In
articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (
speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a
speech sound. One parameter of manner is ''stricture,'' that is, how closely the speech organs approach one another. Others include those involved in the
r-like sounds (
taps and
trills), and the
sibilancy of
fricatives.
The concept of manner is mainly used in the discussion of
consonants, although the movement of the articulators will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the
vocal tract, thereby changing the
formant structure of speech sounds that is crucial for the identification of
vowels. For consonants, the
place of articulation and the degree of
phonation
The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defini ...
of voicing are considered separately from manner, as being independent parameters.
Homorganic consonants, which have the same place of articulation, may have different manners of articulation. Often
nasality and
laterality are included in manner, but some phoneticians, such as
Peter Ladefoged, consider them to be independent.
Broad classifications
Manners of articulation with substantial obstruction of the airflow (stops, fricatives, affricates) are called
obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
s. These are prototypically voiceless, but voiced obstruents are extremely common as well. Manners without such obstruction (nasals, liquids, approximants, and also
vowels) are called
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
s because they are nearly always voiced. Voiceless sonorants are uncommon, but are found in Welsh and
Classical Greek (the spelling "rh"), in
Standard Tibetan
Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In the traditional "three-branch ...
(the "lh" of
Lhasa), and the "wh" in those dialects of English that
distinguish "which" from "witch".
Sonorants may also be called resonants, and some linguists prefer that term, restricting the word 'sonorant' to non-
vocoid resonants (that is, nasals and liquids, but not vowels or semi-vowels). Another common distinction is between occlusives (stops, nasals and affricates) and continuants (all else).
Stricture
From greatest to least stricture, speech sounds may be classified along a
cline as
stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
s (with ''occlusion'', or blocked airflow),
fricative consonant
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s (with partially blocked and therefore strongly turbulent airflow),
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
s (with only slight turbulence), tense
vowels, and finally
lax vowels (with full unimpeded airflow).
Affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s often behave as if they were intermediate between stops and fricatives, but phonetically they are sequences of a stop and fricative.
Over time, sounds in a language may move along the cline toward less stricture in a process called
lenition or towards more stricture in a process called
fortition.
Other parameters
Sibilants are distinguished from other fricatives by the shape of the tongue and how the airflow is directed over the teeth. Fricatives at
coronal places of articulation may be sibilant or non-sibilant, sibilants being the more common.
Flaps (also called taps) are similar to very brief stops. However, their articulation and behavior are distinct enough to be considered a separate manner, rather than just
length
Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...
. The main
articulatory difference between flaps and stops is that, due to the greater length of stops compared to flaps, a build-up of air pressure occurs behind a stop which does not occur behind a flap. This means that when the stop is released, there is a burst of air as the pressure is relieved, while for flaps there is no such burst.
Trills involve the vibration of one of the speech organs. Since trilling is a separate parameter from stricture, the two may be combined. Increasing the stricture of a typical trill results in a
trilled fricative. Trilled affricates are also known.
Nasal airflow may be added as an independent parameter to any speech sound. It is most commonly found in
nasal occlusives and
nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced wit ...
s, but nasalized fricatives, taps, and approximants are also found. When a sound is not nasal, it is called ''oral.''
Lateral consonant, Laterality is the release of airflow at the side of the tongue. This can be combined with other manners, resulting in lateral approximants (such as the pronunciation of the letter L in the English word "let"), lateral flaps, and lateral fricatives and affricates.
Individual manners
*
plosive consonant, Plosive, often called stop, is an oral occlusive, where there is ''occlusion'' (blocking) of the oral
vocal tract, and no nasal air flow, so the air flow stops completely. Examples include
English (
voiceless) and (
voiced). If the consonant is voiced, the voicing is the only sound made during occlusion; if it is voiceless, a stop is completely silent. What we hear as a /p/ or /k/ is the effect that the ''onset'' of the occlusion has on the preceding vowel, as well as the
release burst and its effect on the following vowel. The shape and position of the tongue (the ''place'' of articulation) determine the
resonant cavity that gives different stops their characteristic sounds. All languages have stops.
*
Nasal
Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination:
* With reference to the human nose:
** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery
** ...
, a nasal occlusive, where there is occlusion of the oral tract, but air passes through the nose. The shape and position of the tongue determine the resonant cavity that gives different nasals their characteristic sounds. Examples include English . Nearly all languages have nasals, the only exceptions being in the area of
Puget Sound and a single language on
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island (Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. It was previously the main landmass in the German Empire-associated North Solomons. Its land area is ...
.
*
Fricative, sometimes called spirant, where there is continuous ''frication'' (turbulent and
noisy airflow) at the place of articulation. Examples include English (voiceless), (voiced), etc. Most languages have fricatives, though many have only an . However, the
Indigenous Australian languages are almost completely devoid of fricatives of any kind.
