DanielIyabodeOm 2011 CHAPTERTHREE IntroductoryPhonetics

CHAPTER THREE
ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

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3.1 Articulatory Descriptions

Sounds are usually described in essentially articulatory terms. Thus,
some important and basic information about how a sound is articulated is
significant for its description. We will here present some important
features of a sound that we need to identify before we can describe it.
1) The nature of the air stream – whether it is from the lungs or

not i.e. whether it is pulmonic, glottalic or velaric. And the
direction of this air stream i.e. whether it is coming in or going
out: ingressive or egressive.
2) The action of the vocal folds i.e. whether they are closed, wide
apart or vibrating.
3) The position of the soft palate i.e. if it is lowered or raised so as
to decide if the sound has nasal or oral resonance or both.
4) The disposition of various movable organs of the mouth i.e.
the shape of the lips, the tongue and the contact points of the
tongue at the roof of the mouth.
3.2 Consonants and Vowels

3.2.1 The English Consonants
The English consonants are usually described in mainly articulatory
terms because they usually involve contacts of speech organs in their
Copyright 2011. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
description. Gimson and Ramsaran (1989:31) suggest about six questions

that can help guide towards arriving at the nature of a speech sound to
identify it as being a consonantal type.
1. Is the air stream set in motion by the lungs or by some other
means? (pulmonic or non-pulmonic)
2. Is the air stream forced outwards or sucked inwards? (egressive
or ingressive)
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16 Chapter Three
3. Do the vocal folds vibrate or not? (voiced or voiceless)

4. Is the soft palate raised, directing the air stream through the
mouth, or lowered, allowing the passage of air through the nose?
(oral, nasal or nasalised)
5. At what point or points and between what organs does the closure
or narrowing take place? (place of articulation)
6. What is the type of closure or narrowing at the point(s) of
articulation? (manner of articulation)
The answers to these questions will aptly and succinctly give the
necessary information about a phoneme. So for a sound like /d/, the
answers will be:
1. pulmonic
2. egressive
3. voiced
4. oral
5. tongue blade and the alveolar
6. plosive
For a sound like /m/, the answers will be
1. pulmonic
2. egressive
3. voiced
4. nasal
5. the two lips
6. nasal
For a sound like /f/, the answers will be
1. pulmonic
2. egressive
3. voiceless
4. oral
5. the lower lip and the upper front teeth
6. fricative
We will now look at the general features of consonantal sounds that

are pulmonic and egressive, which are features common to English sounds.
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Articulation of English Sounds 17
3.2.1.1 Articulatory Positions of Consonants (Place of Articulation)
The major points of the articulation of English sounds include:
a) Bilabial – The two lips usually come together to articulate this

sort of sounds. Examples are /p, b, m/.
b) Labio-dental – The lower lip normally comes in contact with the
upper front teeth to articulate the sounds. Examples are /f, v/.
c) Dental – The tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper
teeth. Examples are /ș, ð /.
d) Alveolar – The blade, or tip and blade, of the tongue come in
contact with the teeth ridge to articulate the sounds. Examples are
/t, d, l, n, s, z/.
e) Palato-alveolar – The blade, or tip and blade, of the tongue come
in contact with the alveolar ridge and there is also the raising of
the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. Examples are
/‫ݕ‬, ‫ݤ‬, ‫ݹ‬, ‫ݶ‬/.
f) Palatal – The front of the tongue comes in contact with the hard
palate to produce the palatal sound. An example of a palatal
sound in English is /j/
g) Velar – The back of the tongue comes in contact with the soft
palate to produce the sounds. Examples are /k, J, ƾ/.
h) Glottal – There is a closure of the vocal folds forming an
obstruction or their narrowing, causing friction but not vibration.
/‫ݦ‬, h/ are examples of sounds produced in the glottis.
We should however note that the sounds might have secondary places
of articulation. We can thus have such secondary articulations like
velarisation, labialisation, palatalisation or nasalisation in addition to
the primary points of articulation.
Thus, if lip rounding is a second feature of the pronunciation of /J/ as
in /Jwԥudei/ in Hausa, we say /J/ is labialised. Another case is that of the
back of the tongue raising towards the velum in pronouncing the English
lateral /l/, we say it is velarised. It is written as /Ǻ/. This is the so-called
dark /l/ in English.
Another possible occurrence is a situation in which two different
sounds are doubly articulated at different points in the resonating cavity.
These sorts are common in many Nigerian languages but not usually a
feature of the English language. Examples are /Jb/ and /kp/ as we have in
such words from some Nigerian indigenous languages like igbá
18 Chapter Three
(calabash/bowl) and ukpè (festival) from Yoruba and Ӑkpҽ (Edo)

