The Production of Speech Sounds
Consonants
Consonants are articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Each
spoken consonant can be distinguished by:
The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant
occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial, labiodentals,
dental, alveolar ,velar etc.
The manner of articulation is how air escapes from the vocal tract when the
consonant or approximant sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, affricate,
liquids and nasals.
The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not
vibrate at all, it is voiceless
Place of Articulation
 Consonants whose main restriction is formed by the two lips coming
together have a bilabial place of articulation. In English these
include [p] as in possum, [b] as in bear, and [m] as in man. The
English labiodental consonants [v] and [f] are made by pressing
the bottom lip against the upper row of teeth and letting the air flow
through the space in the upper teeth. Dental: Sounds that are made
by placing the tongue against the teeth are dentals. The main dentals
in English are the [th] of thing or the [dh] of though, which are made
by placing the tongue behind the teeth with the tip slightly between
the teeth.
 Alveolar: The alveolar ridge is the portion of the roof of the mouth just
behind ALVEOLAR the upper teeth. Most speakers of American English
make the phones [s], [z], [l], [r], [n],[t], and [d] by placing the tip of the
tongue against the alveolar ridge.
 Palatal: The roof of the mouth (the palate) rises sharply from the back of
the alveolar ridge. The palato-alveolar sounds [sh] (shrimp), [ch]
(china), [zh] (Asian), and [jh] (jar) are made with the blade of the tongue
against this rising back of the alveolar ridge. The palatal sound [y] of yak
is made by placing the front of the tongue up close to the palate.
 Velar: The velum or soft palate is a movable muscular flap at the
very back of the roof of the mouth. The sounds [k] (cuckoo), [g] (goose),
and [N] (kingfisher) are made by pressing the back of the tongue up
against the velum.
 Glottal: Glottals are [?] and[h]. They are sounds produced in the glottis.
Manner of Articulation
• All consonants are produced by restriction of airflow
• Manner of Articulation: How the restriction is produced:
– complete or partial stoppage
• A stop is a consonant in which airflow is completely blocked for a short time.
• This blockage is followed by an explosive sound as the air is released. The period of
blockage is called the closure and the explosion is called the release.
• English has voiced stops like [b], [d], and [g] as well as unvoiced stops like [p], [t], and [k].
• Stops are also called plosives.
•
Nasal sounds [n], [m], and [ng] are made by lowering the velum and allowing air to pass
into the nasal cavity.
• Fricatives, airflow is constricted but not cut off completely. The turbulent airflow that
results from the constriction produces a characteristic “hissing” sound.
– The English labiodental fricatives [f] and [v] are produced by pressing the lower lip against
the upper teeth, allowing a restricted airflow between the upper teeth. The dental fricatives
[th] and [dh] allow air to flow around the tongue between the teeth.
fricatives [s] and [z] are produced with the tongue against the
alveolar ridge, forcing air over the edge of the teeth.
– In the palato-alveolar fricatives [sh] and [zh] the tongue is at the back of
the alveolar ridge forcing air through a groove formed in the tongue.
– The alveolar
The higher-pitched fricatives (in English [s], [z], [sh] and [zh]) are called sibilants
Stops that are followed immediately by fricatives are called affricates; these include
English [ch] (chicken) and [tsh] .
• In approximants, the two articulators are close together but not close enough to cause
turbulent airflow. In English [y] (yellow), the tongue moves close to the roof of the mouth but
not close enough to cause the turbulence that would characterize a fricative.
• In English [w] (wood), the back of the tongue comes close to the velum.
• American [r] can be formed in at least two ways; with just the tip of the tongue extended and
close to the palate or with the whole tongue bunched up near the palate.
[l] is formed with the tip of the tongue up against the alveolar ridge or the teeth, with one or both
sides of the tongue lowered to allow air to flow over it. [l] is called a lateral sound because of the
drop in the sides of the tongue.
 Nasals :
[m] , [n] and [ng].
Vowels
 Monophthongs
 Diphthongs
 Triphthongs
CLOSE (HIGH)
BACK
OPEN (LOW)
9
Phonemes vs. Allophones
An allophone is a predictable phonetic variant
of a phoneme
The phonetic alternation between a phoneme and its
allophone is rule-governed.
