Place of articulation

chairuddin
introduction
 Articulating consonants involves varying
degrees of obstruction of the airstream in the
vocal tract; the sounds can be classified along
three parameters:
voicing •vibration of the vocal cords

•the place where the airstream is most obstructed

•the way how the airstream is obstructed, i.e. degree of stricture

voicing
voiceless
the vocal cords remain still e.g. [p], [s]

voiced
the vocal cords vibrate e.g. [b], [z]
Vocal tract
Place of articulation
bilabial

Labio
glottal
dental

velar dental

palatal alveolar

palato-alveolar
bilabial
 both lips are close together
[p] [b] [m]

• Blood, • M
• pet,
burde • m
pen,
n e
Labiodental
 the lower
[f] lip touches the upper front teeth
[v]

• adventu
• future, fan,
advanc
Dental / interdental
 the tip of the tongue is between the front
teeth
think this

thigh either

[θ] [ð]
alveolar
 the tip of the tongue is near or at the alveolar
ridge
Time
What time

[s] [t] is
[z]
[r] [d]

[l] [n]
palato-alveolar / post alveolar
 pronounced between the alveolar ridge and
the hard palate Post
alveolar

[∫]

sure, vicious, rush

[ʒ]

measure, pleasure, genre

[t∫]

chin, catcher, etch

[dʒ]

Suggest
palatal
 the front (or blade) of the tongue articulates
with the hard palate (e.g. /j/).

During : /ˈdjʊə.rɪŋ/ /ˈdʊr.ɪŋ/

Produce : /prəˈdjuːs/ /-ˈduːs/
Excuse: kjʊ
Cute girl : kjuːt/ gɜːl
You : /juː/ , /jə/ , /jʊ/
Good girl: guːd gɜːl
velar
 the tongue touches the roof of the mouth at the
velum e.g. [k],[g], [ŋ]

constrict

graduate

tongue
glottal
 pronounced at the glottis, the space between the
vocal cords e.g. [h], [?]
[h] hat cahoots

[?] butter (some varieties of English)

Table of English Consonants
 In order to be able to represent
speech sounds in an
unambiguous and consistent
manner, we use the symbols
provided by the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
 The fonts are downloadable for

free from the Summer Institute of

Linguistics: http://www.sil.org