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

f fine v vine
 Dental consonants

upper teeth

tip of tongue

thin this
 Alveolar consonants

alveolar ridge

tip/blade of tongue

t tie d die s Sue z zoo

 Post-alveolar / palato-alveolar
consonants

shoe, pressure pleasure

cheap jeep r rack
Palatal consonants

j 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)

Palato-alveolar or
Labiodental: f v Alveolar: s z
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