languages respectively.
3.2.1.2 The Manner of Air Stream Release (Manner of Articulation)
The way in which the air stream coming from the lungs is released
has implications for the sounds produced. It is observed that, at different
points in the resonating cavities, the air stream may be finally released in
different manners. These different manners are our concern in this section.
a) Plosive – there is a complete stricture or coming together of the

articulatory organs. The air stream is then released with
suddenness that leads to there being an explosion-like release of
the air that has built up pressure behind the organs brought
together. This sudden ‘plosion’ is what is being referred to in the
name given to sounds that are called plosives. Another name by
which they are called is stop; this is due to the air stream that was
stopped by the obstructing organs brought together to articulate
such sounds. They are therefore described as plosives/stops.
Examples are /p, b, t, d, k, J, ‫ݦ‬/.
b) Affricate – There is complete closure between the front of the
tongue and the point between the teeth or alveolar ridge and the
hard palate. However, the air stream built up behind the organs is
released gradually, which causes some friction, unlike in the case
of plosives. This friction forms the second articulatory element of
the sounds produced in this manner. Examples are /‫ݹ‬, ‫ݶ‬/
c) Nasal – There is usually a complete closure at some points in the
mouth. This could be the lips, the blade of the tongue and the
alveolar or the velum and the back of the tongue. The soft palate
gets lowered, thereby allowing the air to escape through the nose.
These sounds are described as continuants. They are usually
voiced. Examples are /m, n, ƾ/.
d) Trill, Roll, and Tap – There may be series of taps or a single tap
of the tongue against the alveolar ridge or the uvula taps the back
of the tongue. It could also be a case of the tongue tip curling
backwards from the alveolar region in producing the sound. This
is how different forms of the /r/ sound are produced. Examples
are /r, ȈȏȐ/.
e) Lateral – This is normally produced with the partial closure of
the centre of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. In addition to
this, the back of the tongue may also be raised towards the velum
or the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. These

additional qualities lead to the velarisation and palatalisation of
the lateral sound. Examples of different forms of this sound are /l,
Ǻȝ/.
f) Fricatives – Two organs of the resonators may be brought
together so closely that they form a narrowing between them. The
air stream then forces its way through the narrow passage, thus
leading to the occurrence of friction. This auditorily perceived
friction in the release of the air stream is what gives name to the
sounds produced in this manner. Examples are /f, v, ș, ð, s, z, ‫ݕ‬, ‫ݤ‬,
h/.
g) Approximants, Liquids or Semi-vowels – These sorts of sounds
are usually in a border of being described as consonants and also
as vowels of a sort. The sounds /w/ and /j/ are in this category; so
also are some types of the British /Ȉ/. Gimson and Ramsaran
(1989:33) argue that these sounds are regarded as consonantal
types only on functional grounds. But we also need to note that
they can be described as consonants on the grounds that they have
points of articulation, which is not a feature of vowels. Thus we
can say that /w/ is a bilabial sound, /r/ an alveolar sound, and /j/ a
palatal sound.
¾ We must, however, acknowledge that, like vowels, they possess

noise components in their production. Moreover, they can
function like vowels or behave like diphthongs in some words.
Examples are /j/ in /fju:l/, /dju:l/, /w/ in /kwܼk/, /swi:t/. You may
look for more examples of words that contain these approximants
that behave like diphthongs.
20 Chapter Three
Figure 5. The English Consonant Chart
Place of Articulation
Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental
Alveolar
Palato-
alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Plosive p b t d k J ‫ݦ‬
Affricate ‫ݶ ݹ‬
Nasal m n ƾ
Tap/Roll r
Manner of Articulation
Lateral l
Fricative f v ș ð s z ‫ݕ‬ ‫ݤ‬ h
Approximant j w
From the table above in Figure 5, you will notice that the sounds presented
here are virtually all previously discussed in the preceding section. You
may also check other charts from other sources to see other possible
sounds you may find listed. The IPA chart presented in Appendix C at the
back of this book you may find very useful. Our concern in this book will
be restricted mostly to the sounds represented in this chart however.
The topmost column presents the place of articulation. The vertical
axis presents the articulatory points for the sounds. The left column
presents the manner of articulation. The horizontal axis presents manner in
which the sounds are articulated. Therefore, each sound represented in this
chart can be described by knowing its location in the chart. We may also
observe that in the cells, the position of each sound symbol indicates their
phonation status, i.e. the state of the glottis in the course of producing the
sound. Those on the left side are voiceless while those on the right are
voiced. You may notice that some of the cells contain single sound
symbols. While those that are on the right side have no voiceless
alternatives (except they are devoiced), the glottal fricative /h/ is the only
voiceless single sound in the cell.
We may also observe that the chart recognises only twenty-four
English consonants. This is for convenience. Allophonic variants of these
consonants are possible.
¾ You may find out from the chart above how many sound types
occur for each place of articulation, and how many types occur
for each manner of articulation.
3.2.2 The English Vowels