**
Sibilant
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
s are a type of fricative where the airflow is guided by a groove in the tongue toward the teeth, creating a high-pitched and very distinctive sound. These are by far the most common fricatives. Fricatives at
coronal (front of tongue) places of articulation are usually, though not always, sibilants. English sibilants include and .
**
Lateral fricatives are a rare type of fricative, where the frication occurs on one or both sides of the edge of the tongue. The "ll" of
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
and the "hl" of
Zulu are lateral fricatives.
*
Affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
, which begins like a stop, but this releases into a fricative rather than having a separate release of its own. The English letters "ch" and "j" represent affricates. Affricates are quite common around the world, though less common than fricatives.
*
Flap, often called a tap, is a momentary closure of the oral cavity. The "tt" of "utter" and the "dd" of "udder" are pronounced as a flap in
North American and
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
. Many linguists distinguish ''taps'' from ''flaps'', but there is no consensus on what the difference might be. No language relies on such a difference. There are also lateral flaps.
*
Trill, in which the articulator (usually the tip of the tongue) is held in place, and the airstream causes it to vibrate. The double "r" of
Spanish "perro" is a trill. Trills and flaps, where there are one or more brief occlusions, constitute a class of consonant called
rhotics
In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. They a ...
.
*
Approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
, where there is very little obstruction. Examples include English and . In some languages, such as Spanish, there are sounds that seem to fall between ''fricative'' and ''approximant''.
** One use of the word
semivowel, sometimes called a glide, is a type of approximant, pronounced like a vowel but with the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth, so that there is slight turbulence. In English, is the semivowel equivalent of the vowel , and (spelled "y") is the semivowel equivalent of the vowel in this usage. Other descriptions use ''semivowel'' for vowel-like sounds that are not syllabic, but do not have the increased stricture of approximants. These are found as elements in
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s. The word may also be used to cover both concepts. The term glide is newer than semivowel, being used to indicate an essential quality of sounds such as and , which is the movement (or glide) from their initial position ( and , respectively) to a following vowel.
**
Lateral approximants, usually shortened to lateral, are a type of approximant pronounced with the side of the tongue. English is a lateral. Together with the ''rhotics'', which have similar behavior in many languages, these form a class of consonant called
liquids.
Other airstream initiations
All of these manners of articulation are pronounced with an
airstream mechanism called
pulmonic egressive, meaning that the air flows outward, and is powered by the lungs (actually the ribs and
diaphragm
Diaphragm may refer to:
Anatomy
* Thoracic diaphragm, a thin sheet of muscle between the thorax and the abdomen
* Pelvic diaphragm or pelvic floor, a pelvic structure
* Urogenital diaphragm or triangular ligament, a pelvic structure
Other
* Diap ...
). Other airstream mechanisms are possible. Sounds that rely on some of these include:
*
Ejectives, which are ''glottalic egressive''. That is, the airstream is powered by an upward movement of the
glottis
The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing vowels and voiced consonants.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γλῶττα'' (glôtta), va ...
rather than by the lungs or diaphragm. Stops, affricates, and occasionally fricatives may occur as ejectives. All ejectives are voiceless, or at least transition from voiced to voiceless.
*
Implosives, which are ''glottalic ingressive''. Here the glottis moves downward, but the lungs may be used simultaneously (to provide voicing), and in some languages no air may actually flow into the mouth. Implosive stops are not uncommon, but implosive affricates and fricatives are rare. Voiceless implosives are also rare.
*
Clicks, which are ''
lingual ingressive''. Here the back of the tongue is used to create a vacuum in the mouth, causing air to rush in when the forward occlusion (tongue or lips) is released. Clicks may be oral or nasal, stop or affricate, central or lateral, voiced or voiceless. They are extremely rare in normal words outside
Southern Africa. However, English has a click in its "tsk tsk" (or "tut tut") sound, and another is often used to say "giddy up" to a horse.
* Combinations of these, in some analyses, in a single consonant: ''
linguo-pulmonic
Pulmonic-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-pulmonic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ordinary pulmonic sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. Al ...
'' and ''
linguo-glottalic
Ejective-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click t ...
(ejective)'' consonants, which are clicks released into either a pulmonic or ejective stop/fricative.
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ejecti ...
*
Articulatory phonetics
*
Place of articulation
*
Basis of articulation
*
Diction
*
Phonation
The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defini ...
*
Airstream mechanism
*
Relative articulation
In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same pho ...
*
Nonexplosive stop
*
Vocal tract
*
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production ...
*
Source-filter model of speech production
Bibliography
*
External links
Movie clip showing the human articulators in actionInteractive Flash website for American English, Spanish and German sounds
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