This document discusses the classification of consonant sounds according to their place of articulation in the vocal tract. It explains that consonants are sounds produced with some restriction of airflow, as opposed to vowels. The main places of articulation described are bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal sounds. Each place is defined by where in the mouth the air flow is obstructed, such as with the lips or tongue touching different areas like the teeth, hard palate, soft palate or uvula.

1. Consonants
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2. Egressive Pulmonic
Consonantal Sound
• Most speech sounds, and all normal English
sounds, are made with egressive lung air.

3. Initiation
• To produce any kind of sound, there must be
movement of air.
• To produce sounds that people today can
interpret as words, the movement of air must
pass through the vocal chords, up through the
throat and, into the mouth or nose to then leave
the body.
• Different sounds are formed by different
positions of the mouth—or, as linguists call it,
"the oral cavity" (to distinguish it from the nasal
cavity).

4. The two classes of sounds
• Sounds of all languages fall under two
categories: Consonants and Vowels.

5. Consonants
• Consonants are produced with some form of
restriction or closing in the vocal tract that
hinders the air flow from the lungs.
• Consonants are classified according to where
in the vocal tract the airflow has been
restricted.
• This is also known as places of articulation.

6. Consonants

7. Places of articulation
• Movement of the tongue and lips can create
these constrictions and by forming the oral
cavity in different ways, different sounds can
be produced.

8. Places of articulation

9. Places of articulation

10. Places of articulation

11. Bilabial
• When producing a [b], [p] or [m], articulation
is done by bringing both lips together.

12. Bilabial

13. Bilabial

14. Bilabial

15. Bilabial

16. Labiodental
• [f] and [v] are also used with the lips.
• They, however, are also articulated by
touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth.

17. Labiodental

18. Labiodental

19. Labiodental

20. Labiodental

21. Interdental
• [θ] and [ð] are both spelled as "th".
• They are pronounced by inserting the tip of
the tongue between the teeth.
• (θ as in think)
• (ð as in the)

22. Interdental

23. Interdental

24. Interdental

25. Alveolar
• [t][d][n][s][z][l][r] are produced in many ways
where the tongue is raised towards the
alveolar ridge.

26. Alveolar

27. Alveolar

28. Alveolar

29. Alveolar

30. Alveolar

31. Alveolar

32. Alveolar

33. Alveolar

34. Alveolar

35. Palatal
• [ ʃ ] [ ʒ ] [ tʃ ] [ dʒ ] [ j ] are produced by
raising the front part of the tongue to the
palate.

36. Palatal

37. Palatal

38. Palatal

39. Palatal

40. Velar
• [k][g][ŋ] are produced by raising the back part
of the tongue to the soft palate or the velum.

41. Palatal

42. Uvular
• [ʀ][q][ԍ] these sounds are produced by raising
the back of the tongue to the uvula. The 'r' in
French is often a uvular trill (symbolized by
[ʀ]). The uvular sounds [q] and [ԍ] occur in
Arabic. These do not normally occur in
English.

43. Uvular

44. Uvular

45. Uvular

46. Uvular

48. Glottal
• [h][ʔ] the sound [h] is from the flow of air
coming from an open glottis, past the tongue
and lips as they prepare to pronounce a vowel
sound, which always follows [h].
• if the air is stopped completely at the glottis
by tightly closed vocal chords the sound upon
release of the chords is called a glottal stop
[ʔ].

49. Glottal

50. Glottal

51. Glottal

52. Glottal

53. Glottal

54. Glottal