The English vowels are usually described in auditory terms, that is,
in terms of how they are perceived. It is usual for these sounds to be made
with the pulmonic egressive air stream. A common feature of vowels is
that they are usually voiced. Closure or narrowing of articulators is not
common with vowels. This is unlike consonants that some of them have
obstruction or narrowing of the organs used in articulating them. The air,
in vocalic articulation, tends to pass across the centre of the tongue
unimpeded, that is, undisturbed.
The major movable organs involved in the articulation of English
vowels are the tongue, the lips, and the velum.
Some descriptive criteria for identifying vowel-like sounds or
phonemes are:
22 Chapter Three
1. The position of the soft palate – raised for oral vowels and
lowered for nasalised vowels.
2. The kind of aperture (or enclosure) formed by the lips – the
degree of spreading or rounding.
3. The part of the tongue which is raised and the degree of raising –
whether front, centre, or back and, whether high, mid or low.
These criteria were borrowed from Gimson and Ramsaran (1989:37).

We should note that of the three criteria, the lip position is the most
easily seen. The action of the velum is usually more of perception. What
this means is that we can perceive a bit of nasal realisation of the sound in
production when the velum is lowered.
The movement of the tongue is usually much more difficult to see,
that is, its actual position at a particular time. Moreover, being that the roof
of the mouth is not usually touched, it is difficult to find a definite way to
measure the height attained. Thus, to articulate a vowel sound requires
trying to determine the actual shape of the tongue at a particular time.
To give a more definite description of vowel sounds, Daniel Jones
devised a scheme in the earlier part of the twentieth century known as
cardinal vowels. In the cardinal vowel chart, reference points were given
for vowel description. He used a trapezium shape to represent the
possible points in the mouth at which vowels may be articulated.
Figure 6. The Cardinal Vowels
front centre back

[ߌ] [u] close
[e] [o] half close
[ε] [ǣ] half-open
[a] [Ǡ] open
It needs be stated that these trapezium shape is still retained by most

scholars in drawing a vowel chart even in these modern times.
Languages are expected to be able to locate the possible points of
their vowel articulations in relation to the cardinal vowels. Thus, the
English vowel 2 /ܼ/ actually takes the quality of the nearest cardinal vowel
2. It is, thus, not a reduced form of /i:/ but with the colouring of [e].
Moreover, vowel 6 of English /‫ݞ‬/ is also a kind of meeting point of
cardinal vowels 5 and 6, [‫ ]ܤ‬and [‫]ܧ‬.
It should also be noted that cardinal vowels 1-5 have the lips quite
spread or unrounded while 6-8 have different degrees of rounding. Thus,
vowels articulated around any of these are likely to have the lip posture of
the nearest cardinal vowels.
The nasality in the vowel may also be an important piece of
information. While all vowels tend to be oral, the soft palate may be
lowered for the nasalisation of some vowels in some circumstances,
especially, the proximity of a nasal sound. It is worthy of note, however, to
observe that many African languages have nasalised vowels. We may go
as far as saying that some of these vowels can be regarded as nasal sounds.
You may find many examples in the Yoruba language e.g. an /õ/ as in
iyán, in /ƭ/ as in eyín, un /Ǌ/ as in iyùn etc. The nasalisation of a vowel is
usually indicated by the diacritic [˜] above the vowel as shown in the
examples. [æ] in /mæࡿ n/ man may be regarded as an example of a nasalised
vowel. Phonologically, it takes on the coloration of the surrounding nasal
sounds, especially the features of the succeeding nasal /n/ in anticipation
of pronouncing the homorganic nasal.
¾ You may look for examples of such sounds in your own

