This is because if you only have eight consonants and five vowels, as Hawaiian does, you're going to get lots of homophones.
They argue that altering the physical production of speech — the movements of the tongue, lips and mouth — makes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants sound foreign.
Perhaps the most exotic sounds are clicks-technically "non-pulmonic" consonants that do not use the airstream from the lungs for their articulation.
A consonant cluster is a group of two, three or even four consonants pronounced together.
The consonants in babble mean the baby is practicing, shaping different sounds by learning to maneuver the mouth and tongue, and listening to the results.
Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants.
