Consonants and Vowel Sounds

Phonetically, it is easy to give definitions: a vowel is any sound with no audible noise
produced by constriction in the vocal tract, and consonant is a sound with audible noise
produced by a constriction.

Consonants are usually classified according to place of articulation (the location of the

stricture made in the vocal tract, such as dental, bilabial, or velar), the manner of articulation
(the way in which the obstruction of the airflow is accomplished, as in stops, fricatives,
approximants, trills, taps, and laterals 

DESCRIBING CONSONANTS

Producing a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it
usually is. We call this narrowing a constriction. Which consonant you're pronouncing
depends on where in the vocal tract the constriction is and how narrow it is. It also depends
on a few other things, such as whether the vocal folds are vibrating and whether air is flowing
through the nose.

We classify consonants along three major dimensions:

 place of articulation
 manner of articulation
 voicing

The place of articulation dimension specifies where in the vocal tract the constriction is.
The voicing parameter specifies whether the vocal folds are vibrating. The manner of
articulation dimesion is essentially everything else: how narrow the constriction is, whether
air is flowing through the nose, and whether the tongue is dropped down on one side.

For example, for the sound [d]:

 Place of articulation = alveolar. (The narrowing of the vocal tract involves the tongue
tip and the alveolar ridge.)
 Manner of articulation = oral stop. (The narrowing is complete -- the tongue is
completely blocking off airflow through the mouth. There is also no airflow through
the nose.)
 Voicing = voiced. (The vocal folds are vibrating.)

VOICING
The vocal folds may be held against each other at just the right tension so that the air flowing
past them from the lungs will cause them to vibrate against each other. We call this
process voicing. Sounds which are made with vocal fold vibration are said to be voiced.
Sounds made without vocal fold vibration are said to be voiceless.

There are several pairs of sounds in English which differ only in voicing -- that is, the two
sounds have identical places and manners of articulation, but one has vocal fold vibration and
the other doesn't. The [θ] of thigh and the [ð] of thy are one such pair. The others are:

voiceless voiced

[p] [b]

[t] [d]

[k] [ɡ]

[f] [v]

[θ] [ð]

[s] [z]

[ʃ] [ʒ]

[tʃ] [dʒ]

The other sounds of English do not come in voiced/voiceless pairs. [h] is voicess, and has no
voiced counterpart. The other English consonants are all voiced: [ɹ], [l], [w], [j], [m], [n],
and [ŋ]. This does not mean that it is physically impossible to say a sound that is exactly like,
for example, an [n] except without vocal fold vibration. It is simply that English has chosen
not to use such sounds in its set of distinctive sounds. (It is possible even in English for one
of these sounds to become voiceless under the influence of its neighbours, but this will never
change the meaning of the word.)

Manners of articulation
Stops
A stop consonant completely cuts off the airflow through the mouth. In the
consonants [t], [d], and [n], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow
at that point. In [t] and [d], this means that there is no airflow at all for the duration of the
stop. In [n], there is no airflow through the mouth, but there is still airflow through the nose.
We distinguish between

 nasal stops, like [n], which involve airflow through the nose, and
 oral stops, like [t] and [d], which do not.
Nasal stops are often simply called nasals. Oral stops are often called plosives. Oral stops
can be either voiced or voiceless. Nasal stops are almost always voiced. (It is physically
possible to produce a voiceless nasal stop, but English, like most languages, does not use
such sounds.)
Fricatives

In the stop [t], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow. In [s], the
tongue tip approaches the alveolar ridge but doesn't quite touch it. There is still enough of an
opening for airflow to continue, but the opening is narrow enough that it causes the escaping
air to become turbulent (hence the hissing sound of the [s]). In a fricative consonant, the
articulators involved in the constriction approach get close enough to each other to create a
turbluent airstream. The fricatives of English are [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ].

Approximants

In an approximant, the articulators involved in the constriction are further apart still than they
are for a fricative. The articulators are still closer to each other than when the vocal tract is in
its neutral position, but they are not even close enough to cause the air passing between them
to become turbulent. The approximants of English are [w], [j], [ɹ], and [l].

Affricates

An affricate is a single sound composed of a stop portion and a fricative portion. In

English [tʃ], the airflow is first interuppted by a stop which is very similar to [t] (though made
a bit further back). But instead of finishing the articulation quickly and moving directly into
the next sound, the tongue pulls away from the stop slowly, so that there is a period of time
immediately after the stop where the constriction is narrow enough to cause a turbulent
airstream. In [tʃ], the period of turbulent airstream following the stop portion is the same as
the fricative [ʃ]. English [dʒ] is an affricate like [tʃ], but voiced.

Laterals

Pay attention to what you are doing with your tongue when you say the first consonant
of [lif] leaf. Your tongue tip is touching your alveolar ridge (or perhaps your upper teeth), but
this doesn't make [l] a stop. Air is still flowing during an [l] because the side of your tongue
has dropped down and left an opening. (Some people drop down the right side of their tongue
during an [l]; others drop down the left; a few drop down both sides.) Sounds which involve
airflow around the side of the tongue are called laterals. Sounds which are not lateral are
called central.

[l] is the only lateral in English. The other sounds of Englihs, like most of the sounds of the
world's languages, are central.

