How Speech Is Made
Phonetics and the IPA
Course 1 · Chapter 2 · How Speech Is Made
Every symbol in the IPA stands for a particular way of using the body. To read the chart, you first need to know what the body is doing. This chapter walks through the machinery from the lungs to the lips, and gives you a short set of experiments to try on yourself.
Step 1: The Airstream
Almost all speech is powered by the lungs pushing air outwards. Wikipedia's article on articulatory phonetics describes three "pistons" that can move air: the lungs (a pulmonic airstream, used in all human languages), the larynx (glottalic), and the body of the tongue (velaric, used for clicks). The last two appear in a few languages and in some sounds of a few more; Chapter 4 introduces them. For now, take the lungs as the default.
Step 2: The Larynx and Voicing
The air passes up the windpipe into the larynx, which holds the vocal folds. The opening between them is the glottis.
| Glottis | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Folds close together | Air passing through makes them vibrate | voiced: all normal vowels, and consonants such as [z] and [b] |
| Folds apart | Air passes through without vibration | voiceless: consonants such as [s] and [p] |
Try it
Put your fingers on your Adam's apple (the front of the throat) and say [z], then [s]. You feel a buzz in [z] and none in [s]. The two sounds are made in the same place and the same way; the only difference is voicing.
| Voiceless | Voiced | Word pair |
|---|---|---|
| [p] | [b] | pin / bin |
| [t] | [d] | ten / den |
| [k] | [ɡ] | coat / goat |
| [f] | [v] | fan / van |
| [s] | [z] | sip / zip |
Step 3: The Vocal Tract
Above the glottis the air enters the pharynx (the throat), then the oral cavity (the mouth) or the nasal cavity (the nose), and leaves. The shape of this passage decides which sound you hear.
Oral and nasal
The velum, or soft palate, works like a valve. When it is raised, air goes through the mouth only: oral sounds. When it is lowered, air also escapes through the nose: nasal sounds, such as [m] and [n], and nasalised vowels. Try it: hold your nose and say [m], then [s]. The [m] stops (the air has nowhere to go); the [s] is unaffected.
Active and passive articulators
A consonant is made by narrowing or closing the airway at some point. The part that moves is the active articulator; the part it approaches or touches is the passive articulator.
| Active (moves) | Passive (stays) |
|---|---|
| lower lip | upper lip, upper teeth |
| front of the tongue (tip, blade) | alveolar ridge (the bump behind the upper teeth), the area just behind it |
| body of the tongue | hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula |
| root of the tongue | back wall of the pharynx, epiglottis |
| glottis (the folds themselves) | (none) |
Run your tongue tip from the back of your top teeth backwards: you meet the ridge, then the hard bony roof, then a soft area. That order is exactly the order of the places of articulation on the chart.
A Map of the Places of Articulation
The place of articulation names where the constriction is made. Going from front to back, with the chart symbol that Wikipedia gives as the example for each:
| Group | Place | Symbol | Active + passive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | bilabial | [p] | both lips |
| labiodental | [f] | lower lip + upper teeth | |
| Coronal | dental | [θ] | tongue tip or blade + teeth |
| alveolar | [t] | tongue tip or blade + alveolar ridge | |
| postalveolar | [ʃ] | tongue blade + area behind the ridge | |
| retroflex | [ʈ] | tongue tip curled back | |
| Dorsal | palatal | [c] | tongue body + hard palate |
| velar | [k] | tongue body + soft palate | |
| uvular | [q] | tongue body + uvula | |
| Radical | pharyngeal | [ħ] | tongue root + pharynx wall |
| Glottal | glottal | [ʔ] | the glottis itself |
You already use many of these. English has bilabial [p], labiodental [f], dental [θ], alveolar [t], postalveolar [ʃ] and velar [k]. Hungarian ty in tyúk "hen" is the palatal [c]. The glottal stop [ʔ] is the brief closing of the glottis in the catch in the middle of English "uh-oh". Chapter 3 gives full chart rows for these places.
Try It Yourself
Using the finger-on-throat test, sort these English sounds into voiced and voiceless: [s], [z], [f], [v], [ʃ], [ʒ], [θ], [ð]. Check each pair against a word (thin / this, vision / mission).
📄 View solutionName the place of articulation of the first sound in each word: pin, fan, thin, ten, ship, key. Say each slowly and notice which parts touch.
📄 View solutionPinch your nose shut and say mama, then baba, then sasa. Which of the three is changed, and what does that tell you about the velum?
📄 View solutionChapter 2 Quick Reference
- Airstream: pulmonic (lungs) is the default; glottalic and velaric (clicks) are rarer
- Voiced = vocal folds vibrate; voiceless = they do not; all normal vowels are voiced
- Test: fingers on the Adam's apple, [z] buzzes and [s] does not
- Oral sounds: velum raised; nasal sounds: velum lowered
- Active articulators move (lips, tongue); passive ones stay (teeth, ridge, palate, velum, uvula, pharynx)
- Places, front to back: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, glottal