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? Its a bilabial consonant (this is the place of articulation) Pinch your nose what happens? It stops: its a nasal (not an oral) consonant Put your fingers in your ears what do you hear? The vibrations of the vocal cords: its a voiced consonant

Some places of articulation: bilabial consonants

lips

p pie b buy m mute w

wood

Labiodental consonants
upper teeth

lower lip

fine

v vine

Dental consonants
upper teeth tip of tongue

thin

this

Alveolar consonants
alveolar ridge tip/blade of tongue

t tie d n night l

die

s Sue z

zoo

light

Post-alveolar / palato-alveolar consonants

shoe, pressure

pleasure
rack

cheap

jeep r

Palatal consonants

yes

Velar consonants
velum

back of tongue

k curl g girl rang

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

Bilabial: p b

Alveolar: t d

Velar: k g

Fricatives (think friction)

Labiodental: f v

Alveolar: s z

Palato-alveolar or post-alveolar:

Oral

Nasal

(Velum is lowered, allowing air to enter the nasal cavity)

Nasals

Bilabial: m

Alveolar: n

Velar:

Other consonants
Affricates (a combination of stop + fricative):

= voiceless post-alveolar affricate = 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) thin then Alveolar (tongue and alveolar ridge) tdsznl Palato-alveolar (tongue and front part of hard palate) shoe measure cheap jeep r Palatal (tongue and hard palate) j yes Velar (tongue and velum) k g running Glottal (glottis) h

Summary of manners of articulation

Plosive / Stop p b t d k g Fricative f v s z h Affricate (stop + fricative) Nasal m n 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 finallyan 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