Applying Phonetics. Murray J. Munro
out, there is only one other affricate in English: /dʒ/ as in jet.
If you need a refresher on the anatomical terms used here, you can refer back to Chapter 2.
Finally, for approximants, the airflow is hardly impeded at all. When you articulate the /w/ of way, you round your lips and raise the back of your tongue. Because of the very minor reduction in airflow, this gesture does not create noise as in the fricative /f/ in fin. The /w/ sound and /j/, which is commonly spelled with a y is in yes, are referred to as glide approximants because the articulators make a gliding movement. The other two English approximants, /l/ as in less and /ɹ/ as in rest, are referred to as liquids, an old term apparently chosen to capture the “liquid feel” of the sounds. Notice that liquids can be sustained for as long as the speaker wishes, whereas glides, because of their articulatory movement, cannot. The /l/ approximant is called lateral, because the tongue apex is raised to make contact with the alveolar ridge while air flows along the sides of the tongue. English /ɹ/ can be produced in more than one way. Some speakers bunch up the tongue (bunched‐tongue r) toward the alveolar ridge; others curl the apex slightly backward, again in the alveolar region (RETROFLEX r).
Table 4.1 Manners of articulation for English Consonants
| Manner | Description | Example |
| Plosives (oral stops) | Complete oral obstruction | /p/ in pay |
| Fricatives | Partial obstruction; air turbulence creates noise | /f/ in fin |
| Affricates | Complete obstruction followed by partial obstruction | /tʃ/ in chin |
| Nasals | Complete oral obstruction; airstream travels through nasal cavity | /m/ in may |
| Approximants | Very slight obstruction; no turbulence and no noise | /w/ in way |
4.1.2 place
The place of a consonantal obstruction is determined by the configuration of the tongue, lips, and teeth, as shown in Table 4.2. Notice that the places listed in the first column of the table are given with their full names, but in reference to the English sound system it is acceptable to omit the parts in parentheses because they are redundant. For instance, there are no velar sounds in English that are not dorso‐velar, so velar alone captures the essential information.
Bilabials are produced by using two lips, as is the case for the /p/ of pay. Labiodentals such as /f/ involve the upper teeth and lower lip, while in apico‐dentals like the /θ/ sound at the beginning of thin, the apex of the tongue comes close to the teeth. Apico‐alveolars also involve the tongue apex, except that for these sounds the constriction is at the alveolar ridge, as in the /t/ in tin. In palato‐alveolars, such as the /ʃ/ at the beginning of show, the lamina of the tongue is used and the point of constriction is slightly farther back, in the palatal region. For dorso‐velars, including the /k/ in king, the constriction involves the dorsum of the tongue and the VELUM.
An unusual place of articulation is used for the /h/ in hit, which does not involve the tongue, teeth, or lips. This consonant is referred to as GLOTTAL, because the vocal folds are partially adducted so that air passing through the GLOTTIS creates the same type of noise used in whisper. When a speaker produces /h/, the tongue and lips normally take the position needed for the vowel that comes afterward.
Table 4.2 Places of articulation for English Consonants
| Place | Articulators | Speech Sounds |
| Bilabial | Both lips | /p/, /b/, /m/ |
| Labiodental | Top teeth + lower lip | /f/, /v/ |
| (Apico) dental | Tongue apex + teeth | /θ/, /ð/ |
| (Apico) alveolar | Tongue apex + alveolar ridge | /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/ |
| Palato‐alveolar | Tongue lamina + back of alveolar ridge | /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ |
| (Dorso) velar | Tongue dorsum + velum | /k/, /ɡ/, /ŋ/ |
| Glottal | Glottis | /h/ |
Figure 4.1 Lip configurations showing coarticulation
TRY THIS
☛ Prepare to say the words hey! and ho! in sequence but produce only the /h/ portion of each. While observing your face in a mirror or with your phone camera, notice how you configure your lips differently for the two /h/s because you anticipate the vowel that follows. The two /h/s should sound noticeably different. It would therefore make perfect sense to describe /h/ as a “whispered vowel,” though we don't conventionally do that.
This interaction between two sounds in which one affects the production of the other is called COARTICULATION. You can see another coarticulatory effect in Figure 4.1. The speaker is about to produce two words that begin with /t/. But not all /t/ productions are created equal! In the case of tea, the lips are relatively spread in anticipation of the vowel /i/, which also uses spread lips. But, for two, the lips are rounded to match the vowel /u/.
4.1.3 voicing
In Chapter 2, we noted that voicing is one of the possible types of PHONATION. Voicing can be used in combination with articulation to distinguish consonants from one another. With the exception of /h/, English plosives, fricatives, and affricates occur in pairs that differ in how phonation is used. It is easiest to hear (and feel) the difference between VOICELESS and VOICED consonants by comparing fricatives like voiceless /f/ and /s/ with their voiced counterparts, /v/ and /z/. Holding your fingers on your throat will allow you to feel the buzz of voicing that occurs throughout the productions of voiced fricatives. You should also be able to feel the difference in voicing between the affricates /tʃ/ (voiceless) and /dʒ/ (voiced). In plosive consonants, however, the voicing distinction is a bit trickier to demonstrate in English. On the one hand, you can