Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the
vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator . Along with the manner of articulation and
phonation, this gives the consonant its distinctive sound.
Encyclopedia
In articulatory phonetics, the
place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the
vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator . Along with the manner of articulation and
phonation, this gives the consonant its distinctive sound.
Types of articulation
A
place of articulation is defined as both the active and passive articulators. For instance, the active lower lip may contact either a passive upper lip or the upper teeth . The hard palate may be contacted by either the front or the back of the tongue. If the front of the tongue is used, the place is called
retroflex; if back of the tongue is used, the place is called "dorsal-palatal", or more commonly, just
palatal.
There are five basic active articulators: the lip , the flexible front of the tongue , the middle/back of the tongue , the root of the tongue together with the epiglottis , and the
larynx . These articulators can act independently of each other, and two or more may work together in what is called
coarticulation .
The passive articulation, on the other hand, is a continuum without many clear-cut boundaries. The places linguolabial and interdental, interdental and dental, dental and alveolar, alveolar and palatal, palatal and velar, velar and uvular merge into one another, and a consonant may be pronounced somewhere between the named places.
In addition, when the front of the tongue is used, it may be the upper surface or
blade of the tongue that makes contact , the tip of the tongue , or the under surface . These articulations also merge into one another without clear boundaries.
Consonants that have the same place of articulation, such as alveolar [n, t, d, s, z, l] in English, are said to be
homorganic.
Table of active articulations and places of articulation
| Active gesture | Active + passive place of articulation |
|---|
| Labial | Bilabial |
| Labiodental |
| Coronal | Laminal | Linguolabial |
| Interdental |
| Laminal dental |
| Laminal denti-alveolar |
| Laminal alveolar |
| Laminal postalveolar |
| Domed | Domed postalveolar |
| Palatalized | Palatalized postalveolar |
| Apical | Apical dental |
| Apical alveolar |
| Apical postalveolar |
| Sub-apical | Sub-apical palatal |
| Dorsal | Prepalatal |
| Palatal |
| Prevelar |
| Velar |
| Postvelar |
| Uvular |
| Radical | Upper pharyngeal |
| Lower pharyngeal |
| Epiglotto-pharyngeal |
| epiglottal |
| Laryngeal | Glottal |
List of places where the obstruction may occur
- Bilabial: between the lips
- Labiodental: between the lower lip and the upper teeth
- Linguolabial: between the front of the tongue and the upper lip
- Dental: between the front of the tongue and the top teeth
- Alveolar: between the front of the tongue and the ridge behind the gums
- Postalveolar: between the front of the tongue and the space behind the alveolar ridge
- Retroflex: in "true" retroflexes, the tongue curls back so the underside touches the palate
- Palatal: between the middle of the tongue and the hard palate
- Velar: between the back of the tongue and the soft palate
- Uvular: between the back of the tongue and the uvula
- Pharyngeal: between the root of the tongue and the back of the throat
- Epiglotto-pharyngeal: between the epiglottis and the back of the throat
- Epiglottal: between the aryepiglottal folds and the epiglottis
- Glottal: at the glottis
Nasals and laterals
- In nasals, the velum is lowered to allow air to pass through the nose
- In laterals, the air is released past the tongue sides and teeth rather than over the tip of the tongue. English has only one lateral, /l/, but many languages have more than one, e.g. Spanish written "l" vs. "ll"; Hindi with dental, palatal, and retroflex laterals; and numerous Native American languages with not only lateral approximants, but also lateral fricatives and affricates. Some Northeast Caucasian languages have five, six, or even seven lateral consonants.
Coarticulation
Some languages have consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation, called coarticulation. When these are doubly articulated, the articulators must be independently movable, and therefore there may only be one each from the categories labial, coronal, dorsal, and radical.
However, more commonly there is a secondary articulation of an approximantic nature, in which case both articulations can be similar, such as labialized labials, palatalized velars, etc.
Some common coarticulations include:
Labialization, rounding the lips while producing the obstruction, as in and English .
Palatalization, raising the body of the tongue toward the hard palate while producing the obstruction, as in
Russian .
Velarization, raising the back of the tongue toward the soft palate , as in the English dark l, or .
Pharyngealization, constriction of the throat , such as
Arabic "emphatic" .
Doubly articulated stop: a stop produced simultaneously with another stop, such as
labial-velar consonants like , found throughout West and Central Africa. There are also labial-alveolar consonants , found as distinct consonants only in a single language in New Guinea, which also contrasts labial-postalveolar stops. Somali has a uvular-epiglottal stop .
