Manner of Articulation
Manner of articulation refers to the way in which speech sounds are produced by the articulators in the vocal tract. It categorizes consonants based on the manner in which the airflow is obstructed or modified during speech production. Common manners of articulation include stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, and approximants, each characterized by specific articulatory features.
8 Key excerpts on "Manner of Articulation"
eBook - ePubThe Sounds of Language
An Introduction to Phonetics
- Henry Rogers(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 11 Manner of Articulation DOI: 10.4324/9781315838731-11 In Chapter 10 we classified consonants according to their place of articulation. In this chapter, we examine the other major aspect of consonants – Manner of Articulation. A primary aspect of manner is the degree of stricture ; that is, does the air have a free passage through the mouth or is there an obstruction? By varying the degree of obstruction, we can make different sounds. Nasality is another way of varying sounds, by allowing air to pass out of the nose or not. As well, some sounds are lateral with the air passing out through the sides of the vocal tract, but not through the middle. In this chapter you will learn about: how different consonants are made at the same place of articulation; lateral and nasal consonants; taps, flaps, and trills. Degree of stricture Say the vowel [ɑ]; notice that air passes freely out of the mouth. In saying this vowel we have the tongue low, creating as little obstruction as possible. To see your throat, doctors ask you to say [ɑ] to get the oral cavity as open as possible. Now say a long [llllllll]. Here, air obviously passes out of the mouth, but not so freely as with [ɑ]; the articulators are positioned so as to form a partial obstruction in the vocal tract. If you try a long [fffffffff], the closure is even tighter, causing a certain amount of frication, or friction-like noise. If you try to make a long [pppppppp], your cheeks may puff out a bit, but no air escapes as there is a complete closure. We distinguish four degrees of stricture. Sounds made with the least stricture are vowels; the others are consonants. Table 11.1 shows the four categories with their degree of stricture. Table 11.1 Degree of stricture Obstruents Oral stops, fricatives, and affricates together form the class of obstruents...
eBook - ePub- R.L. Trask, Peter Stockwell, Peter Stockwell(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Manner of Articulation The action of the speech organs involved in producing a particular consonant. A consonant is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at some point along its length. The particular speech organs chosen to make the constriction represent the place of articulation, but, even at a single place, it is usually possible to make several different kinds of constriction. The type of constriction made in a particular instance is the Manner of Articulation. There are several types of manner. In a plosive (like [b] or [k]), a complete closure is made, blocking off the airflow, and the closure is released suddenly. In an affricate (like [tʃ] or [ts]), a complete closure is made and then released gradually, with friction noise. In a fricative (like [f] or [z]), there is no complete closure, but air is forced through a tiny opening, producing friction noise. These three types are collectively called obstruents, because the airflow is strongly obstructed. The remaining types are collectively called sonorants. In a nasal (like [m] or [n]), a complete closure is made in the mouth, but the velum is lowered, so that air flows out through the nose. In an approximant (like [w] or most types of English /r/), the air is allowed to flow through a relatively large opening, and no friction noise is produced. (At the phonetic level, such consonants are strictly vowels, but they pattern in languages like consonants.) In a flap (like the [ɽ] of many languages of India), the tongue is ‘flipped’ rapidly from one place to another, briefly striking something else as it moves. A tap (like Spanish [ɾ] in pero ‘but’) is similar except that the tongue finishes where it started. (Some books do not distinguish between flaps and taps, but it is preferable to do so.) In a trill (like Spanish [r] in perro ‘dog’), the air forced through a smallish opening forces the tongue to vibrate. All these are examples of median consonants, in which all airflow is through the centre-line of the mouth...
eBook - ePub- Patricia Ashby(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...6 Manner of Articulation AND AIRSTREAM MECHANISMS In this chapter, we will introduce the concepts of Manner of Articulation and airstream mechanisms. Manner of Articulation If you look at your answers to Exercises 5.7 or 5.13(a) in the previous chapter, you will see that we are well on the way to being able to give a unique label to each and every speech sound that humans can make. In English, using voice and place descriptions only, we can identify [j] as a voiced palatal and [ ] as a voiced postalveolar and [w] as a voiced labial–velar. Other groups have only two members, and these also can now be identified distinctively within the system: voiceless dental [θ], for example, and voiced dental [ð]. However, as soon as we start to look at sounds made at the bilabial or velar place, we can already see that these two-part labels are inadequate, and the alveolar place with its six different sounds confirms this! Manner The next step, then, is to consider the MANNER in which each of these sounds is made. In doing this, we are looking more closely at two related aspects of each sound: first, we are considering what it actually sounds like, the ‘sound effect’ if you like; and second, we are looking at the type of gesture that is responsible for making such a sound. Just as there turned out to be quite a large number of possible places of articulation, so we will discover there is a range of different manners. The inclusion of manner information in the labelling system will then enable us to create the kinds of distinctive labels we need to identify each sound separately. A large number of manner contrasts are produced by interfering in different ways with the egressive pulmonic airstream that we use most of the time when speaking. This is the case in most languages...
