Consonants

Consonants

1. Manners of articulation

   • Nasal
     • Nasal consonant sounds are made by blocking air in the mouth and releasing sound through the nose.
   • Stop or plosive
     • Stop consonants are made by completely blocking the flow of air as it leaves the body,
   • Fricative
     • Fricative consonants are made by squeezing air between a small gap as it leaves the body.
   • Affricate
     • Affricate consonant sounds are made by starting with a stop (full block of air) and immediately blending into a fricative (partial block).
   • Approximant
     • Approximant consonant sounds are made by bringing two articulators close together without them touching as sound leaves the body.
   • Lateral
     • Lateral consonant sounds are made by releasing air past the sides of the tongue whilst making a block in the middle.

2. Place of articulation

   • Bilabial
     • Bring both lips together
   • Palatal
     • The roof of your mouth is the hard palate.
   • Retroflex
     • The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palat
   • Alveolar
     • Place your tongue at where the teeth meet the gum.
   • Labiodental
     • Lower lip touches the upper teeth.
   • Dental
     • Place the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth.
   • Palato-alveolar
     • Just like alveolar but retract the tongue back a little bit more.
   • Velar
     • Back of tongue raised toward soft palate (velum) palate (velum)
   • Glottal
     • Constricted vocal folds

3. Voicing

   • Unvoiced
     • No vibration of the vocal cords
   • Voiced
     • Vocal cords vibrate

4. A basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed and which can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable.

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