When an approximant articulation occurs at the same time as another articulation is being made at a different place in the vocal tract, the approximant is said to form a secondary articulation. There are special terms for some of these possibilities. Added lip rounding is called labialization; it occurs in the formation of several English sounds—e.g., during the pronunciation of the palato-alveolar fricative at the beginning of the word shoe. Raising of the front of the tongue while simultaneously making another articulation elsewhere in the vocal tract is called palatalization. It is the distinguishing characteristic of the soft consonants in Russian and also occurs, to a lesser extent, in English; e.g., in the first consonant in the word leaf. Raising of the back of the tongue to form a secondary articulation is called velarization; it occurs in the last consonant in the word feel, which therefore does not contain the same sounds as those in the reverse order in the word leaf. Retracting of the root of the tongue while making another articulation is called pharyngealization; it occurs in Arabic in what are called emphatic consonants.

The states of the glottis, places of articulation, and manners of articulation discussed above are sufficient to distinguish between the major contrasts among the consonants of English and many other languages. But additional possibilities have to be taken into account in a more detailed description of English, or in descriptions of several other languages. Among these possibilities are variations in the timing of the states of the glottis. In addition to the contrast between the voiced and voiceless states of the glottis that occur during an articulation, there may be variations in the state of the glottis during the release of the articulation. Thus both the p in pin and that in spin are voiceless bilabial stops, but they differ in that the glottis remains in a voiceless position for a short time after the release of the bilabial stop in pin, whereas in spin the voicing starts as soon as the lips come apart. When there is a period of voicelessness during the release of an articulation, the sound is said to be aspirated. The main difference between the consonants in pea and bee, when these words are said in isolation, is not that the one is voiceless and the other voiced, but that the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated. Some languages distinguish between both voiced–voiceless and aspirated–unaspirated sounds. Thus Thai has contrasts between voiceless aspirated stops, voiceless unaspirated stops, and voiced unaspirated stops.

Several languages use more than just the voiced and voiceless states of the glottis. In Hindi and many of the other languages of India, some sounds are produced while the vocal cords are vibrating for part of their length but are apart, so that a considerable amount of air escapes between them at one end. This phenomenon is known as breathy voice, or murmur. Other languages have sounds in which the vocal cords are held tightly together so that only part of their length can vibrate. This kind of sound, which is usually very low pitched, is sometimes called creaky voice, or vocal fry. It is used to make contrasts between consonants in several American Indian languages. An additional glottal state that is widely used—e.g., in the Austronesian (Malayo–Polynesian) languages of the Philippines—is a glottal stop, a tight closure of the two vocal cords. This articulation also occurs in many forms of English as the usual pronunciation of t in words such as bitten and fatten.

Types of airstream

In English, all sounds are produced with an airstream caused by the expiration of the air from the lungs. This is known as a pulmonic airstream. Other mechanisms for producing an airstream also occur. If there is a glottal stop and the closed glottis is moved rapidly upward or downward it can act like a piston pushing or pulling the air in the pharynx. This is the glottalic airstream mechanism. When there is an upward movement of the closed glottis the resulting sound is called an ejective. Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, uses this mechanism to produce both ejective stops and fricatives, which contrast with the more usual stops and fricatives made with a pulmonic airstream mechanism. A downward movement of the glottis is used in the production of implosive sounds, which occur in many American Indian, African, and other languages. The use of movements of the tongue to suck air into the mouth is known as the velaric airstream mechanism; it occurs in the production of clicks, which are regular speech sounds in many languages of southern Africa.

To summarize, a consonant may be described by reference to seven factors: (1) state of the glottis, (2) secondary articulation (if any), (3) place of articulation, (4) type of airstream, (5) central or lateral articulation, (6) velic closure—oral or nasal, and (7) manner of articulation. Thus the consonant at the beginning of the word swim is a (1) voiceless, (2) labialized, (3) alveolar, (4) pulmonic, (5) central, (6) oral, (7) fricative. Unless a specific statement is made to the contrary, consonants are usually presumed to have a pulmonic airstream and no secondary articulation, and it is also assumed that they are not laterals or nasals. Consequently, points 2, 4, 5, and 6 are often disregarded and a three-term description—e.g., voiceless alveolar fricative is sufficient.

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linguistics: Phonetics and dialectology