Practical Phonetics Week 2

Classifying sounds: place and

manner of articulation

Where and how sounds are made

 Thinking about sounds
• Say ‘mmmm’ – where is the ‘m’ sound
produced?
It’s a bilabial consonant (this is the place of
articulation)
• Pinch your nose – what happens?
It stops: it’s a nasal (not an oral) consonant
• Put your fingers in your ears – what do you
hear?
The vibrations of the vocal cords: it’s a voiced
consonant
 Some places of articulation:
bilabial consonants

lips

p pie b buy m mute w wood

 Labiodental consonants

upper teeth

lower lip

f fine v vine
 Dental consonants

upper teeth

tip of tongue

θ thin ð this
 Alveolar consonants

alveolar ridge

tip/blade of tongue

t tie d die s Sue z zoo

n night l light
 Post-alveolar / palato-alveolar
consonants

ʃ shoe, pressure Ʒ pleasure

ʧ cheap ʤ jeep r rack
Palatal consonants

j yes
 Velar consonants
velum

back of tongue

k curl g girl ŋ rang

 Some manners of articulation:
plosives (think explosion) or stops

Bilabial: p b Alveolar: t d Velar: k g

 Fricatives (think friction)

Palato-alveolar or
Labiodental: f v Alveolar: s z
post-alveolar: ʃ Ʒ
Oral Nasal

(Velum is lowered, allowing air

to enter the nasal cavity)
 Nasals

Bilabial: m Alveolar: n Velar: ŋ

 Other consonants
• Affricates (a combination of stop + fricative):
ʧ = voiceless post-alveolar affricate
ʤ = voiced post-alveolar affricate
• Approximant (articulators approach
each other but do not touch): w r j
• Lateral (also called lateral
approximant; air flows over sides of
tongue): l
 Summary of Places of Articulation
• Bilabial (lips) p b m w
• Labiodental (lips and teeth) f fine v vine
• Dental (tongue and teeth) θ thin ð then
• Alveolar (tongue and alveolar ridge)
tdsznl
• Palato-alveolar (tongue and front part of
hard
palate) ʃ shoe ʒ measure ʧ cheap ʤ
jeep r
• Palatal (tongue and hard palate) j yes
• Velar (tongue and velum) k g ŋ running
• Glottal (glottis) h
 Summary of manners of articulation
• Plosive / Stop p b t d k g
• Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
• Affricate (stop + fricative) ʧ ʤ
• Nasal m n ŋ
• Approximants w r j (central) l
(lateral)
 Classifying consonants
• Voiced or voiceless
• Place of articulation
• (Central or lateral)
• (Oral or nasal)
• Manner of articulation
Example 1 : s (sing):
- A voiceless, alveolar, (central), (oral) fricative
- A voiceless, alveolar plosive/stop = ?
/t/ What is /k/?
- A voiceless, velar plosive/stop
The International Phonetic Alphabet: the English consonants

Full IPA with audio illustrations:

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm
And finally…an x-ray (not x-rated) movie:

http://www.practicalphonetics.com/seeing%20through%20speech
.htm

Review activities

• Complete the “Classifying Consonants” chart

• Labels practice:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/phonflashrp.htm

• Symbols practice:
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/findrp.htm