American English consonant chart

	Lips (Bilabial)	Lips-Teeth (Labio-dental)	Tongue-Teeth (Dental)	Tongue-Gum Ridge  (Alveolar)	Tongue-Palate (Palatal)	Tongue-Soft Palate  (Velar)	Throat (Glottal)
Stops	p b		Value	t d		k g
Fricatives		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ  ʒ		h
Affricates					tʃ dʒ
Nasals	m			n		ŋ
Liquids				l	r
Glides	w				y

Consonants: Place of Articulation

• Consonants are sounds produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract

• Consonants are classified based in part on where in the vocal tract the airflow is being restricted (the place of articulation)

• The major places of articulation are:

bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal

• Bilabials: [p] [b] [m]
  • Produced by bringing both lips together

• Labiodentals: [f] [v]
  • Produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth

• Interdentals [θ] [ð]
  • Produced by putting the tip of the tongue between the teeth

• Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r]
  • All of these are produced by raising the tongue to the alveolar ridge in some way

• [t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge (or just in front of it)

• [s, z]: produced with the sides of the front of the tongue raised but the tip lowered to allow air to escape

• [l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of the tongue remains down so air can escape over the sides of the tongue (thus [l] is a lateral sound)

• [r]: air escapes through the central part of the mouth; either the tip of the tongue is curled back behind the alveolar ridge or the top of the tongue is bunched up behind the alveolar ridge

• Palatals: [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ][ʝ]
  • Produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate

• Velars: [k] [g] [ŋ]
  • Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum

• Uvulars: [ʀ] [q] [ɢ]
  • Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula

• Glottals: [h] [Ɂ]
  • Produced by restricting the airflow through the open glottis ([h]) or by stopping the air completely at the glottis (a glottal stop: [Ɂ])

Consonants: Manner of Articulation

• The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out of the mouth and nose

• Voiceless sounds are those produced with the vocal cords apart so the air flows freely through the glottis

• Voiced sounds are those produced when the vocal cords are together and vibrate as air passes through

• The voiced/voiceless distinction is important in English because it helps us distinguish words like:

rope/robe fine/vine seal/zeal

[rop]/[rob] [faɪn]/[vaɪn] [sil]/[zil]

• But some voiceless sounds can be further distinguished as aspirated or unaspirated aspirated unaspirated

pool [phul] spool [spul]

tale [thel] stale [stel]

kale [khel] scale [skel]

• Oral sounds are those produced with the velum raised to prevent air from escaping out the nose

• Nasal sounds are those produced with the velum lowered to allow air to escape out the nose

• So far we have three ways of classifying sounds based on phonetic features: by voicing, by place of articulation, and by nasalization

• [p] is a voiceless, bilabial, oral sound
• [n] is a voiced, alveolar, nasal sound

• Stops: [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g] [ŋ] [ʧ][ʤ] [Ɂ]

– Produced by completely stopping the air flow in the oral cavity for a fraction of a second

• All other sounds are continuants, meaning that the airflow is continuous through the oral cavity

• Fricatives: [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [x] [ɣ] [h]
  • Produced by severely obstructing the airflow so as to cause friction

• Affricates: [ʧ] [ʤ]
  • Produced by a stop closure that is released with a lot of friction

• Liquids: [l] [r]
  • Produced by causing some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real friction

• Glides: [j] [w]
  • Produced with very little obstruction of the airstream and are always followed by a vowel

Consonants: Manner of Articulation

• Approximants: [w] [j] [r] [l]
  • Sometimes liquids and glides are put together into one category because the articulators approximate a frictional closeness but do not actually cause friction

• Trills and flaps: [r]* [ɾ]
  • Trills are produced by rapidly vibrating an articulator
  • Flaps are produced by a flick of the tongue against the alveolar ridge

• Clicks:
  • Produced by moving air in the mouth between various articulators
  • The disapproving sound tsk in English is a consonant in Zulu and some other southern African languages
  • The lateral click used to encourage a horse in English is a consonant in Xhosa

*The textbook uses [r] to represent the central liquid as in the word ready rather than as a trill