(Cont) Articulation and Description of the English Consonant Sounds

 4. Alveolar = tongue tip at the alveolar ridge, behind the top teeth. English alveolar consonants are formed by raising the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge, which lies right behind the teeth.

5. Palatal = the front or body of the tongue raised to the palatal region or the domed area at the roof of your mouth.

  

6. Velar= the back of the tongue raised to the soft palate ("velum"), the area right behind the palate

 

7. Glottal= at the larynx (the glottis is the space between the vocal folds). Locate the glottis (the vocal folds) in the diagram, below.  A glottal stop is a speech sound articulated by a momentary, complete closing of the glottis in the back of the throat.

         It exists in many languages, as in English and Hawaiian uh-oh, O'ahu, and ka'aina.

 

The airflow can be modified at various points within vocal organs to produce distinct speech sounds. The point where a sound is produced is referred to as its place of articulation.

Manner of Articulation 

is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. (Wikipedia)

Consonants are organized into six categories based on the they way air is constricted: 

1.Stop = complete closure, resulting in stoppage of the airflow

2.Affricate = closure followed by frication (= stop + fricative)

3.Fricative = narrow opening, air forced through

4.Nasal = air allowed to pass through the nose (generally while blocked in mouth)

5.Liquid = minimal constriction allowing air to pass freely

6.Glide = minimal constriction corresponding to a vowel (thus also called "semi-vowel")

Stops

- Stops, also called plosives, are like little explosions of sound. They are made by obstructing the airstream completely in the oral cavity.

- When you say [p] as in pat and [b] as in ball, your lips are closed together for a moment, stopping the airflow. [p] and [b] are bilabial stops. [p] is a voiceless bilabial stop, and [b] is a voiced bilabial stop. [t], [d], [k], and [g] are also stops. The glottal stop, [?], is made by momentarily closing the vocal folds. If you stop halfway through uh-oh and hold the articulators in position for the second half, you should be able to feel yourself making the glottal stop (it will feel like a catch in your throat.)

Fricatives

-  Fricatives are made by forming a nearly complete obstruction of the vocal tract. The opening though which the air escapes is very small, and as a result a turbulent noise is produced (much as air escaping from a punctured tire makes a hissing noise.) Such a turbulent, hissing mouth noise is called frication.

- [S], as in ship, is made by almost stopping the air with the tongue near the palate. It is a voiceless palatal fricative. How would you describe each of the following: [f], [v], [q], [ð], [s], [z], [š], [ž] and [h]? 

Affricate

- Affricates are made by briefly stopping the airstream completely and then releasing the articulators slightly so that frication noises is produced. This is why phoneticians describe affricates as a sequence of a stop followed by a fricative. 

- English has only two affricates: [tS], as in church, and [dZ], as in judge. [tS] is pronounces like a [t] quickly followed by [S]. It is a voiceless palatal affricate. [dZ] is a combination of [d] and [Z].  

Nasal

- Nasals are produced by lowering the velum and thus opening the nasal passage to the vocal tract. When the velum is raised against the back of the throat (also called the pharynx wall), no air can escape through the nasal passage. Sounds made with the velum raised are called oral sounds.

- The sounds [m], as in Kim, [n] as in kin, and [ŋ] as in king, are produced with the velum lowered and hence care called nasal sounds. These consonants are sometimes classified as nasal stops because, just like oral stops, there is a complete obstruction in the oral cavity. In English, all nasals are voiced.

Lateral Liquid

- Liquids, like all consonants, involve a substantial constriction of the vocal tract, but the constrictions for liquids are not narrow enough to block the vocal tract or cause turbulence. For the lateral (= side) liquid [l] the center of the vocal tract is completely obstructed, like in a stop, but there is a side passage around the tongue. You can feel this positioning by first starting to say leaf and "freezing" your tongue at the [l], then inhaling sharply. The air will cool the sides of your tongue, showing you the airflow pattern. The [l] sound is produced with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge as in [t], but the airstream escapes around the sides of the tongue. Liquids are usually voiced in English: [l] is a voiced alveolar lateral liquid.    

Retoflex Liquid

- The other liquid in English is [r]. There is a great deal of variation in the ways speakers of English make r-sounds. Most are voiced and articulated in the alveolar region, and a common type also involves curling the tip  of the tongue aback behind the alveolar right to make a retroflex sound. For our purposes, [r] as in red is a voiced alveolar retroflex liquid. 

Glide

- Glides are made with only a slight closure of the articulators, so that if the vocal tract were any more open, the result would be a vowel sound. [w], as in win, is made by raising the back of the tongue toward the velum while rounding the lips at the same time, so it is classified as a voiced bilabial glide. [hw] is produced just like [w], except that it is voiceless. Not all speakers of English use this sound. [j], as in year, is made with a slight closure in the palatal region. It is a voiced palatal glide.