IPA: Pulmonic

Consonants
LING 2004: Phonetics
Prof. Jonathan Havenhill
10 February 2025
 Plan for today

I Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

I Reading Quiz 2
I Airstream, voicing, nasality, laterality
I Begin tour of the pulmonic consonants (Ch. 3.1-3.2.1)
I Lab Activity: Positional variation

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 Coming up next week

I Read Ch. 3.3: Non-pulmonic consonants

I (Optional: re-read Ch. 3.2.2)
I HW2 due in Tutorial 2 (Feb 19/20)
I Will be posted on Moodle this afternoon

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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Practice: Identifying Vocal Tract States

Image from Sivu, “Better Man Than He”

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 Review: Describing Consonants

I What do we need to know in order to describe a

consonant?
I How is the flow of air being produced?

I What are the vocal folds doing?

I Which passive articulator does the active
articulator touch or approach?
I What is the velum doing?
I Is air released from the center or the sides of the
tongue?
I How close do the active and passive articulators
get to each other?

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 Airstream Mechanism

I All of the world’s languages use the pulmonic

egressive airstream.
I More simply: pulmonic
I Generated by expelling air from the lungs.

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 The IPA: Pulmonic Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

Plosive

Nasal

Trill

Tap or Flap

Fricative
Lateral
fricative
Approximant
Lateral
approximant

I Cells are organized by:

consonants are shown on the right side of each
cell.
I Blank vs. shaded cells

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 Blank and Shaded Cells

I Possible or impossible: Pharyngeal nasal

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 Blank and Shaded Cells

I Possible or impossible: Lateral labial

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 Voicing

I What the vocal folds are doing:

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 Voicing

I The vocal folds momentarily block airflow from the lungs.

I The air pressure underneath the vocal folds increases.
I The increased pressure forces the vocal folds apart.
I As the pressure falls, the vocal folds snap back together.
Image from Gick, Wilson & Derrick (2013)
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 Nasality

I What the velum is doing:

I Nasal sound

I Oral sound
I Animated velum movement: youtu.be/hd2_SBfhvxE

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 Laterality

I How does air flow past the tongue:

I Lateral sound

I Central sound

I On the IPA chart, laterals are treated as a manner of

articulation; is this accurate?

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 Review: Describing Consonants

I Describe that consonant!

[j] [v] [ŋ] [ʃ]

Airstream
Voicing
Place
Laterality
Nasality
Manner

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 Stops and Fricatives

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

Plosive

Nasal

Trill

Tap or Flap

Fricative
Lateral
fricative
Approximant
Lateral
approximant

I Occur at all (or almost all) places of articulation

I Obstruents:
I Nasals are considered a type of stop (’nasal
stop’)
I Affricates?

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 Closer Look: Manner
I Oral stops (plosives):

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 Closer Look: Manner
I Fricatives:

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 Closer Look: Manner

I Nasal stops:

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 Bilabials
Stops Nasal Fricatives

p b m ɸ ß
phi beta
(Greek hfi) (Greek hbi)

Voiceless Voiced
stop p English pea [pi] b English bee [bi]
French pis [pi] ‘worst’ French bis [bis] ‘encore’
fricative ɸ Ewe e fa [éɸá] ‘he ß Ewe ẹ β ẹ [ɛ ̀ßɛ ̀] ‘Ewe’
polished’ Spanish la bola [laßola]
Japanese [ɸɯtoɴ] ‘futon’ ‘the ball’
nasal m English me [mi]
French mis [mi] ‘put’

Most example words from The Handbook of the IPA, recordings from UCLA’s Sounds of the World’s Languages

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 Labiodentals
Stops Nasal Fricatives

ɱ f v
I There are no labiodental plosives—gaps in the teeth
prevent a complete closure, so this cell is blank
I Labiodental [ɱ] appears in English as a positional
variant in words like comfort [kʌɱfə˞t] and symphony
[sɪɱfəni]
I Very few languages contrast both bilabial and
labiodental fricatives, but Ewe does

