2009-11-10 1
Anatomy of the Vocal Tract
2009-11-10 2
Diagram of the Speech Organs
2009-11-10 3
? In addition to their normal names,many of
the parts of the vocal tract have fancy
names derived from Latin and Greek,The
adjectives we use to describe sounds made
with each part are usually based on the
Latin/Greek name,
? The following is a table of normal names
and fancy names.
Note
2009-11-10 4
Normal Name Fancy Name Adjective
lips labia labial
teeth dental
alveolar ridge alveolar
(hard ) palate palatal
soft palate velum velar
uvula uvular
upper throat pharynx pharyngeal
voice box larynx laryngeal
tongue tip apex apical
tongue blade lamina (back) laminal
tongue body dorsum dorsal
tongue root radical
2009-11-10 5
English Consonants
? Consonants and Vowels
? Places of Articulation
? Manners of Articulation
2009-11-10 6
Consonants and Vowels
? The distinction between consonants and
vowels is made in the following manner:
– if the air,once out of the glottis,is allowed to pass
freely through the resonators,the sound is a vowel;
– if the air,once out of the glottis,is obstructed,
partially or totally,in one or more places,the
sound is a consonant,
? Before proceeding,it should be noted that the
line between vowels and consonants cannot be
clearly drawn; a continuum exists between the
two extremes,There are also intermediate
instances,such as the semi-vowels and the
(frictionless) spirants.
2009-11-10 7
Places of Articulation
? The place of articulation refers to where the
narrowing occurs -- which active articulator gets
close to which passive articulator,In other
words,the place of articulation is the point
where the airstream is obstructed,In general,the
place of articulation is simply that point on the
palate where the tongue is placed to block the
stream of air.
2009-11-10 8
? The place of articulation can be any of the
following:
– the lips (labials and bilabials),
– the teeth (dentals),
– the lips and teeth (labio-dentals -- here the tongue is not
directly involved),
– the alveolar ridge (that part of the gums behind the
upper front teeth -- alveolar articulations),
– the hard palate (given its large size,one can distinguish
between palato-alveolars,palatals and palato-velars),
– the soft palate (or velum -- velar articulations),
– the uvula (uvulars),
– the pharynx (pharyngeals),
– the glottis (glottals),
2009-11-10 9
Balabial （双唇音）
? The articulators are the
two lips,(We could say
that the lower lip is the
active articulator and the
upper lip the passive
articulator,though the
upper lip usually moves
too,at least a little.)
English bilabial sounds
include [p],[b],and [m],
2009-11-10 10
Labio-dental （唇齿音）
? The lower lip is the
active articulator and
the upper teeth are the
passive articulator,
English labio-dental
sounds include [f] and
[v],
2009-11-10 11
Dental （齿音）
? Dental sounds involve the
upper teeth as the passive
articulator,The active
articulator may be either
the tongue tip or (usually)
the tongue blade --
diacritic symbols can be
used if it matters which,
Extreme lamino-dental
sounds are often called
interdental,English
interdental sounds include
[W] and [T],
2009-11-10 12
Alveolar (齿龈音）
? Alveolar sounds involve
the alveolar ridge as the
passive articulator,The
active articulator may be
either the tongue blade or
(usually) the tongue tip --
diacritic symbols can be
used if it matters which,
English alveolar sounds
include [t],[d],[n],[s],[z],
[l],
2009-11-10 13
Postalveolar
（后齿龈音）
? Postalveolar sounds involve
the area just behind the
alveolar ridge as the passive
articulator,The active
articulator may be either the
tongue tip or (usually) the
tongue blade -- diacritic
symbols can be used if it
matters which,English
postalveolars include [ F],
[ V],[tF] [dV],
2009-11-10 14
? Linguists have traditionally used very inconsistent
terminology in referring to the postalveolar POA,
Some of the terms you may encounter for it
include,palato-alveolar,alveo-palatal,alveolo-
palatal,and even (especially among English-
speakers) palatal,Many insist that palato-alveolar
and alveo(lo)-palatal are two different things --
though they don't agree which is which,
"Postalveolar",the official term used by the
International Phonetic Association,is
unambiguous,not to mention easier to spell,
2009-11-10 15
Retroflex
（卷舌音）
? In retroflex sounds,the
tongue tip is curled up and
back,Retroflexes can be
classed as apico-
postalveolar,though not
all apico-postalveolars
need to be curled
backward enough to count
as retroflex,
2009-11-10 16
The closest sound to a retroflex that English
has is [ r],For most North Americans,the
tongue tip is curled back in [r ],though not as
much as it is in languages that have true
retroflexes,Many other North Americans use
what is called a "bunched r" -- instead of
curling their tongues back,they bunch the
front up and push it forward to form an
approximant behind the alveolar ridge,
Note
2009-11-10 17
Palatal
（硬腭音）
? The active articulator
is the tongue body and
the passive articulator
is the hard palate,The
English glide [j] is a
palatal,
2009-11-10 18
Velar
（软腭音）
? The active articulator
is the tongue body and
the passive articulator
is the soft palate,
English velars include
[k],[g],and [N ].
