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FIRST YEARS > Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey > Ling's Classification of Consonants

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The sound is a vowel if the air, once out of the glottis, is allowed to pass relatively¹ freely through the resonators.
The sound is a consonant if the air, once out of the glottis, is obstructed, partially or totally, in one or more places. Voiced consonants contain vocal chord vibration. Unvoiced consonants have no vibration.²

Consonants are classified according to manner of production, place of production, and voicing. The table immediately below (Ling, 1976, p. 259)³ provides a summary. Following that is brief explanation of the salient features.

**Classification of Consonants**
			P L A C E
			FRONT			MIDDLE		BACK
			Bilabial	Labiodental	Linguadental	Alveolar	Palatar	Velar	Glottal
M A N N E R	Plosives/Stops	Unvoiced Voiced	[p] [b]			[t] [d]		[k] [g]
	Fricatives	Unvoiced Voiced		[f] [v]	[] [ð]	[s] [z]	[] []		[h]
	Nasals	Voiced	[m]			[n]		[]
	Semivowels (Approximates)	Voiced	[w]				[j]
	Liquids	Voiced				[l] [r]
	Affricates	Unvoiced Voiced					[t] [d]

Classification of Consonants: Salient Features

Manner: How sounds are made

Plosives	Vocal tract is blocked There is a build-up of air pressure and then the airstream is abruptly released.
Fricatives	Airstream is directed through a narrow constriction in the vocal tract. The air forced through the narrow constriction creates turbulence or friction.
Nasals	Closed vocal tract and open velopharyngeal port Air flows through the nasal cavity.
Affricates	Combination of a stop and a fricative = quick release of a sound (stop) followed by an air sound (fricative). Example: /t/ is a combination of /t/ and //
Liquids	Vowel-like sounds produced with an open vocal tract
Semivowels/Glides	A gliding motion from one vowel to a second vowel is made by the articulators.

Voicing: Whether sounds involve vocal cord vibration

Voiced consonants = vocal cord vibration
Voiceless consonants = no vibration

Place: where sounds are made in the mouth

Bilabial. Sounds made with the lips. /b/, /p/, /m/, and /w/
Labio-dental. Sounds made with the lips and teeth. /f/ and /v/
Lingua-dental. The tongue tip touches the inside margin of the upper central incisors. // and / ð/
(Lingua)alveolar. Sounds made with the tongue touching or almost touching the alveolar ridge which lies behind the upper central incisors. /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
Palatal. This area is behind the alveolar ridge. / j /, /r/, //, //, / t/, / d/
Velar. The velum (soft palate) is in front of the uvula. /k/, /g/, and //
Glottal. The glottis is the most posterior place of articulation and /h/ is the only English consonant made here.

Notes:
¹In vowels, the air passes relatively freely. The tongue, in its varied positions, does create some obstruction, but the air is not really passing freely as it does in breathing, for example.

²Using the presence or absence of vocal chord vibration to differentiate physiologically between voiced and unvoiced consonants is technically accurate, particularly if one only considers the sounds in isolation. For example, the fricatives, such as // and /s/ can be produced in isolation and have no vocal chord vibration. Their voiced partners, the /zh/ and the /z/, both clearly have vocal chord vibration. However, for the plosives the situation is a little trickier. Now the acoustic differentiation between voiced and unvoiced sounds in co-articulated syllables becomes the most meaningful. It is not actually possible to produce a plosive sound without it being followed by a vowel. Even in whispering a "p," one is actually producing a whispered /p/ sound.

³Adapted from: Ling D. (1976) Speech and the Hearing-Impaired Child: Theory and Practice. Washington DC: AG Bell, p. 259.

Audio sources:
UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Consonants Charts, #1 and #2

Present-Day English Consonants (Furman)

Consonant classes - Resources for studying spoken English

See also:
Sutter, W. & Rubba, J. Help with Phonetic Symbols.

antimoom.com - The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet

2/15/04

Alexander Graham Bell Association | UNC-CH Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences