Places of Articulation
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify the major places of articulation used to classify pulmonic consonants.
- Distinguish adjacent places of articulation using articulatory evidence rather than guesswork.
- Locate place categories along the columns of the official IPA consonant chart.
- Classify verified consonant examples by place.
- Compare similar consonants across languages without claiming that a shared place label guarantees identical realization.
- Produce a controlled set of place contrasts safely, using concrete articulatory cues.
An Observable Problem
Say the English words tip, chip, and kip slowly, paying attention only to where your tongue or lips make contact for the first consonant — not to the letters t, ch, and k. You should be able to feel that the closure happens in three noticeably different places: just behind your upper front teeth, somewhat farther back along the roof of your mouth, and farther back still, near the soft palate.
Now say tip and dip. Here the closure happens in the same place both times, yet English spelling assigns these two consonants completely different letters, while chip's consonant — articulated farther back than tip's — gets a two-letter digraph that gives no hint of where in the mouth it is produced. Spelling, once again, is not a reliable guide to articulation. This chapter gives you a systematic, language-independent vocabulary for describing exactly where in the vocal tract a consonant is made.
- Before reading further, say tip, chip, and kip aloud three times each and write one sentence describing, in your own words and without using letter names, how the place of closure changes from front to back.
Active and Passive Articulators
Purpose: establish place of articulation as a relationship between a moving structure and a target structure, not a single fixed point.
Every consonant place of articulation names a relationship between two structures introduced in Chapter 4: an active articulator, which moves toward or touches another structure, and a passive articulator, which is approached or touched but does not itself initiate the movement. The lower lip and the various parts of the tongue are the active articulators used in pulmonic consonant production; the upper lip, the teeth, and the regions of the roof of the mouth serve as passive articulators.
A place label such as alveolar names the passive articulator — the alveolar ridge, just behind the upper front teeth. The active articulator is usually identifiable from the place label together with the consonant's broader description, and is stated explicitly whenever precision matters, since more than one active articulator can in principle reach the same passive target.
Place of articulation answers the question "where," not "how." A complete consonant description eventually adds manner (Chapter 8, "how") and voicing (Chapter 6, already introduced), but this chapter isolates place so that you can locate and compare it reliably before combining it with the other two dimensions.
Place on the IPA Chart
Purpose: connect articulatory description to chart navigation skills built in Chapter 3.
On the official IPA pulmonic consonant chart, places of articulation are arranged as columns, running from the front of the vocal tract on the left to the back of the vocal tract on the right. Manners of articulation, previewed briefly here and developed fully in Chapter 8, are arranged as rows. A consonant symbol's position in the chart is determined by the intersection of its place column and manner row.
| Place | Passive articulator | Typical active articulator |
|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Upper lip | Lower lip |
| Labiodental | Upper teeth | Lower lip |
| Dental | Upper teeth | Tongue tip or blade |
| Alveolar | Alveolar ridge | Tongue tip or blade |
| Postalveolar | Back of alveolar ridge | Tongue tip or blade |
| Retroflex | Hard palate, just behind the ridge | Tongue tip, curled back |
| Palatal | Hard palate | Tongue body or front |
| Velar | Soft palate (velum) | Tongue body or back |
| Uvular | Uvula | Tongue back |
| Glottal | Vocal folds or glottis | No oral articulator |
Pharyngeal and epiglottal places are addressed at an overview level later in this chapter. Labial-velar and other double articulations are previewed here and developed fully in Chapter 13.
Notice that the chart moves smoothly from front to back rather than jumping unpredictably. This means that once you can reliably order a handful of places from front to back in your own mouth, you already have a working map of the chart's horizontal organization.
Bilabial and Labiodental Place
Purpose: establish the two front-most places, both involving the lips.
A bilabial consonant is produced with the two lips. A labiodental consonant is produced with the lower lip approaching or touching the upper teeth.
- [b], [m]bilabial — both lips, as in English bee, me
- [f], [v]labiodental — lower lip against upper teeth, as in English fee, vee
These two places are easy to confuse by ear at first because both involve the lips, but they are simple to distinguish by sight and by touch: bilabial consonants involve lip-to-lip contact, while labiodental consonants involve lip-to-teeth contact.
Dental, Alveolar, and Postalveolar Place
Purpose: distinguish three closely spaced places that the tongue tip or blade can reach.
A dental consonant is produced with the tongue tip or blade at or near the upper teeth. An alveolar consonant is produced at the alveolar ridge, the firm ridge directly behind the upper front teeth. A postalveolar consonant is produced just behind the alveolar ridge, where the ridge begins to curve upward toward the hard palate.