2009-11-10 19
Glottal
（声门音）
This isn't strictly a place of articulation,but
they had to put it in the chart somewhere,
Glottal sounds are made in the larynx,For
the glottal stop,the vocal cords close
momentarily and cut off all airflow through
the vocal tract,English uses the glottal stop
in the interjection uh-uh (meaning 'no'),In
[h],the vocal cords are open,but close
enough together that air passing between
them creates friction noise,
2009-11-10 20
Note
[w] is often called a "labio-velar",
This doesn't follow the POA naming
convention -- it does not mean that the
active articulator is the lower lip and you try
to touch your soft palate with it! A [w] is
made up of two different approximants,a
bilabial approximant and a (dorso-)velar
approximant pronounced simultaneously,
2009-11-10 21
Manner of Articulation
? In a broad sense,the manner of articulation is
defined by a number of factors:
– whether there is vibration of the vocal cords (voiced vs,
voiceless);
– whether there is obstruction of the airstream at any
point above the glottis (consonant vs,vowel);
– whether the airstream passes through the nasal cavity in
addition to the oral cavity (nasal vs,oral);
– whether the airstream passes through the middle of the
oral cavity or along the side(s) (non-lateral vs,lateral),
2009-11-10 22
Manner of Articulation
? In its narrow sense,the manner of
articulation refers to how close the
articulators get to each other,i.e.,the degree
of constriction,In this course,if it is not
specified clearly,this term is always used in
its narrow sense.
? The main constriction degrees are,
2009-11-10 23
Stop
（爆破音）
? The active articulator touches the passive
articulator and completely cuts off the
airflow through the mouth,English stops
include,[p],[b],[t],[d],[k],[g],[m],[n],
[N],
2009-11-10 24
Note
? A stop cuts off airflow through the mouth,Airflow
through the nose does not matter -- you can have
both oral and nasal stops.
? In the production of [m],[n] or [N],the soft palate
is lowered,and the air stream is completely
obstructed in the oral tract,so that the air stream
passes through the nasal tract,That’s why they are
also termed nasals.
? Oral stops are often called plosives,including in
the IPA chart,
2009-11-10 25
Fricative
(摩擦音）
? The active articulator doesn't touch the
passive articulator,but gets close enough
that the airflow through the opening
becomes turbulent,English fricatives
include [f],[ v],[s ],[z],[W ],[T],[ F],
[ V],[h].
2009-11-10 26
Approximant （近似音）
? The active articulator approaches the passive
articulator,but doesn't even get close enough for
the airflow to become turbulent,English
approximants include [j],[w],[ r],and [l],
? In the production of [j] and [w],the air stream is
not in fact obstructed,which is a characteristic of
vowels,therefore they were called semi-vowels in
the past.
2009-11-10 27
Note
? In the production of [l],the air stream is obstructed
along the centre of the oral tract,so that the air
stream can go through the mouth laterally,This is
why [l] is also a lateral.
? When the air goes through the sides of the mouth,it
may or may not produce audible friction depending
on the space between the tongue and the side teeth,
For instance,[l] in the words,lie,low” is normally
produced without audible friction,so it is more
precisely called a lateral approximant.
2009-11-10 28
Note
? Approximants that are apical or laminal are often
called liquids - articulated without friction and
capable of being prolonged like a vowel (e.g.,[r ],
[l]).能够清晰发出没有摩擦并能象元音一样延长
的辅音
? Approximants that correspond to vowels are often
called glides - the transitional sound produced by
passing from the articulatory position of one speech
sound to that of another,(e.g.,[j] corresponds to [i],
[w] to [u]).从一种发音位置到另一种发音位置时的
过渡音
2009-11-10 29
Affricate （塞擦音）
? Affricates can be seen as a sequence of a stop
and a fricative which have the same or similar
places of articulation,They are transcribed
using the symbols for the stop and the
fricative,If one wants to emphasize the
affricate as a "single" sound,a tie symbol can
be used to join the stop and the fricative
(sometimes the fricative is written as a
superscript),
2009-11-10 30
Note
? English has the affricates [tF ] and [dV ],The
stop and the fricative halves of these affricates are
at the same place of articulation,the stop is in fact
postalveolar rather than alveolar,We could be
explicit about this and underline the [t] and [d] (in
IPA,a minus sign under a symbol is a diacritic
meaning "pronounced further back in the mouth"),
but most phoneticians believe this difference in
the place of articulation is so predictable that it
doesn't have to be marked.
