Phoneme Articulation: Place, Manner, Voicing

1. The Building Blocks of Sound: Articulatory Features

Every speech sound is the result of a series of precise physical actions in our vocal tract. We can break down these actions into a set of descriptive features. This is analogous to how in machine learning, an object is defined by a vector of its features. Here, each phoneme can be defined by a set of articulatory features.

We will first look at consonants, which involve a constriction or obstruction of the airflow. Then we will turn to vowels, which are produced with a more open vocal tract.

2. Classifying Consonants

Consonants are universally described using three main parameters. Think of these as the three axes that define a consonant's position in "phonetic space."

1. Voicing: Are the vocal folds vibrating?
2. Place of Articulation: Where in the vocal tract is the airflow obstructed?
3. Manner of Articulation: How is the airflow obstructed?

The following video provides an excellent overview of these three criteria.

Now, let's solidify those concepts. The following reading offers a detailed, text-based explanation that complements the video.

Summary of Consonant Features

Let's review the key features from the video and the reading.

Voicing:

• Voiceless: The vocal folds are open and do not vibrate. Examples: $[p],[t],[k],[f],[s],[\theta ],[\text{ʃ}]$.
• Voiced: The vocal folds are held close together and vibrate as air passes through them. You can feel this vibration by placing your fingers on your throat. Examples: $[b],[d],[g],[v],[z],[ð],[ʒ]$.

Place of Articulation (from front to back):

• Bilabial: Both lips. $[p],[b],[m]$
• Labiodental: Lower lip and upper teeth. $[f],[v]$
• Dental: Tongue tip against or between the teeth. $[\theta ],[ð]$
• Alveolar: Tongue tip on the alveolar ridge (the gum ridge behind the upper teeth). $[t],[d],[n],[s],[z],[l]$
• Postalveolar: Tongue just behind the alveolar ridge. $[\text{ʃ}],[ʒ],[tʃ],[dʒ]$
• Palatal: Body of the tongue against the hard palate. $[j]$ (as in yes)
• Velar: Back of the tongue against the soft palate (velum). $[k],[g],[ŋ]$
• Glottal: At the glottis (the space between the vocal folds). $[h]$

Manner of Articulation:

• Stop (or Plosive): Complete closure of the vocal tract, then a sudden release. $[p],[b],[t],[d],[k],[g]$
• Nasal: Air flows through the nasal cavity (the velum is lowered). These are also stops in the sense that the oral cavity is blocked. $[m],[n],[ŋ]$
• Fricative: A narrow constriction that creates turbulent, hissing airflow. $[f],[v],[\theta ],[ð],[s],[z],[\text{ʃ}],[ʒ],[h]$
• Affricate: A sequence of a stop followed by a fricative, acting as a single sound. $[tʃ],[dʒ]$
• Approximant: Articulators come close but not close enough to create turbulence.
  • Liquids: $[l],[ɹ]$ (the English 'r')
  • Glides: $[w],[j]$

When we describe a consonant, we state its properties in a specific order: Voicing + Place + Manner.

• $[t]$ is a voiceless alveolar stop.
• $[z]$ is a voiced alveolar fricative.
• $[ŋ]$ is a voiced velar nasal.

3. Classifying Vowels

Vowels are different. The airflow is not obstructed, so we can't use "place" and "manner" in the same way. Instead, we describe the shape of the resonant cavity, which is determined by the position of the tongue and lips.

The main parameters for vowels are:

1. Height: How high or low is the tongue? (High, Mid, Low)
2. Backness: How far front or back is the tongue? (Front, Central, Back)
3. Roundedness: Are the lips rounded or unrounded?

This video provides a great visual introduction to these vowel features.

Summary of Vowel Features

As the video explained, the standard order for describing a vowel is Height + Backness + Roundedness.

• $[i]$ (as in heet): high front unrounded vowel.
• $[u]$ (as in hoot): high back rounded vowel.
• $[\ae ]$ (as in hat): low front unrounded vowel.

For some languages, like English, an additional feature is often used:

• Tenseness: A distinction between tense vowels (like $[i]$ in heat) and lax vowels (like $[ɪ]$ in hit). Tense vowels are generally produced with more muscular tension, are slightly higher, and can occur in open syllables (like see), while lax vowels usually cannot.

The following reading provides more detail on these vowel features, including tenseness.

4. Visualizing the System: Phonetic Charts

Now that we have these feature sets, we can organize all the phonemes of a language into a chart. This visual representation makes the system's structure immediately apparent.

The Consonant Chart

Consonant charts are typically organized with the place of articulation along the horizontal axis (front of the mouth on the left, back on the right) and the manner of articulation along the vertical axis. Voicing is shown by listing voiceless/voiced pairs within a single cell.

The chart below shows the consonants of English.

Take a moment to find a few sounds on this chart. For example, to find $[d]$, you would look at the "Alveolar" column and the "Stop" row. Since it's voiced, it's the second symbol in the t d pair.

The Vowel Chart

Vowels are organized in a quadrilateral that represents the space in your mouth. The vertical axis is vowel height (high to low) and the horizontal axis is vowel backness (front to back).

This system reveals the logic of the IPA. The symbols aren't arbitrary; they are placeholders in a structured system defined by articulation. This structure is what allows us to describe sound changes so precisely.

5. Practice

Let's test your understanding. Based on what you've learned, provide the full articulatory description for these phonemes.

1. $[b]$
2. $[\text{ʃ}]$ (the 'sh' sound)
3. $[m]$
4. $[i]$ (the 'ee' sound in feet)
5. $[ɑ]$ (the 'a' sound in father)

Now, try the reverse. What is the IPA symbol for the following sounds?

6. Voiceless velar stop
7. Voiced labiodental fricative
8. High back rounded vowel (tense)

Conclusion

In this lesson, we've moved from simply identifying phonemes to systematically classifying them based on their physical production.

Key Takeaways:

• Consonants are classified by three main features: voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
• Vowels are classified by height, backness, and lip rounding.
• These features are not just descriptive labels; they define the underlying structure of a language's sound system and are the basis for describing historical sound changes.

You now have the vocabulary to describe not just what a sound is, but how it is made. This is the key that unlocks the analysis of sound change.

In our next lesson, we will tackle a subtle but crucial concept: the difference between a phoneme and an allophone. We will see that sometimes two physically distinct sounds can function as a single "sound" in the mind of a speaker. This will refine our understanding of what a "unit of sound" really is in a language system.