Place of Articulation | Articulatory Gestures

What are Articulatory Gestures?

In order to fully describe a sound mechanism of a language, we need to know about moments by articulators during the speech production. The movement of articulators is known as articulatory gestures. Let us explore major articulatory gestures in English language sounds system.

There are two types of articulators that play part in sound production: Active articulators and Passive articulators.

Active articulators include: Active articulators are those that have mobility and can move to change a sound. The active articulators are the tongue, the lower lip, the uvula (free-hanging end of the soft palate), and the glottis (space between the vocal cords)

Passive articulators include: Passive articulators are those that have no mobility and cannot move to produce a sound but they rely on active articulators and by their help they shape sounds. The passive articulators are the upper lip, the upper teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), and the pharyngeal wall.

Places of Articulation

Place of articulation is the term used for describing the position of articulatory gestures or speech organs when they shape a specific sound. For example, when two lips come close enough so that there is no air passage, they help to produce sound like /m/ /b/ and /p/; known as bilabial sound due to the movement of both lips. In simple words,  the location at which two speech organs/articulators approach or come together in producing a speech sound, as in the contact of the tip of the tongue and upper teeth in sound of word “thanks”.

There are eight places of articulation used to distinguish consonant sounds in English language. The main places of articulation are: bilabial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, velar, and glottal.

Bilabial

This is one of the simplest points of articulation.  A bilabial consonant sound is made with two lips e.g. /b/, /m/ and /p/ and happens or occurs when we block/constrict airflow out of the mouth by bringing both lips together.

Examples of bilabial sounds in words are:

·         /b/ sound as in “bar” and “tab”

·         /m/ sound as in “match” and “claim”

·         /p/ sound as in “pure” and “cap”

Labio-Dental

The labio-dental sound is produced with the upper teeth and inner lower lip for example /v/, /f/ as in ‘vine and feel’. Labio-dental consonants occur when we block/constrict airflow by curling your lower lip back and raising it to touch your upper row of teeth.

Examples of labio-dental sounds in words are:

·         /f/ sound as in “from” and “half“

·         /v/ sound as in “vile” and “save”

Dental

The dental sound is produced by the tip of the tongue or blade and upper front teeth. Dental sounds occur when we block/constrict airflow by placing tip of the tongue on or near the inner surface of the upper teeth. For example, when we say words like thigh, thy; we feel that first sound in each of these words to be dental.

Examples of dental sounds in words are:

·         /θ/ sound as is “thick” and “think“

·         /ð/ sound as in “then” and “the”

Alveolar

The alveolar sound is made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge (The alveolar ridge is where teeth meet gums) . When we pronounce words such as tie, lie, die, zoo, we place tip of the tongue or the blade of the tongue on alveolar ridge for the first sound in each of these words. Simply, we create Alveolar sounds when we raise tongue to the alveolar ridge to constrict or block airflow. There are 6 alveolar sounds that are: /n/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /l/.

Examples of alveolar sounds in words are:

·         /d/ sound as in “disk” and “pad“

·         /l/ sound as in “love” and “pull”

·         /n/ sound as in “no” and “can“

·         /s/ sound as in “suit” and “thus“

·         /t/ sound as in “tap” and “cat“

·         /z/ sound as in “zeal” and “jazz“

 Post-Alveolar

Post-alveolar sound is produced when we place the tongue blade at the back of the alveolar ridge. Post-alveolar sounds occur when the tongue blocks or constricts airflow at the back of the alveolar ridge. There are four post-alveolar sounds in English Language, that include ‘sh’, ‘s’, ‘ch’, and  ‘j’.

Examples of post-alveolar sounds in words are:

·         /ʃ/ sound as in “shock” or “crash”  

·         /ʒ/ sound as in “vision” or “pleasure”

·         /tʃ/ sound as in “chicken” or “batch”  

·         /dʒ/ sound as in “jar” or “bridge“

Retroflex:

Retroflex sound is produced with the tip of the tongue curled against the back of the alveolar ridge toward the hard palate. In English [s] sound in “pleasure” is retroflex sound. Many English speakers do not use retroflex sounds but it is common in Indo-Pak languages such as Urdu, Hindi and other regional languages.

Palatal

The roof of our mouth is a sensitive area that is called hard palate or palatal area. Palatal sound is produced with blade of the tongue and the hard palate such as /j/ sound id word ‘yes’. In English sounds, there is only one palatal sound: a sound between j and y that is the sound of /j/, as in words “Yes” and “You”.

Examples of post-alveolar sounds in words are:

·         /j/ sound as in words “you” and “yearn”

Velar

The area behind the hard palate is called soft palate or velum. This part is soft therefore it is called soft palate. For pronunciation of some words we raise our back of tongue towards soft palate to create a sound that is called velar sounds.

Examples of velar sounds in words are:

·         /ŋ/ sound as in “going”

·         /k/ sound as in “kill” and “sack“

·         /g/ sound as in “goal” and “dig“

·         /w/ sound as in “wet”

Glottal

This is the point of articulation where tongue plays no role. Glottal sound is produced by air passing from the windpipe through the vocal cords as /h/ sound in word ‘hi’.  The glottis is actually two vocal folds (i.e. vocal cords) that act like a bottle cap to windpipe. To produce a glottal sound, both vocal folds are brought together; as in the case of [ʔ] and [h] in many languages. Glottal consonants aren’t consonants but they just play roles of consonant in English language.

Examples of glottal sounds in words are:

·         /h/ as in “hi” and “Bahamas.” 

// as in a phrase “I do part-time job” in the phrase, the /t/ in “part” is dropped and the vowel sound before it is closed at the glottis.