2009-11-10 31
Nasality （鼻音性）
The soft palate can be lowered,allowing air
to flow out through the nose,or it can be
raised to block nasal airflow,As was the case
with the vocal cords,what the soft palate is
doing is independent the other articulators,
For almost any place of articulation,there are
pairs of stops that differ only in whether the
soft palate is raised,as in the oral stop [d],or
lowered,as in the nasal stop [n].
2009-11-10 32
Laterality (边音性）
When you form an [l],your tongue tip touches your alveolar ridge
(or maybe your upper teeth) but it doesn't create a stop because one
or both sides of the tongue are lowered so that air can flow out
along the side,Sounds like this with airflow along the sides of the
tongue are called lateral,all others are called central (though we
usually just assume that a sound is central unless we explicitly say
it's lateral),
The side of the tongue can lower to different degrees,It can lower
so little that the air passing through becomes turbulent (giving a
lateral fricative like [ ] or [ ]) or it can lower enough for there to
be no turbulence (a lateral approximant),The [l] of English is a
lateral approximant,
2009-11-10 33
Describing Consonants
? A consonant sound can be described
completely by specifying the following
parameters:
– State of the glottis (声带的状态 ）
– Place of articulation（发音部位）
– Manner of articulation (发音方式）
– Nasality （鼻音性）
– Laterality （边音性）
2009-11-10 34
Examples
[k] ( voiceless,velar,plosive,oral,central)
[v] ( voiced,labio-dental,fricative,oral,
central)
[l] ( voiced,alveolar,approximant,oral,lateral)
[n] (voiced,alveolar,plosive,nasal,central)
2009-11-10 35
A Chart of English Consonants
bilabial labio-
dental
dental alveolar post-
alveolar
retroflex palatal velar
stop p b
m
t d
n
k g
N
fricative f v W
T
s z F
V
approximant (w) l r j (w)
affricate tF
dV
Anatomy of the Vocal Tract
2009-11-10 2
Diagram of the Speech Organs
2009-11-10 3
? In addition to their normal names,many of
the parts of the vocal tract have fancy
names derived from Latin and Greek,The
adjectives we use to describe sounds made
with each part are usually based on the
Latin/Greek name,
? The following is a table of normal names
and fancy names.
Note
2009-11-10 4
Normal Name Fancy Name Adjective
lips labia labial
teeth dental
alveolar ridge alveolar
(hard ) palate palatal
soft palate velum velar
uvula uvular
upper throat pharynx pharyngeal
voice box larynx laryngeal
tongue tip apex apical
tongue blade lamina (back) laminal
tongue body dorsum dorsal
tongue root radical
2009-11-10 5
English Consonants
? Consonants and Vowels
? Places of Articulation
? Manners of Articulation
2009-11-10 6
Consonants and Vowels
? The distinction between consonants and
vowels is made in the following manner:
– if the air,once out of the glottis,is allowed to pass
freely through the resonators,the sound is a vowel;
– if the air,once out of the glottis,is obstructed,
partially or totally,in one or more places,the
sound is a consonant,
? Before proceeding,it should be noted that the
line between vowels and consonants cannot be
clearly drawn; a continuum exists between the
two extremes,There are also intermediate
instances,such as the semi-vowels and the
(frictionless) spirants.
2009-11-10 7
Places of Articulation
? The place of articulation refers to where the
narrowing occurs -- which active articulator gets
close to which passive articulator,In other
words,the place of articulation is the point
where the airstream is obstructed,In general,the
place of articulation is simply that point on the
palate where the tongue is placed to block the
stream of air.
2009-11-10 8
? The place of articulation can be any of the
following:
– the lips (labials and bilabials),
– the teeth (dentals),
– the lips and teeth (labio-dentals -- here the tongue is not
directly involved),
– the alveolar ridge (that part of the gums behind the
upper front teeth -- alveolar articulations),
– the hard palate (given its large size,one can distinguish
between palato-alveolars,palatals and palato-velars),
– the soft palate (or velum -- velar articulations),
– the uvula (uvulars),
– the pharynx (pharyngeals),
– the glottis (glottals),
2009-11-10 9
Balabial （双唇音）
? The articulators are the
two lips,(We could say
that the lower lip is the
active articulator and the
upper lip the passive
articulator,though the
upper lip usually moves
too,at least a little.)
