Sound Terminology

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.

Places of articulation

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)

Manners of articulation

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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