Places of articulation are the places where speech sounds produced . These places are basically comes from the organ of speech of human being .
The places of articulation are as follows :
- Bilabial segments are produced with the lips held together, for instance the [p] sound of the English pin, or the [b] sound in bin.
- Labiodental segments are produced by holding the upper teeth to the lower lip, like in the [f] sound of English fin.
- Dental consonants have the tongue making contact with the upper teeth (area 3 in the diagram). An example from English is the [θ] sound in the word thin.
- Alveolar consonants have the tongue touching the area of the mouth known as the alveolar ridge (area 4 in the diagram). Examples include the [t] in tin and [s] in sin.
- Postalveolar consonants are similar to alveolars but more retracted (in area 5 in the diagram), like the [ʃ] of shin.
- Palatal consonants are articulated at the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth, area 7 in the diagram). In English the palatal [j] sound appears in the word young.
- Velar consonants are articulated at the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum, area 8 in the diagram). English [k] is velar, like in the word kin.
- Glottal consonants are articulated far back in the throat, at the glottis (area 11 in the diagram, effectively the vocal folds). English [h] may be regarded as glottal.[2]
- Doubly articulated consonants have two points of articulation, such as the English labio-velar [w] of wit.
Manner Of Articulation :
- Stop is the sounds produced by some form of stopping the air stream then releasing it suddenly. These sounds can be represented by the symbol [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g] . Example : put,buy,toy,down,key,go
- fricative is the sounds produced by bloking the air stream and having the air push through the very narrow opening. These sounds can be represented by the symbol. [f], [v], [θ], [d], [s], [z], [ʃ], [_] . Example : fit,very,theatre,seem,zip,shock,treasure.
- Affricate is the sounds made by stopping the air stream then followed immediately by fricative. In other word,it is combination of "stop" and "fricative" .these sounds can be presented by the symbol [tʃ] and [d_]. Example : cheap,jeep,chair,jarjar.
- Nasal is the sounds produced by sending the steam of air throug the nose. These sounds can be presented by the symbol [m], [n], and [ŋ], example : sum,sun,sung.
- Liquid is the sounds produced when the tounge touches the middle part of the alveolar ridge. These sounds can be symbolized with [l] and [r] .when you pronounce the symbol [r],yor tounge tip will raise and curl back near the alveolar ridge. Example: let,red,lewd,read.
- Glide is the sounds produced by moving the tounge from one position to another .these sounds are symbolized with [w] and [j]. Examples: we,wet,you,yes,yet.
- Glottal is the sound produced by closing and opening the glottis (vocal cord). This sound is symbolized with [ʔ].you can produced the glottal stop if you try to say the word "butter" and "bottle" without pronouncing the "-tt-" part in the middle.
- Flap is the sound is produced by the tounge tip tapping the alveolar ridge briefly. When you pronounce the word "latter" that is close to "ladder" ,it means you are making a flap. Examples: rider and writer
English has twelve vowel sounds. In the table above they are divided into seven short and five long vowels. An alternative way of organizing them is according to where (in the mouth) they are produced. This method allows us to describe them as front, central and back. We can qualify them further by how high the tongue and lower jaw are when we make these vowel sounds, and by whether our lips are rounded or spread, and finally by whether they are short or long. This scheme shows the following arrangement:
Front vowels
/i:/ - cream, seen (long high front spread vowel)
/ɪ/ - bit, silly (short high front spread vowel)
/ɛ/ - bet, head (short mid front spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /e/
/æ/ - cat, dad (short low front spread vowel); this may also be shown by /a/
Central vowels
/ɜ:/- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /ə:/.
/ə/ - about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known asschwa, or the neutral vowel sound - it never occurs in a stressed position.
/ʌ/ - cut, nut (short low front spread vowel); this vowel is quite uncommon among speakers in the Midlands and further north in Britain.
Back vowels
/u:/ - boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel)
/ʊ/ - put, soot (short high back rounded vowel); also shown by /u/
/ɔ:/ - corn, faun (long mid back rounded vowel) also shown by /o:/
/ɒ/- dog, rotten (short low back rounded vowel) also shown by /o/
/ɑ:/ - hard, far (long low back spread vowel)
We can also arrange the vowels in a table or even depict them against a cross-section of the human mouth. Here is an example of a simple table:
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