language.
The English language has basically two types of vowels. Those that
are relatively constant in articulation or unchanging in form. These are
known as pure vowels. There are twelve of them in English.
There are also those that involve the glide of the tongue from one
position to another in articulating them. These are known as gliding
vowels. They are also called diphthongs, meaning ‘double sound’ (The
expression is borrowed from Medayedu, 2003:20). These are just eight in
English. This brings the total number of the English vowels to twenty.
Following the trapezium format of the Daniel Jones scheme, the
English vowel is presented in a chart. The chart represents the positions of
the tongue at different points of articulation in the mouth. We must,
nevertheless, repeat that these positions are approximates as the vowel
24 Chapter Three
does not have a place of articulation like the consonant. This is because
there is no place or point at which the air stream is constricted, narrowed
or totally obstructed. Instead, there is a free passage of the air across the
centre of the tongue. However, we must note that the tongue positions
vary, depending on the vowel being produced.
Thus, we have:
Front – when the front of the tongue is the one being raised in
the articulation of the sound. Examples are /i:, ܼ, e/.
Centre – when the centre of the tongue is the one involved in the
articulation. It is usually depressed to produce these central
sounds of the pure vowel category. Examples of these sorts of
sounds are the English vowels 11 and 12 known as the schwa
sounds. The vowel 12 is the vowel that most unstressed English
vowels get realised as. The two are noted as /ԥ:, ԥ/.
Back – the back vowels usually get articulated with the back of
the tongue raised or lowered or in between, as the case may be.
Examples of back vowels are /u:, u, ‫ܧ‬:, ‫ܧ‬/.
High/Close – these sorts of vowels get articulated with either the
front, centre or back of the tongue raised quite high, close to the
roof of the mouth. The height of the tongue in the articulation of
vowels thus becomes significant to the description of a vowel
sound. Such sounds as /i:, ܼ, u:, u/ are regarded as high vowels.
Mid – these sorts of vowels have the tongue raised a bit but not
as high as in high or close vowels. They are not so close to the
roof of the mouth. They are usually articulated in an
approximately medial position in the mouth. Examples are /e, æ,
‫ݞ‬, ‫ܧ‬:, ‫ܧ‬/. It is however usually believed that /e/ is the rest position
of the tongue, that is, it is not raised at all. We cannot say this for
the other sounds though.
Low/Open – these sorts of vowels have the tongue position in
their articulation quite close to the floor of the mouth. The mouth
is thus usually open in their articulation. The known English
vowel that is open is the sound /‫ܤ‬:/
Figure 7. The English Vowel Chart
front centre back

high i: u: close
u
ܼ
half-close
‫ܧ‬:
mid
e ԥ: ԥ
‫ܧ‬
half-open
‫ݞ‬
æ
low ‫ܤ‬:
open
The English 12 Pure Vowels
The twelve pure vowels of English are schematically represented in

the diagram above in Figure 7. Like previously mentioned, the trapezium
represents the possible positions of the tongue for the articulation of the
different sounds in the mouth.
The diphthong, on the other hand, is usually a glide of the tongue
from one position to the other in the process of its articulation. It is a
double articulation of two different sounds regarded as monothongs
(because they are single). Doubly articulated vowels are regarded as
diphthongs. There are also the sounds called triphthongs, that is, those
having three vowel sounds within one articulation. But we will not be
concerned with them in this study as the first two are our major focus of
interest.
The next chart displays the gliding process of diphthongs to show
how they are articulated. There are eight of them. Adding these eight
diphthongs to the twelve pure vowels or monothongs brings the number of
the English vowels we are concerned with to twenty.
Figure 8. The English Diphthongal Chart
26 Chapter Three
front centre back
high
‫ܤ‬u
uԥ ԥu
ei
iԥ
eԥ ‫ܧ‬i
mid
‫ܤ‬i
low
The 8 diphthongs of English schematically presented in a chart,

showing the glides from one point to the other.
The diagram shows the gliding process of the vowels. You will
notice that /Ǡ/ glides up to /i:/ to create the diphthong /Ǡi/ as in bite. To get
the vowel in pair, we notice that the glide starts from /e/ in the front to the
centre to produce /eԥ/.
¾ You may look for other diphthongal types and identify their
gliding process and the resultant vowel realised. Make sure you
give examples of words having those diphthongs you have
identified and discussed.
In summary, it is an important fact that the level to which the tongue

