Consonants

IPA Consonants – IPA Audio Visual

Pulmonic consonants

Pulmonic consonants are sounds produced by expelling air from the lungs while obstructing or constricting the airflow in the vocal tract.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d		ʈ ɖ	c ɟ	k g	q ɢ		ʔ
Nasal	m	ɱ		n		ɳ	ɲ	ŋ	ɴ
Plosive	p b			t d		ʈ ɖ	c ɟ	k g	q ɢ		ʔ
Nasal	m	ɱ		n		ɳ	ɲ	ŋ	ɴ
Trill	ʙ			r				ʀ
Tap or Flap		ⱱ		ɾ		ɽ
Fricative	ɸ β	f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	ʂ ʐ	ç ʝ	x ɣ	χ ʁ	ħ ʕ	h ɦ
Lateral Fricative				ɬ ɮ
Approximant		ʋ		ɹ		ɻ	j	ɰ
Lateral Approximant				l		ɭ	ʎ	ʟ

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Non-pulmonic consonants

Non-pulmonic consonants are a type of consonant sounds produced without solely using air from the lungs (as in pulmonic consonants). Instead, they use other airstream mechanisms, such as using the glottis to push out air. An example of a non-pulmonic consonant is the “click” sounds found in some African languages, where the airflow is created by sucking air into the mouth.

Clicks	Voiced implosives	Ejectives
ʘ Bilabial	ɓ Bilabial	pʼ Bilabial
ǀ Dental	ɗ Dental/alveolar	tʼ Dental/alveolar
ǃ (Post)alveolar	ʄ Palatal	kʼ Velar
ǂ Palatoalveolar	ɠ Velar	sʼ Alveolar fricative
ǁ Alveolar lateral	ʛ Uvular

Click consonants are speech sounds produced by creating suction in the oral cavity, and then releasing it suddenly.

Implosive consonants are speech sounds produced by inhaling air into the oral cavity and then closing it off. When the closure is released, a popping or implosive sound is created. Because of this mix they are in between Clicks and Ejectives in this table.

Ejective consonants are speech sounds produced by closing the vocal tract and glottis (the space between the vocal cords) simultaneously, causing a release of air pressure that results in a popping sound.

Sounds that are produced by bringing both of your lips together.

Sounds that are produced by touching your bottom lip to your upper teeth.

Sounds that are articulated by placing the tip of your tongue against your upper front teeth.

Sounds that are produced by bringing the front part of your tongue into contact with the alveolar ridge, just behind your upper front teeth.

Sounds that are articulated slightly farther back in the mouth than alveolar sounds.

Sounds that are produced with the tongue curled or “retroflexed” backward.

Sounds produced by raising the front part of the tongue toward the hard palate.

Sounds that are produced by bringing the back of your tongue into contact with the soft palate or velum.

Sounds that are articulated with the back of the tongue against the uvula, a part of the throat.

Articulated in the pharynx, which is in the throat.

Sounds that are produced by closing or restricting the airflow at the level of the glottis or the space between the vocal cords.

These sounds involve a complete closure of the vocal tract followed by a sudden release of air, creating bursts of sound.

Nasal sounds are produced when the velum (soft part of the roof of the mouth) is lowered, allowing air to pass through the nose while the mouth remains closed.

Trills are produced by rapidly vibrating one articulator (for example the tongue) against another.

This manner of speech involves a quick, single contact between two articulators.

Fricatives are produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction between articulators (For example between the teeth and lip), creating a continuous, turbulent airflow.

These sounds are fricatives with a lateral release, meaning air flows out over the sides of the tongue.

Approximants are produced by bringing articulators close together but not causing a turbulent airflow.

These are sounds where the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.