The speech sounds in English are broadly divided into two kinds namely, vowels and consonants.
Vowel
It is a speech sound in the production of which the air from the lungs is allowed on a free passage. /i:/
Consonant
It is a speech sound in the production of which the air from the lungs is not allowed on a free passage. In other words, it is obstructed in some place. This obstruction to the air from the lungs is technically called stricture. The place where the obstruction takes place is called the place of articulation.
Places of Articulation
- Bi-labial – which is between the two lips /p, b/
- Labio-dental – lip and teeth, between the lower lip and the upper front teeth /f, v/
- Dental – which is between the tongue and the upper front teeth / θ as in thick, ð as in this/
- Alveolar – between the tongue and the alveolar ridge /t, d/
- Palato-alveolar – between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate with the movement of the tongue from the alveolar ridge towards the hard palate / ʃ as in ship, ʒ as in vision/
- Palatal – between the tongue and the palate /i, j/
- Velar – between soft palate and tongue /k, g/
- Glottal – between the vocal cords – /h/
Manner of Articulation
- Plosive – In this kind of articulation, the air from the lungs is completely stopped at certain point. When it is released suddenly the air comes out with a plosion, e.g. /p, b/
- Affricate – The air from the lungs is completely stopped at some point. When the air released rather slowly the air comes out with an audible friction. E.g. / ʈʃ as in check, dʒ as in jungle/. Both are called stop consonants.
- Fricative – A flexible organ of speech moves very close to a fixed organ of speech leaving a very narrow space between them. The air from the lung goes out through this narrow space producing an audible friction. e.g. /s, z/
- Lateral – A flexible organ of speech is in contact with fixed organ of speech. On the sides of the point of contact there are gaps through which the lung air passes. E.g. /l/
- Nasal – The soft palate is lowered sufficiently so that the mouth passage is completely closed. All the air from the lung goes out only through the nose (nasal passage), e.g. /m, n, ŋ /
- Flap – A movable or a flexible organ of speech executes (produces) a single tap against a fixed organ of speech. E.g. /ri:d/
- Roll – A flexible organ of speech executes a series of taps against a fixed organ of speech. E.g. /tri:/ tree