_Phonetics

Consonant sounds

As you have learned already, all English sounds are made by pushing air out of the lungs (pulmonic egressive air-stream) and along the vocal tract, which can change in size and shape: your mouth, tongue, throat, vocal chords, etc..

Source of the picture: wikipedia.org

Using the features place and manner of articulation, we describe (mainly consonant) sounds, based on what organs are doing the constricting or changing of the air. In this chapter, we will combine the descriptive features you have come across so far to categorize and to describe consonant sounds as precisely as possible.

Distinction between consonants and vowels Consonant and vowels are the two broad categories that we can appoint to the different sounds of a language. Before moving on to see, how these two classes can be defined seperately, let's have a look at the genereal differences between consonants and vowels.

Classifying consonants This subchapter focuses on bringing together the different features that we can use in order to describe consonant sounds. Have a look at how Voicing, Place and Manner of articulation are combined to make classification simple.