine whether they are voiced or voiceless, oral or nasal:
[p, g, n, t, b, k, m, d, ŋ.][15]