Manner of Articulation
Do you notice how I keep using the terms constriction and obstruction? I do this because there are many ways to make the air flow through your oral passage.
For example, you can squeeze the back of your tongue against your velum to block the airflow. Or you can lightly touch that same place and let some air pass through.
Although both of these motions occur at the same place, they make different sounds because of the manner of articulation. This is part of the reason it is possible to have so many distinct consonant sounds at the same place of articulation.
The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out the nose and mouth.
On this page I will cover six different manners of articulation in English that will distinguish one consonant sound from the next. There is a lot of information on this page, so don’t worry if you can’t remember everything now. You can always bookmark this page and refer back to it.
Looking at these sounds from a different perspective will help you develop your physical awareness of them. Make sure to try these movements out loud to yourself to really feel them.
Nasal
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your mouth and let the air pass through your nose.
Spanish contains the following nasal consonants:
- /m/ – “mapa” and “mama” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
- /n/ – “no” and “noche’ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar ridge (alveolar).
- /n̺/ – “antes” and “tenga” – oral passage is blocked by sliding the tongue between your front teeth (denti-alveolar).
- /ŋ/ – “ninguno” and “banco” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the the back of your tongue against the soft palate (velar).
- /ɲ/ – “niña” and “mañana” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue against the hard palate (palatal).
Stop
Like nasal consonants, stop consonants occur when the vocal tract is closed completely. But for stops the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose. Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the articulators and then releases in a burst.
Spanish contains the following stop consonants:
- /p/ – “papa” and “pero” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
- /b/ – “bebe” and “banco” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
- /t̺/ – “tengo” and “tu” – oral passage is blocked by sliding the tongue between your front teeth (denti-alveolar).
- /d̺/ – “dicho” and “dormir” – oral passage is blocked by sliding the tongue between your front teeth (denti-alveolar).
- /k/ – “canta” and “queso” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
- /g/ – “guerra” and “gato” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
Fricative
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract, fricative sounds involve only a partial blockage of the vocal tract so that air has to be forced through a narrow channel.
For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow completely with your tongue against the alveolar ridge. But if you let up with the tongue a bit and let the air seep through, you make an /s/ fricative consonant.
Spanish contains the following fricative consonants:
- /f/ – “afuera” and “fome”- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)
- /v/ – “vino” and “villa” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)
- /θ/ – “plaza” and “sumo” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
- /ð/ – “cada” and “miedo” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
- /s/ – “zapato” and “salchicha” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
- /z/ – “communismo” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
- /x/ – “gente” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
- /h/ – “Juan” – actually isn’t a fricative. It’s technically not a consonant sound since there’s no constriction/obstruction of airflow, but including it here anyway.
Approximant
Approximants are when two articulators come close together but not quite close enough to create air turbulence.
The resulting sound is more like a fast vowel than anything else. For example, the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you get the word “why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the top of your mouth.
Spanish contains the following approximate consonants:
- /w/ – “fuego” and “luega” – back of tongue raises to velum and lips are rounded (velar)
- /j/ – “pollo” and “ya” – tongue raises to hard palate (palatal)
Fricative-Approximant
In Spanish, the /b/, /g/ and /v/ sounds are usually softened. Spanish speakers do this by touching their lips together for just a brief moment and holding the sound for much less time. In fact, sometimes the lips do not touch each other at all, resulting in a sound like /w/.
For instance, they may pronounce the word “vaca” as “baca.” You will notice that this difference is much slighter than it would be in English. We will go more in depth on this in the next module, but for now you can just read on.
Spanish contains the following fricative-approximant consonants:
- /ɣ/ – “agua” – tongue moves as if it were to pronounce the Stop version /g/, but not all the way (velar).
- /ʝ/ – “Meddelín” – tongue moves as if it were to pronounce the Approximant version /j/, but not all the way (palatal).
- /β/ – “boca” – tongue moves as if it were to pronounce the Stop version /b/, but not all the way (bilabial).
Affricate
When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate consonant. Affricate consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind an articulator which then releases through a narrow channel as a fricative (instead of a clean burst as stops do).
Spanish contains the following affricate consonants:
- /#/ – “mucho” and “muchacho” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.
Lateral
Lateral consonants are when the tongue blocks the the middle of your mouth so that air has to pass around the sides.
Spanish contains only one lateral consonant:
- /l/ – “hola” and “el” – place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge and release with a burst of air (alveolar).
Tap
A Flap consonant is when you flick your tongue against another part of your mouth so that airflow is interrupted temporarily.
Spanish contains only one tap consonant, but super important to learn (more on this later).
- /&/ – “hora” and “ir” – place the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (alveolar).
Trill
A Trill consonant is when you let their airflow repeatedly flap your tongue (imagine a flag being blown by the wind in a storm). We’ll focus more on how to pronounce this and other consonants in the next module.
Spanish contains only one trill consonant:
- /+/ – “perro” and “ferrocarril” – place the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge and release in burst of air (alveolar).
You might want to return to this after you spend some more time thinking about your Spanish sounds and fidgeting around with your speech organ. So feel free to bookmark these pages for further reference.