Some part of the mouth prevents air from the lungs to go through freely. There are a few ways to do so. They are listed in decreasing order of strength.
Air is blocked and suddenly released under pressure.
The list starts with the front-most part of the mouth and goes on toward the back. Often we insist on whether the vocal cords are open (voiceless consonant) or vibrate like for a vowel (voiced consonant).
Bilabial | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Dental or Alveolar | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Retroflex | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Palatal | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Velar | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Uvular | voiceless: | (Arabic) | ||
voiced: | (Eskimo) | |||
Glottal: | glottal stop (African languages, Arabic alif, Hawaiian; also heard but not essential in European languages) |
Bilabial: | |||
Labiodental: | |||
Dental, Alveolar or Postalveolar: | |||
Retroflex: | |||
Palatal: | (Spanish ñ, French gn, ...) | ||
Velar: | (heard at the end of ginseng or camping) | ||
Uvular: |
Bilabial: | |||
Alveolar or Postalveolar: | (Spanish, ...) | ||
Uvular: |
Alveolar or Postalveolar: | (trilled r shortened to only one flap) | ||
Retroflex: |
Air is continuously released between parts of the mouth that almost touch each other.
Bilabial | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | (Spanish b and v after letters other than m and n) | |||
Labiodental | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Dental | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Alveolar | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Postalveolar | voiceless: | esh | ||
voiced: | ||||
Retroflex | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Palatal | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Velar | voiceless: | (Spanish j ge, German ch, Slovak ch, ...) | ||
voiced: | ||||
Labial-velar | voiceless: | |||
Uvular | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Pharyngeal | voiceless: | |||
voiced: | ||||
Glottal | voiceless: | |||
voiced: |
Dental or Alveolar | voiceless: | ||
voiced: |
Dental or Alveolar: | |||
Retroflex: | (Norwegian, Manza, Iaai) | ||
Palatal: | (Spanish ll, Italien gli, Slovak) | ||
Velar: |
Labiodental: | |||
Alveolar or Postalveolar: | (English semi-r) | ||
Retroflex: | ? | ||
Palatal: | |||
Labial-palatal: | |||
Velar: | |||
Labial-velar: |
Air is sucked in thanks to the back of the tongue against the soft palate. A front part of the mouth makes the sound.
Bilabial: | like a European hasty kiss (Bushmen) | ||
Dental: | like an interjection expressing annoyance - or banning when doubled (Zulu c, Bushmen, Hottentot) | ||
alveolar, Apico-postalveolar or Retroflex: | the tip of the tongue is used (Bushmen, Hottentot) | ||
Palatoalveolar: | the middle of the tongue is used (Zulu q, Bushmen, Hottentot, Sotho) | ||
Alveolar lateral: | like an interjection meaning 'classy!' or calling a horse - or someone coarsely (Zulu x, Bushmen, Hottentot) |
Air is sucked in with the glottis loosely closed and the larynx lowered.
Bilabial: | ||
Dental or Alveolar: | ||
Palatal: | ||
Velar: | ||
Uvular: |
It is like combining a consonant - usually a voiceless plosive or fricative - with a simultaneous glottal stop. The air pressure is produced with the glottis closed and the larynx raised.
Bilabial: | ||
Dental or Alveolar: | ||
Velar: | ||
Alveolar fricative: | ||
etc. |
...
Close | spread: | ||
rounded: | |||
Close-mid | spread: | ||
rounded: | |||
Open-mid | spread: | ||
rounded: | |||
Almost open | spread: | ||
Open | unrounded: | ||
rounded: |
Almost close | spread: | ||
rounded: |
Close | spread: | |||
rounded: | ||||
Close-mid | unrounded: | |||
rounded: | ||||
Neutral | unrounded: | Schwa (the mouth is relaxed and depends on the surrounding sounds) | ||
Open-mid | unrounded: | |||
rounded: | ||||
Almost open | unrounded: |
Almost close | rounded: |
Close | unrounded: | |||
rounded: | ||||
Close-mid | unrounded: | (Vietnamese, Bafia) | ||
rounded: | ||||
Open-mid | unrounded: | |||
rounded: | ||||
Open | unrounded: | |||
rounded: |
Voiceless: | |||
Voiced: | |||
Aspirated: | a brief voiceless breath going out - a weaker form of the plain h. | ||
Breathy voiced: | |||
Creaky voiced: | |||
More round: | |||
Less round: | |||
Centralized: | |||
Raised: | |||
Lowered: | |||
Advanced tongue root: | |||
Retracted tongue root: | |||
Syllabic: | for consonants | ||
Non-syllabic: | for vowels | ||
Nasalized: | |||
Dental: | |||
Apical: | |||
Laminal: | |||
Palatalized: | |||
Velarized or pharyngealized: |
Stress: | |||
Secondary stress: |
Long: | |||
Half-long: | |||
Extra-short: | (like the non-syllabic modifier for a vowel) |
This is about pitch.
High level: | ||
Low level: | ||
High rising: | ||
High falling: | ||
Low rising: | ||
Low falling: | ||
Rising-falling: | ||
Falling-rising: |
Aspirated consonants are sometimes written with a reversed apostrophe in black. Merrick and Potthoff also suggested a short braille notation - dots 36 - to imitate it. These black and braille notations agree on being confusingly close to other notations. I would rather use the superscript letter h - as I put it in the tables in harmony with the notation for shades.
To be continued...
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