Consonants. Place of articulation. production of speech sounds.

Place of articulation:-

Consonants are described in the previous article, check out that. As we were discussing the production of speech sounds especially consonants. We have already discussed the manner of articulation during the production of speech sounds, now we are going to discuss the place of articulation of consonants.

Bilabial:-

Types of sounds produced, when the two lips are the active articulators.

Both the lips are involved in the production of the bilabial sounds.

Examples, B,M,P

The initial sounds in the English words, bat, Pat and meat are bilabials.

Labiodental:-

When the lower lips strike the upper front teeth, then the sounds produced are labiodental sounds.

The active articulator is the lower lip and the passive articulators are the upper front teeth.

Examples, F,V

The initial sounds in the English words, Fine, wine, Van are the labiodental sounds.

Alveolar:-

The tip of the tongue or the blades of tongue are the active articulators and the teeth ridge is the passive articulators.

Sound which are produced when the tip of the tongue strike the teeth ridge are called alveolar sounds.

Examples, T,D,N,Z,LR,S etc

The initial sounds in the English words, tin, din, zip, near, love are alveolars.

Post-alveloar:-

 In this situation, the tip of the tongue is the active articulator and part of the roof of mouth that lies immediately behind teeth ridge is the passive articulator.

The tip of the tongue moves back and strike the place behind the teeth ridge and produce post-alveolar sound.

Example,   R.

The sound of 'r' in try and dry is the example of post-alveolar sound.

Palato-alveloar:-

The tip of the tongue or the tip of blades of tongue are the active articulators and the teeth ridge is the passive articulator.

It is just like post-alveolar sounds but along with that the tip of the tongue is raised in the direction of hard palate, and the sounds produced are the palato-alveolar sounds.

Examples, the initial sounds in the English words, sheep, cheap and jeep are palato-alveloar sounds or the letter 's' in the word "leisure" is a palato-alveloar.

Palatal:-

The front of the tongue is the active articulator and hard palate is passive articulator.

The the sounds during the production of which the the tip of the tongue strikes the hard palate are palatal sounds.

Examples, the initial sound in the English word 'yes' is a palatal sound.

Velar:-

The back of the tongue is an active articulator and the soft palate or velum is the the passive articulator.

Examples, the final sounds in the English words, back, bang and bag are the examples of velar sounds.

Glottals:-

Glottal sounds are produced in the glottis.

The two vocal cords are the active articulators.

Example, the letter "h" in hat is glottal sound.

Uvular:-

In this situation, the back of the tongue is the active articulator and the uvula is the passive articulator.

English language has no uvular sounds. The word "Qalam" in Urdu language is the example of uvular sound.