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 Labiodentals
Stops Nasal Fricatives

ɱ f v
Voiceless Voiced
stop — —
fricative f English fee [fi] v English vat [væt]
French fixe [fiks] French vie [vi] ‘life’
Ewe e fa [éfá] ‘he was Ewe ẹvẹ [ɛ ̀vɛ ̀] ‘two’
cold’
nasal ɱ English emphasis
[ɛɱfəsɪs]

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 Coronals

Stops Nasal Fricatives

t d n θ ð s z ʃ ʒ
theta eth esh ezh
(Greek (Icelandic hthi, (Long (German
hthi) resembles hdi) hsi) hzi)

I Coronal refers to consonants produced with the

tongue front (tip or blade)
I [t, d, n] can represent dental, alveolar, or post-alveolar
sounds, depending on the language
I Diacritics can be used to specify the place of
articulation: [t̪ d̪ n̪] vs. [t d n] vs. [ṯ ḏ ṉ]

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 Coronals

I Try pronouncing these sets of phrases:

ten ten times ten things ten roads

in in time in this inroads
made made time made things made rings
eight eight times eight things eight rows

[eɪ͡ t taɪ͡ mz] [eɪ͡ t̪ θɪŋz] [eɪ͡ ṯ ɹoʊ

͡ z]
I In English, coronals assimilate to the place of a
following consonant
I The distinction is difficult to hear; this is why very few
languages contrast more than one coronal place of
articulation

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 Retroflexes
Stops Nasal Fricatives

ʈ ɖ ɳ ʂ ʐ
I Produced with tongue tip that curls back to
post-alveolar region

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 Retroflexes
Stops Nasal Fricatives

ʈ ɖ ɳ ʂ ʐ
I Produced with tongue tip that curls back to
post-alveolar region
I Common in the languages of India, but some
retroflexes are also found in English and Mandarin.
I Symbols have a right-facing hook, resembling the
backward curl of the tongue

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 Retroflexes
Stops Nasal Fricatives

ʈ ɖ ɳ ʂ ʐ
Voiceless Voiced
stop ʈ Hindi [ʈal] ‘postpone’ ɖ Hindi [ɖal] ‘branch’
fricative ʂ Toda [pɔʂ] (clan name) ʐ Polish żona [ʐɔn̪ä] ‘wife’
Mandarin 矢 shǐ [ʂʐ̩˨˩˦] Mandarin 日 rì [ʐ̩˥˩] ‘day’
‘arrow’
nasal ɳ Malayalam [kɐɳɳi] ‘link in
a chain’

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 Palatals
Stops Nasal Fricatives

c ɟ ɲ ç ʝ (ɕ ʑ)
I Produced with tongue front and body raised to the
hard palate
I Symbols resemble “c” or “j” (as in German ja)
I (Alveopalatals): [tɕ͡ tɕ͡ h ɕ] in Mandarin, [ɕ ʑ] in Japanese,
͡ t͈ ɕ,
[tɕ, ͡ tɕʰ]
͡ in Korean
I Beijing, Chongqing, Xi’an
I Bei[t ͡ɕ]ing, Chong[t ͡ɕh ]ing, [ɕ]i’an
I Cantonese? [tɕ͡ tɕ͡ h ] can be positional variants
(compare 藏 ‘hide’ [tɕʰɔ:ŋ˨˩] vs. 詞 ‘word’ [tsʰi:˨˩])
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 Palatals
Stops Nasal Fricatives

c ɟ ɲ ç ʝ (ɕ ʑ)
Voiceless Voiced
stop c Hungarian tyúk [cuːk] ɟ Hungarian gyújt [ɟuit] ‘he
‘hen’ ignites’
fricative ç German ich [ɪç] ‘I’ ʝ Margi [ʝámbál] ‘sword’
nasal ɲ French agneau [aɲo]
‘lamb’
Malayalam [kɐɲɲi] ‘boiled
rice and water’

