Distinctive Features

Phonetics

In voice, place, and manner what does voice mean?

Activity of vocal cords

In voice, place, and manner what does place mean?

Point of contact where sound is produced

In voice, place, and manner what does manner mean?

Configuration and interaction between articulators

Voiced

speech sound produced with vibration of vocal cords

Voiceless

speech sound produced with no vocal cord vibration

Bilabial

produced using both lips

Labiodental

produced using both the upper front teeth and lower lip

Interdental

tongue tip near/on/between inner surface of upper teeth

Alveolar

tip of tongue touches ridge immediately behind upper front teeth

Postalveolar

tip of tongue near the roof of mouth just behind the alveolar ridge

Palatal

front part of tongue touches to/near hard palate at the roof of mouth

Velar

back of tongue to/near velum/soft palate

Glottal

a phoneme produced at the level of the vocal folds

Stop/Plosive

a sound made by completely blocking airflow in the mouth and then suddenly releasing it

Fricative

a sound made by forcing air through a narrow space formed by placing articulators close together

Affricate

a sound that starts as a stop (air builds up) then releases through a narrow channel (fricative)

Nasal

a sound made by letting air flow through the nose while the mouth is closed

Liquid

a sound made by airstream flowing around the sides of the tongue (tip to mid alveolar ridge)

Glide

speech sounds that are produced with the mouth positioned like a vowel, but behave like a consonant. They "glide" into the vowel sound that follows them

Sonorant

a speech sound produced with uninterrupted airflow

Consonantal

a speech sound produced with obstruction of airflow

Sibilants

the alveolar and palatal fricatives (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/) that are perceived as being louder then other fricatives 

Stridents

broader category for speech sounds made with high intensity friction, sibilants are included in this

Obstruents

a speech sound produced by some type of air constriction