Symbols:
/i/: slashes to enclose phonemes.
[ĩ]: square brackets for allophones.
Complementary distribution
Allophones of the same phoneme will occur separately in
different phonological contexts. This is the so called in
complementary distribution. For example, the nasal vowels
occur before nasal consonants while oral vowels occur in
syllable-final position and non-nasal (or oral consonants)
position. So, nasal and oral vowels are in complementary
distribution.
Complementary Distribution
When two or more sounds of the same phoneme never
occur in the same phonemic context or environment, they
are said to be in complementary distribution.
Distribution of phoneme /t/:
[tip]: syllable initial
[stip]: after [s]
[letr]: between a stressed V
and another V
For instance:
pie
tick
can
spy
stick
scan
[ph, th, kh]: syllable initial
[p, t, k]: non syllable initial
Phonemes and Allophones again
 A set of allophones are the allophones of the same phoneme if:
 they never contrast;
 are in complementary distribution;
 are phonetically similar;
 are predictable realizations of a phoneme in a particular local phonetic
environment.
 Phonemes are abstract.
Phoneme
Allophone
/ /
[ ][ ]
PHONEMES
ALLOPHONES
rat
cot
cap
cat
cat
cat
stop top
milk lip
cold code
Identifying Phonemes
1.Minimal Pair Test
2.Contrast in analogous environments
3.Suspicious pairs
4.Recapitulation
How can we tell whether a sound is a phoneme or an
allophone?
Minimal pairs
cat
cat
cat
rat
cot
cap
ræt
kot
kæp
kæt
kæt
kæt
2.Contrast in analogous environments
 sometimes it is not possible to find minimal pairs contrasting each single
phoneme. In such circumstances, the phonologist has to settle for
something
less
rigorous:
CONTRAST
IN
ANALOGOUS
ENVIRONMENTS.
 Example: We can regard /f/ and /v/ as separate phonemes in Ewe because
they contrast in analogous environments in words like [evlo] 'he is evil'
and [efle] 'he split off ([e] symbolizes a nasalised [e] vowel). The
difference between nasalised [e] on the one hand and oral [e] and [o] on
the other cannot be the reason for the difference between voiceless [f] and
voiced [v] since nasal [e] as well as oral [e] and [o] are all voiced and
should not affect in different ways the voicing of neighbouring sounds.
3.Suspicious pairs
A practising phonologist can normally safely assume that sounds like [n]
and [x] or [f] and [p] which show no phonetic resemblance are distinct
phonemes. As a rule, methods for determining whether or not sounds
belong to the same phoneme are only employed where SUSPICIOUS PAIRS
have been identified, that is to say, pairs of words containing sounds which
only differ slightly and which can plausibly be members of the same
phoneme.
4.Recapitulation
 Hence sounds that are physically different may be regarded as functionally
the same in particular language. For example, speakers of English who
are not linguists are unlikely to be aware of the variety of allophones of /t/
which we noted above; they are only likely to be interested in knowing
whether a word contains /t/ as opposed to some other phoneme – they
will only want to know whether the word uttered by their interlocutor is
cart or card, tin or thin etc.

What is phonological symmetry?
 Phonological symmetry is the even distribution of phonemes throughout the
articulatory possibilities of a given language.
 The inventory of sounds in a given language tends to be symmetrical. Sounds
tend to be spread out evenly throughout the articulatory possibilities of a
language.
 The symmetrical patterning of phonemes in language makes the following
easier:
1- Differences between sounds are most easily perceived when 
sounds are distributed uniformly in the articulatory space (place and manner of o
the extremes of articulatory space are used (particularly for vowels). articulation), and
It is more efficient to use the same place of articulation or manner of o
articulation repeatedly.
Symmetry
 Consonant systems are symmetrical in their points of articulation, and
manners of articulation.
A symmetrical consonant system is one in which the following occur:
1.Phones with the same points of articulation are repeated using several different
manners of articulation.
Example: For each voiceless plosive there is a corresponding voiced plosive (for
example, [t] and [d]).
2.Phones with the same manners of articulation are repeated using several
different points of articulation.
Example: Nasal consonants occur at some of the same points of articulation as
other plosives, fricatives, or affricates (for example, [m], [n], [N])
Symmetrical Vs Asymmetrical Systems