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 Velars

Stops Nasal Fricatives

k ɡ ŋ x ɣ
∼gamma
(Greek g)

Voiceless Voiced
stop k English cap [kæp] ɡ English gap [ɡæp];
French quand [kã] ‘when’ French gant [ɡɑ̃] ‘glove’
K’ekchi [ka] ‘grindstone’
fricative x German hoch [hox] ‘high’ ɣ Greek γ α λ α [ˈɣɑlɑ]
‘milk’
nasal ŋ English hang [hæŋ]
Cantonese 我 ngo5 [ŋɔ˨˩˧]
‘I’

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 Nasals

n ɳ ɲ ŋ
I Be careful when transcribing these symbols—they’re
very similar!
I The hooks resemble the symbols for the corresponding
oral stops:

t ʈ ɟ ɡ

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 Uvulars

Stops Nasal Fricatives

q ɢ ɴ χ ʁ
chi

Voiceless Voiced
stop q K’ekchi [qa] ‘our’ ɢ Farsi [ɢar] ‘cave’
fricative χ Hebrew [maχar] ‘he sold’ ʁ French riz [ʁi] ‘rice’
nasal ɴ Inuit [saaɴɴi] ‘his bones’

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 Pharyngeals/Glottals
Pharyngeal Fric. Glottal Stop Glottal Fric.

ħ ʕ ʔ h ɦ
I No pharyngeal or glottal nasals, and no pharyngeal
stops
I Glottal stops are necessarily voiceless

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

Plosive

Nasal

Trill

Tap or Flap

Fricative
Lateral
fricative
Approximant
Lateral
approximant

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 Pharyngeals/Glottals

Pharyngeal Fric. Glottal Stop Glottal Fric.

ħ ʕ ʔ h ɦ
Voiceless Voiced
pharyngeal fricative ħ Hebrew [ħor] ‘hole’ ʕ Hebrew [ʕor] ‘skin’
glottal stop ʔ Hawaiian Hawaiʻi
[hawaiʔi], ha’a [haʔa]
‘dance’
English uh-oh [ʌʔoʊ]
glottal fricative h English he [hi] ɦ English ahead [əɦɛd]

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 Affricates

I Affricates are not represented on the IPA chart because

they can always be represented by two existing
symbols, combined with a tie bar: [ ͡ ].
labial pf͡ German Pfeffer [pf͡ ɛfɐ] ‘pepper’
alveolar t ͡s Japanese [t ͡sunami] ‘tsunami’, Cantonese 精 [tsɪŋ˥] ‘refined’
post-alv. t ͡ʃ English chat [t ͡ʃæt]
palatal cç͡ Thai [cçɔ
͡ ̂ ŋwâːŋ] ‘blank’
velar k͡x Setswana [k͡xaph a] ‘smear with dung’
uvular qχ ͡ Oowekyala [d͡ziqχ ͡ a] ‘to stop crying’

I The distinction between a contour segment (like

affricates) and a sequence is phonological, not
phonetic.

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 Closer Look: Manner

I Affricates:

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 Describing Consonants

I Describe these consonants:

[ɳ] [ɣ] [ɸ] [ɢ]

Airstream
Voicing
Place
Laterality
Nasality
Manner

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 Transcription

I The phonemic principle: The IPA aims to be universal

and unambiguous, providing “a separate sign for each
distinctive sound”
I Phonemes are often (but not always) unmodified IPA
symbols
I Placed within slashes: /ð/
I Phonemes are abstract units, that must be realized in
the physical world through sound
I The act of realization results in variation, which
depends on the phonetic environment

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 Transcription

I The IPA can also be used to transcribe phonetic detail

I Diacritics allow for modification of IPA symbols
I Phonetic transcriptions placed within square
brackets: [ph ]
I Broad vs. Narrow transcription
I When you transcribe an unknown language, you don’t
know in advance which phonetic details will be
distinctive

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Lab activity: Positional Variation in English

I Positional variation: Refer to Ch. 3.4 in Sounds of

Language

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