We have now looked at two of the three features that are used to give consonants their technical names: the state of the vocal folds and the place of articulation in the vocal tract. The last feature to understand is the manner of articulation.

The manner of producing a sound refers to what happens to the air stream as it moves through the vocal tract. All consonants impede the movement of air through the vocal tract to some extent. Air can be restricted completely, somewhat, or very little, and the amount of impedence is described and included in the technical name of a consonant.

In addition to describing the amount of impedence that is needed to produce each consonant, sometimes the actual route the air takes is used for the naming of consonants. We will begin with looking at the routes the air takes and then look at the extent to which air is impeded in the vocal tract.

There are essentially two routes air can follow through the vocal tract. It can travel through the mouth, or it can travel through the nose. Consonants produced when the air is sent through the mouth (the oral cavity) are called oral sounds, and sounds produced when the air is sent through the nose (the nasal cavity) are called nasal sounds.

Oral sounds are either stops or continuants. If the air stream is completely blocked and then released, the sound is a stop. If the air is impeded but still allowed to flow out of the mouth in some way, then the sound is a continuant.

Stops or plosives cut off the air completely, at least for a little time.

English stops include

• [p] voiceless bilabial pen
• [b] voiced bilabial ben
• [t] voiceless alveolar ten
• [d] voiced alveolar den
• [k] voiceless velar ken
• [g] voiced velar get
• [ʔ] voiceless glottal (no English words begin with this stop, but it is found in the middle of uh-oh)

Fricatives, a type of continuant, allow air to keep moving without stopping, but restrict it so much that noise is produced from the friction.

English fricatives include

• [f] voiceless labiodental fen
• [v] voiced labiodental vent
• [θ] voiceless interdental thin
• [ð] voiced interdental then
• [s] voiceless alveolar sin
• [z] voiced alveolar zen
• [∫] voiceless palatoalveolar shin
• [ʒ] voiced palatalalveolar (no English words begin with this sound, but it is the fist sound of the second syllable in the word leisure)
• [h] voiceless glottal hen

Affricates combine a stop with a fricative. That is the sound is produced by first stopping the air and the when it is released, it is allowed to flow out with a lot of friction.

English affricates are

• [t∫] voiceless palatoalveolar chin
• [dʒ] voiced palatoalveolar Jen

Liquids, a type of continuant, send air flowing through the openings around the tongue.

English has two liquids

• [l] voiced alveolar lateral Len
• [ɹ] voiced alveolar retroflex rent

Glides or semivowels are in-between consonants and vowels.

English has two glides

• [w] voiced velar went
• [j] voiced palatal yen
• [ʍ] voiceless velar when (This sound is used only in some dialects of English, the ones that make a distinction between the pronunciation of weather with [w] and the pronunciation of whether with [ʍ])

Activity: Consonant Self-Test

You should now have a grasp of how different sounds are physically produced and a working knowledge of the IPA. Click on Articulatory Phonetics Assessment to do a short self test.

The interactive page is a pop-up, allowing reference to Part 1. Try to do as much as you can without referring back. This is not graded.

Some sounds share similar features with other sounds and group together in a natural class. Some sounds are opposites of other sounds, so to speak, and one natural class can be seen as an opposite of another.
We’ve already seen one such grouping and opposition:

• Stops and continuants

All stop sounds share the similarity of stopping the air stream completely, and they form one natural class. Continuants share the feature of impeding but not stopping the air stream altogether, and they form another natural class that is the opposite of the stops.

• [s] sin
• [z] zen
• [∫] shin
• [ʒ] leisure

Since grooving of the tongue is what produces the hissing, they can also be referred to as grooved sibilants.

Include the glides, liquids, nasals, and vowels

Click – a stop in which velaric air is pulled in with a clicking sound

Trill– a sound produced by allowing an active articulator to tap repeatedly against a passive articulator.

Some dialects of English (Scottish English, for instance) use a trilled r, like the Spanish r. Its IPA symbol is [r].

Aspirated sounds – a stop that is released with an extra puff of air.

We do this in English with our stops when they begin words.

Flap – a sound produced by allowing an active articulator to tap once quickly against a passive articulator.

We do this in English with [t] when it is between vowels, so it sounds more like a [d].
Examples are batter (Batter up!) or matter (What's the matter with him?)

The IPA symbol is [ɾ]

Retroflex – a sound produced by curling the tongue back.

In English, we make a retroflex r [ɹ], not a trilled r [r].
Some languages, like Hindi, actually make retroflexed sounds contrast with nonretroflexed versions.