Language gives us the system to fashion our thoughts into understood expressions. To achieve that, it arranges single-unit characters (letters) into larger units (words) with meanings we assign.<\/p>\n
We depend on language sounds for our understanding of it just as well. Whether heard by our outer ears or the inner ones in our mind, language sounds give structure, rhythm, and clarity to communication that would be otherwise lost without them.<\/p>\n
Imagine if the only sounds in our language were vowels:<\/p>\n
Ae e ai e ai o iauee?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Without consonants, most of our English words would have no recognition or meaning. Consonants provide the sounds and form that frame vowels into thoughts and concepts we can relate to:<\/p>\n
Are we taking the train to Milwaukee?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What Is a Consonant?<\/h2>\n
A consonant is a speech sound we make by changing airflow in our mouth or nose as we speak, usually by blocking it in our vocal tract with our teeth, tongue, throat, or lips.<\/p>\n
Of the twenty-six letters in our English alphabet, 21 are consonants:<\/p>\n
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The remaining five letters are vowels: a, e, i, o, u<\/em>. In contrast with consonants, vowel sounds are formed with unrestricted airflow that we shape with our mouth and the position of our teeth.<\/p>\n
Simply stated, any letter that is not a vowel is a consonant. An occasional exception is the letter y<\/em>. It is a consonant when it begins a word and forms the \/j\/ sound: young<\/em>, yarn<\/em>, yesterday<\/em>. It also can function as a vowel when it produces a vowel sound in words, usually at the end or in the middle of them: giddy<\/em>, gypsum<\/em>, fly<\/em>.<\/p>\n
In our writing, consonants are the letters that represent the consonant sounds we make when we speak. The following are common words that begin with consonant letters and sounds.<\/p>\n