Parsings/etymologies of articulatory terminology for English consonants. Most of the following terms come from Latin. The exceptions are glottal, glottis which are based on a Greek root.

bilabial |
bi + lab + i + al
two lip (linker) ADJ
|
'produced with the two lips' |
interdental |
inter + dent + al
between tooth ADJ
|
'produced with tongue between the teeth' |
alveolar |
alveol + ar
a small ADJ
hollow
|
'produced at the alveolus, i.e. the alveolar ridge' (so called because it abuts on the tooth sockets, or alveoli 'little hollows') |
alveo-palatal |
alveo(l) + palat + al
a small palate ADJ
hollow
|
'produced starting at the alveolar ridge then immediately afterwards at the palate' ( alveol is from alveol-us, the diminutive form of alveus 'a cavity, hollow') |
palatal |
palat + al
palate ADJ
|
'produced at the palate' (palate has an uncertain etymology; possibly
Latin borrowed it from Etruscan) |
velar |
ve + lar
flap, ADJ
covering,
veil
|
'produced at the velum, or soft palate' |
glottal |
glott/gloss + al
glottis ADJ
|
'produced at the glottis' (the vocal chord part of
tongue, the upper larynx) |
The adjective endings -ive and -al below are in these articulatory terms being used as noun endings, via leaving out the nouns they modify (e.g. 'plosive sounds' > 'plosives' etc.) We can think of this as a zero-derivation of nouns from adjectives. I gloss them here as adjective endings because that is their primary use and these terms are still easily used as adjectives.
stop |
native word
|
'sound produced with total stoppage of airflow in the mouth' same as: |
plosive |
plod/plos + ive
burst, ADJ
explode
|
(see above) |
fricative |
fric + at/ate + ive
rub V ADJ
|
'sound produced with partial occlusion of vocal tract, producing audible friction' (e.g. /f/, /s/) |
affricate |
ad/af + fric + ate
to, rub ADJ
towards
|
'sound produced by stopping airflow and then partial release into a fricative at or near same point of articulation' (e.g. /ch/) |
nasal |
nas + al
nose ADJ
|
'sound produced by stopping airflow in mouth, but allowing it to continue flowing through nasal tract' |
liquid |
liqu + id
fluid ADJ, N
|
'/l/ and /r/ sounds' (so called because they give acoustic impression sounding like water flowing) |
lateral |
later + al
side ADJ
|
'sound produced by touching tongue to roof of mouth and letting air pass at one or both sides of the tongue' (/l/ is the only lateral in English) |
approximant |
ad/ap + proxim + ant
near, ADJ
nearest
|
'consonant produced with relatively wide opening between articulators; an in-between sound that approximates or comes near to a vowel sound' (/y/ and /w/ are the main English approximants; sometimes /l/ is called a lateral approximant) |
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