eBook - ePub- Patricia Ashby(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...4 Manner of Articulation The places of articulation identified in Chapter 3 are approached in different ways by the active articulators, the different gestures producing different sound effects – different manners of articulation. Manners combine with voice and place to create individual speech sounds. Double articulations, and primary and secondary articulations are also introduced in this chapter, completing the range of terms needed to construct Voice-Place-Manner (VPM) labels. Ways of representing sounds are discussed (transcriptions, labels, diagrams), and instrumental-imaging of speech sounds (waveforms and spectrograms) introduced. 4.1 DIRECTING AIRFLOW 4.1.1 Oral, nasal and nasalized airflow In the previous chapter, we saw that when the egressive pulmonic airstream reaches the top of the pharynx there is a choice of direction. This choice is determined by the position of the velum. The default position of the velum in speech production is closed, forming velic closure (image (a) in Figure 4.1). Here, the velum is in the raised/closed position, directing all the air through the oral cavity and preventing access to the nasal cavity. This is the position of the velum for ‘plosive’, ‘fricative’ and the norm realization of ‘approximant’ consonants (all manners of articulation, described in detail below, and which appear in the vertical axis of the pulmonic consonant matrix on the IPA chart).These are oral speech sounds. Figure 4.1 (a) Oral (b) nasal and (c) nasalized airflow. When the velum is lowered/open, however, two further possibilities arise. Provided there is a complete obstruction to the airflow somewhere in the oral cavity (see image (b) in Figure 4.1, for example, where the lips are closed producing bilabial [m]), although the air can still enter the oral cavity, it cannot escape that way and instead, flows over the lowered velum to escape via the nasal cavity...
eBook - ePubSpeech Sound Disorders in Children
Articulation & Phonological Disorders
- John E Bernthal, Nicholas W Bankson, Peter Flipsen(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Brookes Publishing(Publisher)
...The manner of consonant articulation refers to the degree or type of closure, and the place of consonant articulation refers to the location of the constriction. In addition, consonants are described as voiced when the vocal folds are vibrating and voiceless when the vocal folds are not vibrating. Thus, an individual consonant can be specified by using three terms: one to describe voicing, one to describe place, and one to describe manner. Tables 2.2 and 2.3 show combinations of these terms used to specify the consonants of English. Table 2.3. Classification of consonants by place and voicing within manner Table 2.2 contains four columns, showing place of articulation, phonetic symbol and key word, Manner of Articulation, and voicing. The terms for place of articulation usually signify two opposing structures that accomplish a localized constriction of the vocal tract. In the definitions that follow, notice the two structures involved for the place terms: Bilabial: two lips (bi = two and labia = lip) Labial/velar: lips, and a constriction between the dorsum or back of the tongue and the velum Labiodental: lower lip and upper teeth Linguadental or interdental: tip of tongue and upper teeth (lingua = tongue) Linguaalveolar: tip of tongue and the alveolar ridge Linguapalatal: blade of tongue and palatal area behind the alveolar ridge Linguavelar: dorsum or back of tongue and roof of mouth in the velar area Glottal: the two vocal folds Each of these places of articulation is discussed more fully on the next several pages. To get a feeling for these different places of consonant articulation, concentrate on the first sounds in each word as you say the sequence pie, why, vie, thigh, tie, shy, guy, hi...
