Places of articulation

The place of articulation of a consonant is the description of where the consonantal obstruction occurs in the vocal tract by the placement of the tongue or by lip configuration. Below are the places of articulation relevant for the consonants of English:

Bilabial: In the production of bilabial sounds the two lips come together. The initial consonants of the words pay, bay and may exemplify the English bilabials /p, b, m/.

Labio-dental: Labio-dental sounds of English, /f, v/ (e.g. feel, veal), involve a constriction between the lower lip and the upper teeth. Bilabials and labiodentals together are called ‘labials’.

Interdental: /θ/ and /ð/ sounds of English (e.g. thin, that) are made by placing the tip or blade of the tongue between the upper and lower front teeth. For some speakers, the tongue tip/blade just barely touches behind the upper teeth (thus, the term ‘dental’ is used instead in some manuals).

Alveolar: When the active articulator, the tongue tip or blade, goes against the alveolar ridge, we have an alveolar sound. The initial consonants of the words tip, dip, sip, zip, nip, lip exemplify the English alveolars /t, d, s, z, n, l/ respectively.

Palato-alveolar: In the production of palato-alveolar sounds of English, / ʃ, Ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/ (exemplified by the final consonants of fish, garage, rich, ridge, respectively), the blade of the tongue moves towards the back of the alveolar ridge (approximates in the case of / ʃ, Ʒ/ and touches in the case of /ʧ, ʤ/).

Retroflex: Retroflex sounds are made by curling the tip of the tongue up and back toward the back of the alveolar ridge. The only retroflex sound in American English is the r-sound (/ɹ̣/). Although both in retroflex sounds and in palato-alveolar sounds the constriction is at the back of the alveolar ridge, these two groups are not identical; the former is ‘apical’ (with the tip of the tongue), and the latter is said to be ‘laminal’ (with the blade of the tongue). It should also be noted that not all speakers use the retroflex r-sound; many speakers have a ‘bunched’ r-sound made by raising the blade of the tongue with the tip turned down.

Palatal: /j/, as in yes, is the only palatal sound of English. It is made with the front of the tongue articulating against the hard palate.

Velar: In the production of English velars, /k, g, ŋ/, exemplified by the final sounds of back, bag, sing, respectively, the back of the tongue articulates against the velum (soft palate).

Glottal: These are sounds formed at the glottis, which include /h/ (e.g. home) and the glottal stop /ʔ/.

Labio-velar: The sound /w/ (e.g. we) is the only consonant that has two places of articulation. In the production of this sound, the lips are rounded (thus, ‘labial’), while at the same time the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum (thus, ‘velar’). As a result, we place the symbol at both bilabial and velar places and call the sound ‘labio-velar’.