We will organize our discussion of the consonants by active articulator and place of articulation. Generally, each articulator can move to more than one place of articulation, as shown in Table 1.2.
The lower lip can make constrictions at two different places. If the lower and upper lip come together, the sound is bilabial. The sounds [p], [b], and
Table 1.1 IPA symbols for the consonants of English
Initial Final Medial
p pat pie pen pin whip upper
b bat buy Ben bin bib rubber
m mat my men minion whim summer
f fat fight fen fin whiff suffer
v vat vie vendor vintage live ever
T thigh thin with Ethel
D that thy then bathe weather
t tat tie ten tin wit retool
d data dye den din mid redo
n Nat night ninja win renew
s sat sigh sensor sin miss presser
z zap zen zip wiz buzzer
| lateral lie lentil lip will filler
® rat rye rent rip where terror
S shack shy shell ship wish pressure
Z beige measure
tS chat chai check chip witch etcher
dZ jack giant gender gin edge edger
k cat kite Ken kin wick wrecker
g gap guy wig mugger
N wing singer
h hat high hen hip ahead
w whack why when win away
j yak yen yip
[m] are bilabials. Note that [p] is voiceless and [b] and [m] are voiced.
Alternatively, the lower lip can make contact with the upper teeth to pro- duce a labiodentalsound. [f] and [v] are labiodentals. Japanese has a bila- bial fricative (IPA [∏] instead of [f ]). This sound, as in the native Japanese pronunciation of futon,is made by blowing through pursed lips, the same motion as blowing out a candle.
The lower lip is rather limited in the places at which it can make a con- striction. The tongue front is the most versatile of the active articulators, moving to at least four different places of articulation. The tongue tip moves forward to the upper teeth for the sounds at the beginning of thin and then. These dentalfricatives are written [θ] (voiceless) and [ð] (voiced).
The English sounds [t], [d], [n], and [l] are made with the tongue tip at the alveolar ridge, the alveolarplace of articulation. The fricatives [s] and [z]
are also alveolar. For these fricatives the tongue forms a narrow groove under the alveolar ridge like a spout that shoots a stream of air against the teeth, producing a high-pitched hissing sound. Though the place of artic- ulation for these fricatives is alveolar, the front teeth are necessary to cre- ate the proper high-pitched hiss, as all children discover when they lose their baby teeth.
The fricatives [ʃ] and [] (as in the middle of pressureand measure) are made further back, with the blade of the tongue making a constriction at the palatoalveolarplace of articulation. (Interestingly, [] doesn’t occur in initial position in English, except in obvious borrowings from French, such as genre.) The affricates in churchand judge are also palatoalveolar. The IPA symbols for these sounds are [tʃ] and [d]: two symbols are used for the combination of stop plus fricative, linked by a ligature. (In other tran- scription systems commonly used in linguistics books, [ʃ], [], [tʃ], and [d]
(
(
Table 1.2 Active articulators, passive articulators, and place of articulation Active articulator Passive articulator Place of articulation
lower lip upper lip bilabial
upper teeth labiodental
tongue tip or blade upper teeth dental
alveolar ridge alveolar
postalveolar region retroflex (tip) postalveolar region alveopalatal (blade)
hard palate palatal (blade)
tongue body hard palate palatal
soft palate velar
uvula uvular
tongue root pharyngeal wall pharyngeal
larynx laryngeal
are written with hatchecks: [s&], [z&], [c&], [j&].) English doesn’t have any pala- toalveolar stops or nasals, though other languages do (for example, French agneau[ao] ‘lamb’, Spanish año‘year’).
Usually the blade of the tongue is used to make a palatoalveolar con- striction. It is also possible, however, for the tip of the tongue to curl back to make a constriction in this area. If the tip of the tongue curls back, the sound is called retroflex. (The IPA symbols for these sounds have a little hook under the symbol, recalling the curling back of the tongue.) For some (but not all) American speakers, [®] is a retroflex approximant. Can you determine whether your own tongue tip curls back in a word like road? There are no other retroflex sounds in English, though other lan- guages, notably Hindi and other languages of India, have a full set of retroflex stops, fricatives, and nasals. A telltale sign of an Indian accent in English is substituting retroflex stops for English alveolars.
The sound at the beginning of the English words you and yachtis palatal (a palatal glide, to be exact). The whole middle section of the tongue, including blade and body, is pushed straight up to narrow the space between the tongue and hard palate. The IPA symbol for a palatal glide is [ j]. (Think Scandinavian ja.) English doesn’t have any other palatal sounds, but they’re not hard to make. Start with [ j] (as in you), and then make it voiceless. The result is a voiceless palatal fricative, used for example in German words such as ich[iç], meaning ‘I’.
Moving further back in the vocal tract, the next place of articulation is velar, in which the tongue body moves up to make constriction against the velum, high in the back of the mouth. The English sounds [k] and [g]
are velar stops. In English, the sequence of letters ng, as at the end of song or ring, usually indicate a velar nasal. In the word song, you don’t make a sequence of alveolar nasal followed by velar stop (n-g), but a single nasal sound at the same place as [k] or [g]. (Feel how little your tongue moves when you say the word king.) The IPA symbol for a velar nasal stop is [N]. As with [], English uses [N] only at the end of words (song) or in the middle (singer), never at the beginning, although with practice you can learn to pronounce words like Thai [Na:] ‘tusk’ or Australian names like Ngaio. The native German sound at the end of the name Bachis a voiceless velar frica- tive, [x]. To make this sound, begin with a [k], then loosen the constriction slightly, letting a little turbulent airflow pass through.
The tongue body can also make constrictions further back, at the uvu- lar place of articulation. To make a uvular stop, begin with a [k] or [g], then move the tongue a few centimeters back. Uvular stops are common in many Native American languages. Constrictions can also be made deep in the throat, with the tongue root moving back toward the pharyngeal wall. Voiced and voiceless pharyngealfricatives are found in Arabic and Hebrew.
Finally, consonants can be made with the larynx as the only articulator.
The sound [h] consists of the noise of air rushing through the open vocal folds, and may be considered a laryngeal fricative. It is also possible to close the vocal folds up tight, stopping the airflow at the larynx, a glottal stop(IPA [/]). This is the sound in the middle of the English expression
uh-oh. If you pronounce this slowly, you can feel the constriction in the lar- ynx. In other languages, like Hawai’ian, the glottal stop is used as a regu- lar consonant. In the word Hawai’ithe apostrophe stands for a glottal stop.
One English consonant remains to be discussed: the glide [w], as in wear.
This sound combines a narrowing of the vocal tract at the velar place of articulation with rounding of the lips. It is thus a double articulation, a labiovelar glide. While double articulations at various places of articula- tion are not hard to make (given the independence of the active articula- tors), they can be hard for the ear to distinguish, so double articulations other than labiovelars are rare.
In summary, there are eleven common places of articulation – bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and laryngeal – though no single language makes consonants using all of the places of articulation.