eBook - ePubPronunciation for English as an International Language
From research to practice
- Ee-Ling Low(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Example: /h/ as in the word hat. The third dimension in providing a full description of consonants has to do with the Manner of Articulation. This refers to the way in which the air escapes in order to produce a particular consonant. The main manners of articulation in the production of English consonants are given below: Stops : This refers to the complete closure of the articulators such that air cannot escape through the mouth. In English, there are two types of stops: Nasal stops (nasals): Where the velum is lowered and air cannot escape through the mouth and must therefore escape through the nose. Examples: /m, n, ɧ/ as in the words man (initial), nun (initial) and king (final). Oral stops (plosives): There is a build-up of air and sudden release (rather like a mini explosion, hence the name plosives). Examples: /p, t, k, b, d, g/ as in the words pick, take, cake, big, dig and good. Fricatives : Sounds are produced via close approximation of two articulators so that airstream is partially obstructed and turbulence results. The name is derived from the close approximation of articulators causing partial friction, hence the name fricatives. Examples: /f, v, s, z, ʃ, Ʒ/ as in the words five, can, sick, zero, sheep and genre. Approximants : One articulator is close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed so there is no resulting turbulence. Examples: /j, w, r/ as in the words yacht, wake and rake. Lateral approximant : Incomplete closure between one or both sides of tongue and roof of mouth. Example: /l/ as in the word lamp. Table 2.1 shows the place and manner of English consonants. Using the table, it is easy to give the full three-term label classification for consonants just by referring to it. Some important points to note: the voicing of the consonants is indicated by whether the consonant is left or right justified within the column...
eBook - ePubPhonetics
Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception
- Henning Reetz, Allard Jongman(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...4 Place and Manner of Articulation of Consonants and Vowels In Chapter 3, we described the English consonants in terms of voicing, place of articulation, and Manner of Articulation. We also described the English vowels in terms of frontness, height, and lip rounding. This use of different dimensions in the description of consonants and vowels suggests that the articulation of these two classes of sounds has little in common. However, the articulatory description of both consonants and vowels is largely based on location of constriction (“place of articulation” in consonants, “frontness” in vowels) and degree of constriction (“Manner of Articulation” in consonants, “height” in vowels). It is therefore reasonable to use the terms place and Manner of Articulation in the description of both consonants and vowels. The speech sounds of English form a subset of all the speech sounds that have been documented across the languages of the world. Currently, it is estimated that there are approximately 6,000–7,000 languages in the world. However, many of these languages are spoken by only a few native speakers and are in danger of disappearing. Nevertheless, all languages are equally valuable. The fact that only a few people speak a particular language does not mean that this language is “strange” or “unnatural” – it is simply a consequence of historical (political or economic) developments. It has recently been estimated that more than half of all languages that are currently spoken will be extinct a hundred years from now. Fortunately, the languages that have been documented so far provide us with a rich inventory of speech sounds used throughout the world. The IPA chart on the last page of this book shows the inventory of IPA symbols that are available to transcribe many sounds of the world’s languages. It is clear that there are a large number of non-English sounds in other languages that we have not covered in the previous chapter on English consonants and vowels...
eBook - ePubPhonetics
The Science of Speech
- Martin J Ball, Joan Rahilly(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...If it is held more than a few milliseconds at this position the sound would change, and be heard as a [d]. The semi-vowel approximant type of sonorant consonant (e.g. [w] and [j]), if pronounced for more than a very brief period will sound like a vowel (for example [w] will sound like [u] in ‘bl ue ’). This is because the articulators are in the position for the relevant vowel, and the semi-vowel itself is a rapid movement from this vowel position to the position of the following sound. Manner of Articulation —————————————— Having considered the path of the airflow through the oral and/or nasal cavities, whether the air escapes centrally or laterally, and whether sounds can be prolongable, we need now to examine how the individual sounds are made. In the production of individual sounds we are often interested in the articulators that are used. Normally, any sound can be thought of as being produced by the coming together of two articulators: one is often passive (e.g. the roof of the mouth) while the other is active (e.g. the tip of the tongue). In some instances both articulators may be active (e.g. the two lips). We are also interested in how close together the articulators come, and this is termed the degree of stricture. Two parameters can be employed to look at how sounds are articulated: the sound type (Manner of Articulation), and the sound position (place of articulation). We will examine Manner of Articulation in this section. Unless otherwise stated, a pulmonic egressive airflow is assumed in the following descriptions. Also, sound types should be assumed prolongable, unless it is noted that they are momentary. Figure 3.3 illustrates different manners of articulation: both prolongable and momentary. Categories of Manner of Articulation are based on the size of the air passage during the production of the sound. Looked at in another way, this corresponds to the degree of stricture between the articulators concerned...
