3 - Place of articulation

Summary

CHAPTER OUTLINE

In this chapter you will learn about: active and passive articulators; complex articulation; instrumental techniques for investigating place of articulation; the anatomy of the vocal tract; the concept of articulation; the main places of articulation for consonant sounds.

KEY TERMS

1. Active articulator

2. Articulation

3. Double articulation

4. Passive articulator

5. Place of articulation

6. Vocal tract

Introduction

In this chapter we shall look at one of the features used to describe the production of consonant sounds. In Chapter 2 we saw that consonants can differ in voicing. So, for example, [p] is voiceless and [b] is voiced, [s] is voiceless and [z] is voiced, and so on. However, it is fairly easy to see that [p] and [b], for instance, have quite a lot in common. If you say the English words pat and bat while looking in a mirror you will see that the first thing you do for each word is close your lips. It isn't so easy with [s] and [z], but you may be able to feel that for both these sounds the tip of your tongue gets very close to the roof of your mouth not far behind your upper front teeth. Try saying Sue and zoo, making the first consonant very long. The topic of this chapter is where in the vocal tract consonants are produced.