Hi everyone. In this video you'll learn about place,
manner, and voicing for the American English consonants.
In a previous video I talked about the International Phonetic Alphabet for the
American English consonants. If you haven't seen that video, I'd suggest that you go back and watch
it first before you watch this one. As a quick review, the IPA is organized into three areas:
place, manner, and voicing. And today I want to go more in depth with each of these areas and discuss
the consonants that fall under each category. Take a look at the IPA chart so you can see how
it's organized. Place refers to where that sound is made. You'll see that American English has
eight places where sounds are made, starting with bilabial and ending with glottal. These
places correspond to a location in the mouth or throat, so a bilabial is made at the front of the
mouth and a glottal is made back in the throat. So you can think of these places as moving from front
to back. Let's review each one. Bilabial means both lips. English has four bilabials: P, B, M,
and W. These sounds are all made with both lips - that is the place of articulation.
Labiodental means lip to teeth. English has two labiodental sounds: F and V. To make these sounds,
you bring your lower lip up to your upper teeth, so labio to dental, labiodental.
Lingua-dental means tongue to teeth. English has two lingua-dental sounds: TH and TH,
the TH sounds. To make these sounds, you place your tongue between your teeth. Alveolar refers
to the bumpy ridge just behind your front teeth on the roof of your mouth. This is
where the tongue either touches or comes close to touching when the sound is made. The alveolar
ridge is a popular place of articulation. English has seven alveolar sounds: T, D, S,
Z, N, L, and R. Post-alveolar means the tongue is behind the alveolar ridge when you make these
sounds. English has four post-alveolar sounds: SH, ZH, CH, and J. Palatal means the tongue goes to
the middle part of the roof of the mouth when you make this sound. English has one palatal sound: Y.
Velar refers to the back of the mouth or the soft part of the roof of the mouth,
and that is where the tongue goes when you make these sounds. English has four velar sounds: K, G,
NG, and W. W is considered both a bilabial and a velar sound. And lastly is glottal. Glottal refers
to the vocal cords, which are in your throat. The tongue doesn't help with articulating this
sound. Instead it's the vocal cords that make the sound. English has one glottal sound: H. The next
area is called manner, which refers to how the air is released for each sound. Let's go back to
the IPA chart and review manner of articulation. English has six manners of articulation starting
with stops. Stops are made by stopping the airflow somewhere in the vocal tract,
and then releasing a puff of air afterwards. English has six stops: P, B, T, D, K, and G.
Fricatives are sounds that are made by narrowing the vocal tract at some point,
and when the air passes through, you hear a turbulent sound. English has nine
fricatives: F, V, TH, TH, S, Z, SH, ZH, and H. Affricates are a combination of a stop consonant
and a fricative. English has two affricates: CH and J. Nasals are sounds in which the
airflow passes through the nose instead of the mouth. English has three nasals: M, N, and NG.
Liquids are made when the tongue makes a partial closure in the mouth. English has two liquids:
L and R. Glides are similar to liquids, in that the tongue and lips make a partial
closure in the mouth. But with a glide, there is movement in the sound between two places of
articulation. English has two glides: W and Y. Now I'll discuss the concept of voicing,
which refers to vocal cord vibration. Do this quick experiment. Put your hands on
your neck as you say AH. AH. You should feel a buzzy vibration - that is the vocal cords.
Let's go back to the IPA chart to review voicing of consonants. On this chart,
you'll see that there are pairs of symbols in the same box, like the P and B sounds,
but only the B is bolded. That's because the B is voiced - the vocal cords vibrate when you say
this sound. B. But the P is a voiceless sound - no vocal cord vibration, just airflow. P.
The voiced sounds are : B, D, G, V, TH, Z, ZH, J, M, N, NG, L R, W
and Y. The voiceless sounds are: P, T, K, F, TH, S, SH, H, and CH.
Thanks so much for watching, and let me know if you would like some help with place,
matter, and voicing of the American English consonants.