Basic Concepts
What are the three main criteria used to classify English consonants?
Place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing.
Which consonants are produced when both lips come together?
Bilabial consonants: /p/, /b/, and /m/.
Which consonants are produced by completely blocking the airflow and then releasing it?
Plosives (stops), such as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /ɡ/.
What is the main difference between voiced and voiceless consonants?
Voiced consonants involve vocal-fold vibration; voiceless consonants do not.
What is the place of articulation of /k/ in the word cat?
Velar: the back of the tongue contacts the soft palate.
Why can the same consonant be described using three different classification criteria?
Because place, manner, and voicing describe different aspects of how the consonant is produced.
What is the difference between dental and alveolar consonants in English?
Dental consonants involve the tongue and upper teeth, as in /θ/ and /ð/. Alveolar consonants involve the tongue and alveolar ridge, as in /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/.
How are affricates different from ordinary plosives?
Affricates begin with complete closure and release into a period of friction; plosives release the closure without a sustained fricative phase.
Explain the difference between /p/ and /b/ using the concepts of voicing and place of articulation.
Both are bilabial plosives, but /p/ is voiceless and /b/ is voiced.
Classify /ŋ/ in the word sing according to place, manner, and voicing.
Voiced velar nasal.
Two consonants have the same place and manner of articulation but differ in voicing. What does this tell us about their classification?
They share the same place and manner but differ in whether the vocal folds vibrate.
A student produces /k/ by placing the tongue tip against the upper teeth. What is wrong with the articulation?
/k/ is velar, so the back of the tongue should contact or approach the soft palate, not the upper teeth.
Classify /tʃ/ by its manner of articulation and explain how it is produced.
It is an affricate: it begins with complete closure and releases into friction.
A student pronounces fan and van but does not distinguish the initial consonants by voicing. What should the student change?
Produce /f/ without vocal-fold vibration and /v/ with vocal-fold vibration.
Identify the place, manner, and voicing of /ð/ in the word this.
Voiced dental fricative.
🕵️ I am a speech sound produced when the airflow is completely blocked and then released. Who am I?
A plosive.
👄 I need both lips to produce me. You can hear me at the beginning of pen. Who am I?
/p/ — a bilabial consonant.
I make a hissing sound in sun. Air passes through a narrow space. What type of consonant am I?
/s/ — a fricative.
Put your hand on your throat. Say /s/, then /z/. Which sound makes your vocal folds vibrate?
/z/ — a voiced consonant.
I am the first sound in think. My tongue is near the upper teeth, and I am voiceless. What is my IPA symbol?
/θ/ — a voiceless dental fricative.