Describing consonants: the articulatory system, place and manner - American accent

8 important questions on Describing consonants: the articulatory system, place and manner - American accent

What are the four pairs of voiceless and voiced fricatives in English and their articulatory locations?

English has four pairs of fricatives:
  1. /f/ and /v/:
    • Lower lip touches upper incisors
    • Airstream forced through the gap
  2. /θ/ and /ð/:
    • Tongue sides seal against side teeth
    • Airstream through gap between tongue tip and upper incisors
  3. /s/ and /z/:
    • Airstream through gap between tongue tip/blade and alveolar ridge
    • Sides of tongue seal against upper side teeth
  4. /h/:
    • Airstream forced through vocal tract
    • Friction at the glottis

What are the voiceless and voiced fricatives produced with the lower lip and upper incisors?

Fricatives produced with the lower lip and upper incisors include:
  1. Voiceless: /f/
  2. Voiced: /v/
  • Airstream is forced through a gap.

Describe the articulation of the fricatives /θ/ and /ð/.

These fricatives are articulated as follows:
  1. Sides of the tongue seal against side teeth
  2. Airstream forced through the gap between tongue tip and upper incisors.

/θ/ = voiceless
/ð/ = voiced
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How are the fricatives /s/ and /z/ produced in the mouth?

The production involves:
  1. Airstream forced through a gap between tongue tip/blade and alveolar ridge
  2. Sides of the tongue seal against upper side teeth
  3. Secondary articulation with lip rounding.

What is no rule al the fricatives have?

Each fricative is accompanied by the raising of the soft palate, forming a velic closure blocking the entrance to the nasal cavity.

Fricatives can be divided between sibilants and non-sibilant fricatives, what is it and which belong to which group?

Sibilants; the tongue is in a longtidinal grooved shape. Grooving of the tongue channels teh airstream into a jet that becomes turbulent and nosiy when it strikes obstruction furthe rin the mouth. Sibilants are louder than non-sibilants. /s z ʃ ʒ/

Non-sibilants; have a flatter tongue shape; the turbulence and noise is generated at the stricture itself.
In the case of the English voiced non-sibilants, /v/ and /ð/, there’s often very little fricative noise, and the difference between them and their approximant equivalents can be very slight.  /f v θ ð h/

What are the two ways to pronounce the W in English?

There are two pronunciations of W in English:
  1. As a voiced labial-velar approximant
    • Example: /w/ in "won" and "what"
  2. As a glide from a vowel position
    • Example: Glide from [u] or [ʊ]

How is the sound /w/ characterized in English pronunciation?

The sound /w/ is defined by:
  1. A voiced labial-velar approximant.
  2. Double articulation involving:
    • Velar approximant
    • Labial approximant
  3. Found in words like "won" and "what".

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