More specifically, [l] is a lateral approximant. The opening left at the side of the tongue is
wide enough that the air flowing through does not become turbulent.
Places of articulation

The place of articulation (or POA) of a consonant specifies where in the vocal tract the
narrowing occurs. From front to back, the POAs that English uses are:

Bilabial

In a bilabial consonant, the lower and upper lips approach or

touch each other. English [p], [b], and [m] are bilabial stops.

The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during
a typical [p] or [b]. (An [m] would look the same, but with the
velum lowered to let out through the nasal passages.)

The sound [w] involves two constrictions of the vocal tract made

simultaneously. One of them is lip rounding, which you can think
of as a bilabial approximant.

Labiodental

In a labiodental consonant, the lower lip approaches or touches

the upper teeth. English [f] and [v] are bilabial fricatives.

The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during a
typical [f] or [v].

Dental

In a dental consonant, the tip or blade of the tongue approaches or touches the upper teeth.
English [θ] and [ð] are dental fricatives. There are actually a
couple of different ways of forming these sounds:

 The tongue tip can approach the back of the upper teeth,
but not press against them so hard that the airflow is
completely blocked.
 The blade of the tongue can touch the bottom of the upper
teeth, with the tongue tip protruding between the teeth --
still leaving enough space for a turbulent airstream to escape. This kind
of [θ] and [ð] is often called interdental.

The diagram to the right shows a typical interdental [θ] or [ð].

Alveolar

In an alveolar consonant, the tongue tip (or less often the tongue
blade) approaches or touches the alveolar ridge, the ridge
immediately behind the upper teeth. The English stops [t], [d],
and [n] are formed by completely blocking the airflow at this
place of articulation. The fricatives [s] and [z] are also at this
place of articulation, as is the lateral approximant [l].

The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during
plosive [t] or [d].

Postalveolar

In a postalveolar consonant, the constriction is made immediately

behind the alveolar ridge. The constriction can be made with
either the tip or the blade of the tongue. The English
fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ] are made at this POA, as are the
corresponding affricates [tʃ] and [dʒ].

The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during
the first half (the stop half) of an affricate [tʃ] or [dʒ].

Retroflex

In a retroflex consonant, the tongue tip is curled backward in the

mouth. English [ɹ] is a retroflex approximant -- the tongue tip is
curled up toward the postalveolar region (the area immediately
behind the alveolar ridge).

The diagram to the right shows a typical English retroflex [ɹ].

Both the sounds we've called "postalveolar" and the sounds we've
called "retroflex" involve the region behind the alveolar ridge. In
fact, at least for English, you can think of retroflexes as being a sub-type of postalveolars,
specifically, the type of postalveolars that you make by curling your tongue tip backward.

(In fact, the retroflexes and other postalveolars sound so similar that you can usually use
either one in English without any noticeable effect on your accent. A substantial minority
North American English speakers don't use a retroflex [ɹ], but rather a "bunched" R -- sort of
like a tongue-blade [ʒ] with an even wider opening. Similarly, a few people use a curled-up
tongue tip rather than their tongue blades in making [ʃ] and [ʒ].)
Palatal

In a palatal consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or touches the hard palate.
English [j] is a palatal approximant -- the tongue body approaches the hard palate, but closely
enough to create turbulence in the airstream.

Velar

In a velar consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or

touches the soft palate, or velum. English [k], [ɡ], and [ŋ] are
stops made at this POA. The [x] sound made at the end of the
German name Bach or the Scottish word loch is the voiceless
fricative made at the velar POA.

The diagram to the right shows a typical [k] or [ɡ] -- though

where exactly on the velum the tongue body hits will vary a lot
depending on the surrounding vowels.

As we have seen, one of the two constrictions that form a [w] is a bilabial approximant. The
other is a velar approximant: the tongue body approaches the soft palate, but does not get
even as close as it does in an [x].

Glottal

The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. In an [h], this opening is narrow enough to
create some turbulence in the airstream flowing past the vocal folds. For this reason, [h] is
often classified as a glottal fricative.

Summary of English consonants

[p] voiceless bilabial plosive

[b] voiced bilabial plosive

[t] voiceless alveolar plosive

[d] voiced alveolar plosive

[k] voiceless velar plosive

[ɡ] voiced velar plosive

[tʃ] voiceless postalveolar affricate

[dʒ] voiced postalveolar affricate

[m] voiced bilabial nasal

[n] voiced alveolar nasal

[ŋ] voiced velar nasal

[f] voiceless labiodental fricative

[v] voiced labiodental fricative

[θ] voiceless dental fricative

[ð] voiced dental fricative

[s] voiceless alveolar fricative

[z] voiced alveolar fricative

[ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative

[ʒ] voiced postalveolar fricative

[ɹ] voiced retroflex approximant

[j] voiced palatal approximant

[w] voiced labial + velar approximant

[l] voiced alveolar lateral approximant

[h] voiceless glottal fricative

Consonant charts
It is often useful to display the consonants of a language in the form of a chart. There is a
conventional way of doing so:

 Columns show places of articulation, arranged (roughly) from the front of the vocal
tract to the back.
 Rows show manners of articulation.
 Within each cell, the symbol for a voiceless sound is shown toward the left of the cell
and the symbol for a voiced sound toward the right.

The following is the chart for English consonants:

bilabial labiodental dental alveolar postalveolar retroflex palatal velar glottal

plosive p b     t d       k ɡ  

nasal   m       n         ŋ  
fricative   f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ       h  

approximant   (w)           ɹ   j   (w)  

lateral
        l          
approximant

affricate         tʃ dʒ