MANNERS OF ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS

We can now distinguish between English consonants from two points of view, that

of voicing, and that of place. We can see that [b] and [t] are different in both respects, [b] is

voiced and bilabial, and [t] is voiceless and alveolar. [p] differs from [b] only in being

voiceless, as both are bilabial, and [p] differs from [t] only in being bilabial, as both are

voiceless.

There are still pairs of sounds where we cannot yet describe the difference of one

from the other, e.g. [b,m] bend, mend as both are voiced and bilabial, and [t,s] ton, son which

both are voiceless and alveolar. As the examples show, we can however tell the words apart,

and this is because the sounds are different in a way we have not yet discussed, and that is

with respect to their manner of articulation.

The manner of articulation has to do with the kind of obstruction the air meets on its

way out, after it has passed the vocal folds. It may meet a complete closure (plosives), an

almost complete closure (fricatives), or a smaller degree of closure (approximants), or the air

might escape in more exceptional ways, around the sides of the tongue (laterals), or through

the nasal cavity (nasals).

Plosives are sounds in which there is a complete closure in the mouth, so that the air

is blocked for a fraction of a second and then released with a small burst of sound, called a

plosion (it sounds like a very small explosion). 

Plosives may be bilabial [p,b] park, bark,

alveolar [t,d] tar, dark or velar [k,g] car, guard. There is a fourth kind of plosive, the glottal

stop. The word football can be pronounced without interruption in the middle as in [fTtbN:l]

or with a complete closure of the glottis instead of [t]: [fT>bN:l].

In English a voiceless plosive that occurs at the begining of a word and is followed

by a vowel, is rather special in the sense that at the release of a plosion one can hear a slight

puff of air (called aspiration) before the vowel is articulated. Hence in “pen “we hear [pçen].

These aspirated voiceless plosives are not considered to be different sounds from unaspirated

voiceless plosives from the point of view of how they function in the sound system. This

difference, which can be clearly heard, is said to be phonetic.

Fricatives have a closure which is not quite complete. This means that the air is not

blocked at any point, and therefore there is no plosion. On the other hand the obstruction is

big enough for the air to make a noise when it passes through it, because of the friction. This

effect is similar to the wind whistling around the corner of a house. Fricatives may be labiodental

[f,v] wife, wives, dental [S,C] breath, breathe, alveolar [s,z] sink, zinc, palato-alveolar

[R,Y] nation, evasion, or glottal [h] help. [h] is a glottal fricative. As it has no closure

anywhere else, and as all air passes between the vocal folds, this means that [h] is like

aspiration unaccompanied by any obstruction.

A distinction may be made between sibilant and non-sibilant fricatives. Sibilant

sounds are the fricatives with a clear "hissing" noise, [ s,z,R,Y ] and the two affricates [tR, dY]

choke, joke.

Affricates are a combination of a plosive and a fricative (sometimes they are called"affricated plosives"). They begin like a plosive, with a complete closure, but instead of aplosion, they have a very slow release, moving backwards to a place where a friction can beheard (palatoalveolar). The two English affricates are both palatoalveolar, [tR] which isvoiceless, chin, rich, and [dY] which is voiced, gin, ridge. 

The way an affricate resembles aplosive followed by a fricative is mirrored in the symbols. Both consist of a plosive symbolfollowed by a fricative one: [ t+R], [d+Y].

Nasals resemble plosives, except that there is a complete closure in the mouth, but as

the velum is lowered the air can escape through the nasal cavity. Though most sounds are

produced with the velum raised, the normal position for the velum is lowered, as this is the

position for breathing (your velum is probably lowered right now when you are reading

this). 

The three English nasals are all voiced, and [m] is bilabial, ram, [n] is alveolar, ran,

and [M] velar, rang. In the section on places, the dotted line on the pictures of bilabial,

alveolar, and velar articulations illustrate the three nasals.

Laterals are sounds where the air escapes around the sides of the tongue. There is

only one lateral in English, [l], a voiced alveolar lateral. It occurs in two versions, the socalled

"clear l" before vowels, light, long, and the "dark l" in other cases, milk, ball. Words

like little, lateral have one of each type. "Dark l" may be written with the symbol [4]. "Clear

l" is pronounced with the top of the tongue raised, whereas for "dark l " it is the back of the

tongue which is raised. Here again, as with aspirated and unaspirated voiceless plosives,

even though "clear l" and "dark l" are phonetically different, they cannot be said to be

different sounds from the point of view of how they function in the sound system. If you

produce a "dark l" where usually you have a "clear l", for example at the beginning of the

word long, your pronunciation will sound odd but nobody will understand a different word.