Place of Articulation

The term place of articulation, as discussed in the last section, classifies speech sounds in terms of where in the vocal tract the shape of the vocal tract is altered. In this section, we will present the major places of articulation.

Bilabial

Bilabial sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the lips against each other. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: [b], [p], [m].

Labiodental

Labiodental sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the upper teeth towards the lower lip. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: [f], [v].

Interdental

Interdental sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tongue between the teeth. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: , .

Dental

Dental sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tip of the tongue towards the back of the teeth. Such sounds are not present in Standard American English, but in some Chicano English dialects and certain Brooklyn dialects, the sounds [t] and [d] are pronounced with a dental articulation.

Alveolar

Alveolar sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tip of the tongue towards the alveolar ridge, the ridge of cartilage behind the teeth. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l], .

Alveopalatal

Alveopalatal sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the front of the tongue towards the area between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: , , , .

Palatal

Palatal sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the body of the tongue towards the hard palate. An example of such a sound in English is [j].

Velar

Velar sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the body of the tongue towards the velum. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: [k], [g], .

Uvular

Uvular sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the back of the tongue towards the uvula. Uvular sounds do not exist in English, but the French "r" is pronounced by the uvular sounds and .

Pharyngeal

Pharyngeal sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tongue root towards the back of the pharynx. Pharyngeal sounds do not exist in Standard American English, but are found in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Glottal

Glottal sounds are those sounds made at the glottis. Examples of glottal sounds in English are the following: , .

On the next page is a diagram that illustrates all the places of articulation.

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© 2001 The Language Samples Project