GENERAL OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS

We can classify consonants according to:

VOICE, PLACE OF ARTICULATION and MANNER OF ARTICULATION

As you have seen, VOICING has to do with whether the vocal folds are made to vibrate (voiced) or
not (voiceless) when producing a consonant. Have a look at the table below in which all consonants
are listed according to their voicing characteristics.

Voiced Voiceless
(vocal folds are made to vibrate) (vocal folds are not made to vibrate)

[b] [p]
[d] [t]
[g] [k]
[ð] [θ]
[v] [f]
[z] [s]
[ʒ] [ʃ]
[dʒ] [tʃ]
[m]
[n]
[ŋ]
[l]
[r]
[j]
[w]
[h]

PLACE OF ARTICULATION

This has to do with the location in the vocal tract of the major constriction during the production of a
consonant; i.e. what articulators are involved. Have a look at the table below:

Denomination ..... articulating with ....

Bilabial lower lip ..... upper lip

Labio-dental lower lip ..... upper teeth
Dental tip of the tongue ..... upper teeth
tip and blade of the tongue ..... alveolar
Alveolar
ridge
tip of the tongue ..... back part of the
Post-alveolar
alveolar ridge
tip, blade and front of the tongue .....
Palato-alveolar
alveolar ridge and hard palate
Palatal front of the tongue ..... hard palate
 back part of the tongue ..... soft palate while
Labial-velar
the lips are rounded.
Velar back part of the tongue ..... soft palate
Glottal articulated at the glottis

Look at these pictures and examples (adapted from https://www.mimicmethod.com/ft101/place-of-articulation/)

Bilabial consonants

English has three bilabial consonants:

● /p/ as in “purse” and “rap“

● /b/ as in “back” and “cab“
● /m/ as in “mad” and “claim“

Labio-dental consonants

There are two labio-dental sounds in English:

● /f/ as in “fry” and “calf“

● /v/ as in “vet” and “have”

Dental consonants

English has the following two dental sounds:

● /θ/ as is “thick” and “bath“

● /ð/ as in “the” and “rather”
Alveolar consonants

The English alveolar consonants are:

● /t/ as in “tab” and “rat“

● /d/ as in “dip” and “bad“
● /s/ as in “suit” and “bus“
● /z/ as in “zip” and “jazz“
● /n/ as in “no” and “man“
● /l/ as in “luck” and “fully”

Post-alveolar consonant

There is only one post-alveolar consonant in

English:

● /r/ as in “rose” or “arrive”

Palato-alveolar consonants

There are four palato-alveolar sounds in

English:

● / ʃ/ as in “she” or “crash”
● /ʒ/ as in “pleasure” or “vision”
● /tʃ/ as in “check” or “church”
● /dʒ/ as in “just” or “large”
Palatal consonant

English has only one palatal consonant:

● /j/ as in “yes” and “young”

Labial-velar consonant

There is one labial-velar consonant sound in

English:

● / w/ as in “wet” and “nowhere”

Velar consonants

English has the following velar consonants:

● /k/ as in “kite” and “back“

● /g/ as in “good” and “bug“
● /ŋ/ as in “going” and “uncle”
Glottal consonant

There is one glottal consonant in English:

● /h/ as in “hi” and “perhaps”

MANNER OF ARTICULATION

Another essential characteristic of a consonant is how it is produced, i.e., what sort of obstruction is
made to the flow of air. That type of obstruction is known as the manner of articulation.

Read the following text about manner of articulation and complete it with the corresponding places of
articulation.

So, according to the kind of obstruction which the egressive pulmonic air meets on its way out after
it has passed the vocal folds, RP English consonants can be classified into the following categories:

Plosives: sounds in which there is a complete closure in the mouth, so that the air is blocked for a
fraction of a second and then released with a small burst of sound, called a plosion (it sounds like a
very small explosion). If we consider place of articulation, plosives may be ______________ [p,b]
park, bark, ______________ [t,d] tar, dark or ______________ [k,g] car, guard.

Fricatives: in the production of these consonants there is a closure which is not quite complete. This
means that the air is not blocked at any point, and therefore there is no plosion. The articulators form
narrowing, so the air forces its way through them, making a noise because of the friction. This effect
is similar to the wind whistling around the corner of a house. Fricatives may be ______________
[f,v] wife, wives, ______________ [θ,ð] breath, breathe, ______________ [s,z] sink, zinc, or
______________ [ʃ,ʒ] nation, evasion.

Affricates: these are a combination of a plosive and a fricative. They begin like a plosive, with a
complete closure, but instead of a plosion, they have a very slow release, in which friction can be
heard. The two English affricates are both ______________, [tʃ] which is voiceless, chin, rich, and
[dʒ] which is voiced, gin, ridge.

Nasals: they resemble plosives in that there is a complete closure in the mouth, but as the velum is
lowered, the air can escape through the nasal cavity. Though all the other English sounds are
produced with the velum raised, the normal position for the velum is lowered, as this is the position
for breathing (your velum is probably lowered right now when you are reading this). The three English
nasals are all ______________, [m] is ______________, ram, [n] is ______________, ran, and [ŋ]
velar, rang.

Laterals: sounds in which the air escapes around the sides of the tongue. There is only one lateral
sound in English, [l], a voiced ______________ lateral.
Approximants: sounds where the tongue only approaches the roof of the mouth, so that there is no
obstruction and no friction. English has four approximants. Three of them are voiced: [r] right, correct,
which is ______________, since it is produced slightly further back than alveolar sounds; [j], the
______________ approximant, use, youth, and [w], which has a double articulation (there is lip
rounding and also an approach between the velum and the back part of the tongue), so this
consonant is called ______________ approximant, why, twin, square. The last approximant is
voiceless and it is produced at the glottis, so its full name is ‘voiceless glottal approximant’ [h], house.

Adapted from PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY, Reader for First Year English Linguistics,
written by Forel, C. & Puskás, G. (1986), and updated by Hamann, C. & Schmitz, C. (2005)

To sum up:

Look at the table below, where all English consonants are listed according to place and manner of
articulation. Also notice that symbols in blue stand for voiced sounds and those in red for voiceless
sounds.
When we name one of these sounds, we have to use their ‘first, middle and last name’
corresponding to their voice, place of articulation and manner of articulation respectively. Thus,
for example [ g ] is the voiced velar plosive.

Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Post- Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal

dental Alveolar Alveolar
Plosive pb td kɡ
Fricative fv θð sz ʃʒ
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l
Approximant w (1) r j h

(1) Note: Though placed under ‘bilabial’ in this chart, [w] is actually labial-velar, as seen before.