Articulatory Phonetics

To get the feeling of different places of articulation, consider the consonantat the beginning of each of the following words: "fee, theme, see,

she." Say these consonants by themselves. Are they voiced or voiceless?

Now note that the place of articulation moves back in the mouth in making

this series of voiceless consonants, going from labiodental, through dental

and alveolar, to palato-alveolar.

Consider the consonants at the ends of "rang, ran, ram." When you say

these consonants by themselves, note that the air is coming out through the

nose. In the formation of these sounds, the point of articulatory closure

moves forward, from velar in "rang," through alveolar in "ran," to bilabial

in "ram." In each case, the air is prevented from going out through the

mouth, but is able to go out through the nose because the soft palate, or

velum, is lowered.

In most speech, the soft palate is raised so that there is a velic closure.

When it is lowered and there is an obstruction in the mouth, we say that

there is a nasal consonant. Raising or lowering the velum controls the oronasal

process, the distinguishing factor between oral and nasal sounds.

At most places of articulation there are several basic ways in which

articulation can be accomplished.

 The articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively long period; they may narrow the space considerably; or they may simply modify the shape of the tract by

approaching each other.

Stop

(Complete closure of the articulators involved so that the airstream

cannot escape through the mouth.) There are two possible types of stop.

Oral stop If in addition to the articulatory closure in the mouth, the

soft palate is raised so that the nasal tract is blocked off, then the airstream

will be completely obstructed. Pressure in the mouth will build up and an

oral stop will be formed. When the articulators come apart, the airstream

will be released in a small burst of sound. This kind of sound occurs in the

consonants in the words "pie, buy" (bilabial closure), "tie, dye" (alveolar

closure), and "kye, guy" (velar closure).

Nasal stop If the air is stopped in the oral cavity but the soft palate is

down so that it can go out through the nose, the sound produced is a nasal

stop. Sounds of this kind occur at the beginning of the words "my" (bilabial

closure) and "nigh" (alveolar closure) and at the end of the word "sang"