English bilabial sounds
include [p],[b],and [m],
2009-11-10 10
Labio-dental （唇齿音）
? The lower lip is the
active articulator and
the upper teeth are the
passive articulator,
English labio-dental
sounds include [f] and
[v],
2009-11-10 11
Dental （齿音）
? Dental sounds involve the
upper teeth as the passive
articulator,The active
articulator may be either
the tongue tip or (usually)
the tongue blade --
diacritic symbols can be
used if it matters which,
Extreme lamino-dental
sounds are often called
interdental,English
interdental sounds include
[W] and [T],
2009-11-10 12
Alveolar (齿龈音）
? Alveolar sounds involve
the alveolar ridge as the
passive articulator,The
active articulator may be
either the tongue blade or
(usually) the tongue tip --
diacritic symbols can be
used if it matters which,
English alveolar sounds
include [t],[d],[n],[s],[z],
[l],
2009-11-10 13
Postalveolar
（后齿龈音）
? Postalveolar sounds involve
the area just behind the
alveolar ridge as the passive
articulator,The active
articulator may be either the
tongue tip or (usually) the
tongue blade -- diacritic
symbols can be used if it
matters which,English
postalveolars include [ F],
[ V],[tF] [dV],
2009-11-10 14
? Linguists have traditionally used very inconsistent
terminology in referring to the postalveolar POA,
Some of the terms you may encounter for it
include,palato-alveolar,alveo-palatal,alveolo-
palatal,and even (especially among English-
speakers) palatal,Many insist that palato-alveolar
and alveo(lo)-palatal are two different things --
though they don't agree which is which,
"Postalveolar",the official term used by the
International Phonetic Association,is
unambiguous,not to mention easier to spell,
2009-11-10 15
Retroflex
（卷舌音）
? In retroflex sounds,the
tongue tip is curled up and
back,Retroflexes can be
classed as apico-
postalveolar,though not
all apico-postalveolars
need to be curled
backward enough to count
as retroflex,
2009-11-10 16
The closest sound to a retroflex that English
has is [ r],For most North Americans,the
tongue tip is curled back in [r ],though not as
much as it is in languages that have true
retroflexes,Many other North Americans use
what is called a "bunched r" -- instead of
curling their tongues back,they bunch the
front up and push it forward to form an
approximant behind the alveolar ridge,
Note
2009-11-10 17
Palatal
（硬腭音）
? The active articulator
is the tongue body and
the passive articulator
is the hard palate,The
English glide [j] is a
palatal,
2009-11-10 18
Velar
（软腭音）
? The active articulator
is the tongue body and
the passive articulator
is the soft palate,
English velars include
[k],[g],and [N ].
2009-11-10 19
Glottal
（声门音）
This isn't strictly a place of articulation,but
they had to put it in the chart somewhere,
Glottal sounds are made in the larynx,For
the glottal stop,the vocal cords close
momentarily and cut off all airflow through
the vocal tract,English uses the glottal stop
in the interjection uh-uh (meaning 'no'),In
[h],the vocal cords are open,but close
enough together that air passing between
them creates friction noise,
2009-11-10 20
Note
[w] is often called a "labio-velar",
This doesn't follow the POA naming
convention -- it does not mean that the
active articulator is the lower lip and you try
to touch your soft palate with it! A [w] is
made up of two different approximants,a
bilabial approximant and a (dorso-)velar
approximant pronounced simultaneously,
2009-11-10 21
Manner of Articulation
? In a broad sense,the manner of articulation is
defined by a number of factors:
– whether there is vibration of the vocal cords (voiced vs,
voiceless);
– whether there is obstruction of the airstream at any
point above the glottis (consonant vs,vowel);
– whether the airstream passes through the nasal cavity in
addition to the oral cavity (nasal vs,oral);
– whether the airstream passes through the middle of the
oral cavity or along the side(s) (non-lateral vs,lateral),
2009-11-10 22
Manner of Articulation
? In its narrow sense,the manner of
articulation refers to how close the
articulators get to each other,i.e.,the degree
of constriction,In this course,if it is not
specified clearly,this term is always used in
its narrow sense.
? The main constriction degrees are,
2009-11-10 23
Stop
（爆破音）
? The active articulator touches the passive
articulator and completely cuts off the
airflow through the mouth,English stops
include,[p],[b],[t],[d],[k],[g],[m],[n],
[N],
2009-11-10 24
Note
? A stop cuts off airflow through the mouth,Airflow
through the nose does not matter -- you can have
both oral and nasal stops.