is raised has effect on the descriptive form of the vowel. The tongue is
raised in the production of /i:/, and the front of the tongue is the section
raised. The back of the tongue is however the raised part in the production
of /u:/. This is why the chart is labelled as front, centre, and back.
The degree of the opening or closing of the tongue in relation to the
roof of the mouth also informs the description: close, half-close, half-open,
and open. These could, however, be reduced to the terms high, mid and
low for descriptive convenience. Thus we can say a vowel like /‫ܧ‬/ is a mid
back rounded vowel while /ܼ/ is a high front unrounded vowel. The
roundness indicating the shape of the lips in their production, as previously
mentioned.
Practice Questions
A. Give six possible definitive characteristics of an English consonant
in order to identify it.
B. Discuss six possible manners of air stream release that you know.
C. Draw a consonant chart showing all the possible consonants of
English.
D. Draw a vowel chart to show the 12 pure vowels of English.
E. Discuss the process involved in the formation of diphthongs in
English.
CHAPTER FOUR
EXAMPLES OF CONSONANTS
AND VOWELS OF ENGLISH IN WORDS
4.1 Consonants
/p/
It is usually spelt as p, pp. pin, pail, loop, peak, deep, leap, pen, pupil,
dupe, paper, dipped, stopped, piper, slapped, kept, shop, popped, spelt,
clipper, peep, people, Paul, lampoon, deeper, ship etc.
It may however be spelt as gh as in hiccough /hik‫ݞ‬p/.
It may also be silent as in psalm, receipt, cupboard, pneumonia, coup, etc.
/b/
Spelt as b, bb. book, bull, barn, snub, nibble, bobbed, black, baby, boy,
bill, border, blade, big, brother, Ben, belt, dub, club, marble, bitter,
cupboard, cobweb, debit, garb, ban, gamble, barb, curb, blow, ball, bad,
dabble, tremble, bulb, boot, etc.
It is silent in bomb, debt, limb, tomb, comb, doubt, subtle, plumber, lamb,
climb, climber, etc. Obviously, the pattern here shows that the /b/ is silent
when it occurs after /m/ or before /t/ as shown in the examples above.
Nonetheless, as it is usual with the English language, patterns are not
usually laws, they are just that, patterns. Take note of the patterns
prevalent in the other sounds as discussed below.
/t/
Spelt as t, tt. take, part, bitter, litter, cat, boat, letter, enter, late, put, pot,
stop, split, stem, after, stay, pat, step, pester, potter, totter, taunt, stint,
draft, craft, scent, cleft, time, bet, take, tidy, bite, beat, taste, teeth, type,
bright, brilliant, ten, tender, sent, etc.
It realises the past tense morpheme after voiceless stems: pushed, cooked,
looked, passed, cashed, preached, kicked, leaped, etc
Spelt as th in Thomas, Thames, Thompson, Anthony, etc.

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DanielIyabodeOm 2011 CHAPTERTHREE IntroductoryPhonetics

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CHAPTER THREE

ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

3.1 Articulatory Descriptions

1) The nature of the air stream – whether it is from the lungs or

3.2 Consonants and Vowels

description. Gimson and Ramsaran (1989:31) suggest about six questions

3. Do the vocal folds vibrate or not? (voiced or voiceless)

For a sound like /m/, the answers will be

For a sound like /f/, the answers will be

We will now look at the general features of consonantal sounds that

3.2.1.1 Articulatory Positions of Consonants (Place of Articulation)

The major points of the articulation of English sounds include:

a) Bilabial – The two lips usually come together to articulate this

(calabash/bowl) and ukpè (festival) from Yoruba and Ӑkpҽ (Edo)

3.2.1.2 The Manner of Air Stream Release (Manner of Articulation)

a) Plosive – there is a complete stricture or coming together of the

or the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. These

¾ We must, however, acknowledge that, like vowels, they possess

Figure 5. The English Consonant Chart

3.2.2 The English Vowels

These criteria were borrowed from Gimson and Ramsaran (1989:37).

Figure 6. The Cardinal Vowels

front centre back

[e] [o] half close

[ε] [ǣ] half-open

[a] [Ǡ] open

It needs be stated that these trapezium shape is still retained by most

¾ You may look for examples of such sounds in your own

Figure 7. The English Vowel Chart

front centre back

The English 12 Pure Vowels

The twelve pure vowels of English are schematically represented in

front centre back

The 8 diphthongs of English schematically presented in a chart,

In summary, it is an important fact that the level to which the tongue

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