Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each place of articulation to the articulators involved.
- Labiodental
- Alveolar
- Postalveolar
- Velar
- Glottal
- Tongue body against the soft palate
- The vocal folds themselves
- Tongue tip against the ridge behind the teeth
- Tongue blade just behind that ridge
- Lower lip against the upper teeth
Hints
- The five run from the front of the mouth to the larynx.
- The place named after the vocal folds is the last.
Show the answer
- Labiodental → Lower lip against the upper teeth
- Alveolar → Tongue tip against the ridge behind the teeth
- Postalveolar → Tongue blade just behind that ridge
- Velar → Tongue body against the soft palate
- Glottal → The vocal folds themselves
Why
Learning them in front-to-back order is worth the effort, because consonant charts are laid out that way universally, once the order is automatic, an unfamiliar chart in an unfamiliar language becomes readable at a glance.
Practise Classifying Consonants
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Languages I is free to start.
More questions on Classifying Consonants
- Why is the label "voiceless alveolar plosive" a set of instructions rather than a name?
- Arrange these manners of articulation from the most complete obstruction of the airstream to the least.
- How many places of articulation does English use for its consonants?
- Roughly what percentage of the world's languages have dental fricatives like the two th sounds of English?
- Which are true of approximants?
- Complete the classification.
- A student assumes that because /m/ and /p/ are both bilabial consonants, the vocal tract is closed entirely…