? In the production of [m],[n] or [N],the soft palate
is lowered,and the air stream is completely
obstructed in the oral tract,so that the air stream
passes through the nasal tract,That’s why they are
also termed nasals.
? Oral stops are often called plosives,including in
the IPA chart,
2009-11-10 25
Fricative
(摩擦音）
? The active articulator doesn't touch the
passive articulator,but gets close enough
that the airflow through the opening
becomes turbulent,English fricatives
include [f],[ v],[s ],[z],[W ],[T],[ F],
[ V],[h].
2009-11-10 26
Approximant （近似音）
? The active articulator approaches the passive
articulator,but doesn't even get close enough for
the airflow to become turbulent,English
approximants include [j],[w],[ r],and [l],
? In the production of [j] and [w],the air stream is
not in fact obstructed,which is a characteristic of
vowels,therefore they were called semi-vowels in
the past.
2009-11-10 27
Note
? In the production of [l],the air stream is obstructed
along the centre of the oral tract,so that the air
stream can go through the mouth laterally,This is
why [l] is also a lateral.
? When the air goes through the sides of the mouth,it
may or may not produce audible friction depending
on the space between the tongue and the side teeth,
For instance,[l] in the words,lie,low” is normally
produced without audible friction,so it is more
precisely called a lateral approximant.
2009-11-10 28
Note
? Approximants that are apical or laminal are often
called liquids - articulated without friction and
capable of being prolonged like a vowel (e.g.,[r ],
[l]).能够清晰发出没有摩擦并能象元音一样延长
的辅音
? Approximants that correspond to vowels are often
called glides - the transitional sound produced by
passing from the articulatory position of one speech
sound to that of another,(e.g.,[j] corresponds to [i],
[w] to [u]).从一种发音位置到另一种发音位置时的
过渡音
2009-11-10 29
Affricate （塞擦音）
? Affricates can be seen as a sequence of a stop
and a fricative which have the same or similar
places of articulation,They are transcribed
using the symbols for the stop and the
fricative,If one wants to emphasize the
affricate as a "single" sound,a tie symbol can
be used to join the stop and the fricative
(sometimes the fricative is written as a
superscript),
2009-11-10 30
Note
? English has the affricates [tF ] and [dV ],The
stop and the fricative halves of these affricates are
at the same place of articulation,the stop is in fact
postalveolar rather than alveolar,We could be
explicit about this and underline the [t] and [d] (in
IPA,a minus sign under a symbol is a diacritic
meaning "pronounced further back in the mouth"),
but most phoneticians believe this difference in
the place of articulation is so predictable that it
doesn't have to be marked.
2009-11-10 31
Nasality （鼻音性）
The soft palate can be lowered,allowing air
to flow out through the nose,or it can be
raised to block nasal airflow,As was the case
with the vocal cords,what the soft palate is
doing is independent the other articulators,
For almost any place of articulation,there are
pairs of stops that differ only in whether the
soft palate is raised,as in the oral stop [d],or
lowered,as in the nasal stop [n].
2009-11-10 32
Laterality (边音性）
When you form an [l],your tongue tip touches your alveolar ridge
(or maybe your upper teeth) but it doesn't create a stop because one
or both sides of the tongue are lowered so that air can flow out
along the side,Sounds like this with airflow along the sides of the
tongue are called lateral,all others are called central (though we
usually just assume that a sound is central unless we explicitly say
it's lateral),
The side of the tongue can lower to different degrees,It can lower
so little that the air passing through becomes turbulent (giving a
lateral fricative like [ ] or [ ]) or it can lower enough for there to
be no turbulence (a lateral approximant),The [l] of English is a
lateral approximant,
2009-11-10 33
Describing Consonants
? A consonant sound can be described
completely by specifying the following
parameters:
– State of the glottis (声带的状态 ）
– Place of articulation（发音部位）
– Manner of articulation (发音方式）
– Nasality （鼻音性）
– Laterality （边音性）
2009-11-10 34
Examples
[k] ( voiceless,velar,plosive,oral,central)
[v] ( voiced,labio-dental,fricative,oral,
central)
[l] ( voiced,alveolar,approximant,oral,lateral)
[n] (voiced,alveolar,plosive,nasal,central)
2009-11-10 35
A Chart of English Consonants
bilabial labio-
dental
dental alveolar post-
alveolar
retroflex palatal velar
stop p b
m
t d
n
k g
N
fricative f v W
T
s z F
V
approximant (w) l r j (w)
affricate tF
dV
