The speech sounds in English are broadly divided into two kinds namely, vowels and consonants.
Vowel
A vowel is a speech sound produced by the air from the lungs allowed to pass freely. /i:/ eg: feet.
Consonant
A consonant is a speech sound formed when air from the lungs is not allowed to pass freely. In other words, the speech sound is obstructed. 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/ eg: pit, bit - Labio-dental
– lip and teeth, between the lower lip and the upper front teeth /f, v/ eg: five, veil - Dental
– which is between the tongue and the upper front teeth / θ as in
thick, ð as in this/θ, ð/ eg: (th sound)thin, (dh sound)that - Alveolar
– between the tongue and the alveolar ridge /t, d/ eg: tail, dog - 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/ eg: / ʃ , ʒ / sharp, treasure - Palatal – between the tongue and the palate /i,
j/ eg: pin, yard - Velar – between soft palate and tongue /k, g/ eg: kite, goat
- Glottal – between the vocal cords – /h/ eg: hill
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/ eg: pit, bit - 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
– It’s a flexible organ of speech in contact with a fixed organ of speech. On the
sides of the point of contact, there are gaps through which the lung air passes.
E.g. /l/ lion - Nasal
– It’s the soft palate that is lowered sufficiently so that the mouth passage is
completely closed. All the air from the lungs goes out only through the nose
(nasal passage), e.g. /m, n, ŋ / mind, nose, sing - Flap –
A movable or a flexible organ of speech executes (produces) a single tap
against a fixed organ of speech. E.g. /ri:d/ read - Roll
– A flexible organ of speech executes a series of taps against a fixed organ of
speech. E.g. /tri:/ tree