Place of articulation
The place of articulation refers to where the articulators (tongue, teeth, lips or glottis) make
contact in the vocal tract to create consonant sounds. In other words, these are the places where
the constrictions and obstructions of air occur.
Bilabial
Bilabial consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow out of the mouth by bringing your
lips together.
English contains the following three bilabial consonants:
/p/ as in “purse” and “rap“
/b/ as in “back” and “cab“
/m/ as in “mad” and “clam“
Labio-Dental
Labio-dental consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow by curling your lower lip back
and raising it to touch your upper row of teeth.
English contains the following two labio-dental sounds:
/f/ as in “fro” and “calf“
/v/ as in “vine” and “have”
Dental
Dental consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow by placing your slimy tongue against
your upper teeth. English contains the following two labio-dental sounds:
/θ/ as is “thick” and “bath“
/ð/ as in “the” and “rather”
Alveolar
The alveolar ridge is where your teeth meet your gums. You create Alveolar consonants when
you raise your tongue to the alveolar ridge to block or constrict airflow. The English alveolar
consonants are as follows: /n/ as in “no” and “man“
/t/ as in “tab” and “rat“
/d/ as in “dip” and “bad“
/s/ as in “suit” and “bus“
z/ as in “zit” and “jazz“
/l/ as in “luck” and “fully”
Post-Alveolar
When you retract your tongue back just a bit from the alveolar ridge, the sounds change enough
to be recognized as distinct consonants. So post-alveolar consonants are those that occur when
the tongue blocks or constricts airflow at the point just beyond the alveolar ridge.
The post-alveolar english consonants are as follows:
/ʃ/ as in “shot” or “brash”
/ʒ/ as in “vision” or “measure”
/tʃ/ as in “chick” or “match”
/dʒ/ as in “jam” or “badge“
Palatal
The roof of your mouth is the hard palate. You may know it as “the place that burns like hell
when I eat pizza that is too hot.”
You create Palatal consonants when you raise the tongue to this point and constrict airflow.
English has only one palatal consonant:
/j/ as in “yes”
Velar
Behind your hard palate you have the velum or soft palate. Unlike the bony hard palate in front
of it, the this consists of soft place. You make Velar Consonants when you raise the back of your
tongue to the velum to block or restrict airflow.
English has the following velar consonants:
/ŋ/ as in “going” and “uncle” (note that the ‘n sound’ in these words is NOT made at the alveolar
ridge, which is why it is distinct from /n/).
/k/ as in “kite” and “back“
/g/ as in “good” and “bug“
/w/ as in “wet” and “Howard”
Glottal
The glottis is actually two vocal folds (i.e. vocal cords). It acts as a sort of bottle cap to your windpipe.
Inhale and then hold your breath for a few seconds while keeping your mouth open. What you are actually doing to
keep the air from expelling out of your lungs by closing your glottis.
Glottal consonants aren’t actually consonants; they just play consonant roles in the language. In English, the
following things happen at the glottis:/h/ as in “hi”.” Say these words and notice how you’re not actually
constricting or blocking airflow for this /h/ sound. You’re just exhaling a little bit harder than you would for a
normal vowel sound in transition to the following vowel sound.
