This document discusses places and manners of articulation for English consonants. It defines place of articulation as where in the vocal tract a consonant's narrowing occurs, such as bilabial, labiodental, dental, etc. Manner of articulation refers to how the airstream is affected, including stops, fricatives, approximants, affricates, and laterals. It also discusses voicing, whether vocal folds vibrate. The document provides detailed descriptions and diagrams of each place and manner of articulation to classify English consonant sounds.

2. Places of Articulation
Manners of Articulations

3. Conducted By:
Monir Hossen
Lecturer
Department of English
CCN University of Science and Technology
Email: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com
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4. Introduction
Background of study
 Human languages shows a large number and variety of
sounds called phones or speech sounds.
 English speech sounds are formed by forcing a stream of
air out of the lungs through the oral or nasal cavities, or
both.
 Language can be written, record mechanically, and even
produced by computers in limited ways, but
nevertheless, speech remains the primary way we
encode it.

5. Phonetic transcription
 Efforts have been made to devise a universal system for transcribing
the sounds of speech since the sixteenth century. The best-known
system is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has been
developing since 1888.
 IPA uses this symbol to represent the sound in whichever language it is
heard. The use of standardized phonetic alphabet enables linguistics to
transcribe language consistently and accurately.

7. DESCRIPTION
English consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech
sound that is articulated with complete or partial
closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p],
pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the
front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of
the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s],
pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel
(fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing
through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with
consonants are vowels.

8. Continitued
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.

9. Consonants Classification
We classify consonants along three major dimensions:
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Voicing

10. What is “The place 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:

11. Bilabial
 In a bilabial consonant, the lower and upper lips
approach or touch each other. English [p], [b], and [m]
are bilabial stops.

12. Labiodental
 In a labiodental consonant, the lower lip approaches or
touches the upper teeth. English [f] and [v] are bilabial
fricatives.

13. 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].

14. 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.

15. 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].

16. 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).

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. What is “The manner of articulation”?
Speech sounds also vary in the way the airstreams is
affected as it flow form the lungs up and out of the
mouth and nose. It may be blocked or practically
blocked; the vocal cords may vibrate or not vibrate. It
refers to this as the manner of articulation. The
process by which the moving column of air is shaped
called the manner of articulation.

21. 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.

22.  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.)

23. Fricatives
 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].

24. 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].

25. 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.

26. Laterals
 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.

27. What is “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.

28.  Plosives- the flow of air is blocked and suddenly
released, a bit like an explosion. So, for example, p
(labial) is produced by closing the lips and releasing
them.
 Fricatives- the flow of air is restricted to make a hissy
sound, a bit like friction.
 Semi-consonants are produced by keeping the vocal
tract briefly in a vowel like position, and then
changing it rapidly to the position required for the
following vowel.
Description of articulation consinants

29. Continued
 Laterals-l is the only English lateral and is produced by
putting the tip of the tounge against the gums and
letting the air pass on either side of the tounge.
(memorable because lateral = sides)
 Nasal consonants are made with the soft palate down –
air passing through the nose.

30. THANK YOU