- [θ], [ð]dental — tongue tip near the upper teeth, as in English thin, this
- [t], [d], [n], [s], [z]alveolar — tongue tip or blade at the alveolar ridge, as in English tea, day, knee, sea, zee
- [ʃ], [ʒ]postalveolar — tongue blade just behind the alveolar ridge, as in English she, the middle consonant of measure
The exact boundary between dental and alveolar contact varies somewhat by speaker and by language, and some reference traditions group dental and alveolar sounds together as a single broader category when finer distinction is not needed. This chapter treats them as separate places because the distinction is contrastive in several languages used elsewhere in this book; the appropriate level of detail always depends on the analytical task, consistent with the transcription-purpose principle introduced in Chapter 5.
Retroflex and Palatal Place
Purpose: introduce two places that are common across the world's languages but rare or absent in many English varieties.
A retroflex consonant is produced with the tongue tip curled backward toward the hard palate, just behind the alveolar ridge. A palatal consonant is produced with the front or body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate itself.
- [ʈ], [ɖ], [ɳ]retroflex stops and nasal — found in many languages of South Asia, among others; not part of most English consonant inventories
- [c], [ɲ]palatal stop and nasal — the palatal nasal occurs in languages such as Spanish (orthographic ⟨ñ⟩) and French (orthographic ⟨gn⟩)
English does not contrast a retroflex series the way some South Asian languages do, and many English varieties lack a true palatal stop or palatal nasal as a distinct phoneme. This does not mean English speakers are physically unable to produce these sounds — it means English does not assign them a contrastive role in its phoneme inventory, a distinction first introduced in Chapter 5 and revisited throughout this book.
Velar and Uvular Place
Purpose: move to the back of the oral cavity and distinguish two places that are easy to confuse without careful observation.
A velar consonant is produced with the back of the tongue against or near the soft palate, or velum. A uvular consonant is produced farther back still, with the tongue back approaching the uvula, the small soft structure that hangs at the rear of the velum.
- [k], [ɡ], [ŋ]velar — tongue back at the soft palate, as in English key, go, the final consonant of sing
- [q], [ɢ], [χ]uvular stops and fricative — found in languages such as Arabic and several Indigenous languages of the Americas and the Caucasus; not part of most English consonant inventories
Error: Assuming that any "back of the throat" consonant must be velar, including sounds that are actually uvular, pharyngeal, or glottal.
Correction: "Back of the mouth" is not precise enough for phonetic analysis. Velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal places are physically distinct locations, each with its own symbol set on the IPA chart, and a careful description identifies which one is actually involved rather than defaulting to the most familiar label.
Pharyngeal and Glottal Place
Purpose: complete the front-to-back place inventory at an overview level appropriate to this stage.
A pharyngeal consonant is produced by constricting the pharynx, the tube-like cavity behind the oral cavity. An epiglottal consonant, closely related and treated here at the same overview level, involves the epiglottis. A glottal consonant is produced at the glottis itself, the space between the vocal folds, with no oral constriction at all.
- [ħ], [ʕ]pharyngeal fricatives — found in Arabic and other languages with a pharyngeal series; introduced here for recognition
- [h], [ʔ]glottal fricative and glottal stop — [h] occurs in English hat; [ʔ] occurs in English in some varieties as a realization of /t/, and as a full phoneme in many other languages
This chapter introduces pharyngeal, epiglottal, and glottal place at the level needed to locate them on the chart and recognize them in supplied examples. Detailed production work with pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants is deferred, since they require coordination that benefits from the additional airstream background provided in Chapter 13.
Across Languages: Place Is Not Identity
Purpose: prevent the assumption that a shared place label guarantees an identical sound.
Calling two consonants "alveolar" in two different languages does not mean they sound identical. The exact contact area, the shape of the tongue, and accompanying details such as aspiration or rounding can all differ between languages, and sometimes between dialects of the same language, even when both fall under the same place label. The place label tells you where the constriction is broadly located, not the full phonetic detail of the sound. Treat shared place terminology as a starting point for comparison, not as proof that two consonants are interchangeable, a principle developed further in the cross-linguistic comparison work later in this book.
Guided Observation
Before working with the classification lab below, complete this short self-observation task. No audio recording is required — you are observing your own articulation.
Say each consonant slowly and in isolation, paying attention to where contact or near-contact occurs. Use a small mirror if one is available.
- [p] as in pie — note the location of lip contact.
- [θ] as in thigh — note where the tongue tip approaches the teeth.
- [ʃ] as in shy — note how far back the tongue blade is, compared with [s].
- [k] as in sky — note how far back the tongue body rises.
Order these four consonants from frontmost to backmost place of articulation based on your own observation, then write one sentence predicting whether this front-to-back order matches the column order on the official IPA chart.
Place Classification Lab
Purpose: apply place terminology to a small, verified dataset drawn from more than one language.
The forms below are verified phonetic transcriptions. Use only the place terminology introduced in this chapter to answer the questions that follow.
| Form | Transcription | Language and variety | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨pan⟩ | [pan] | Spanish, Latin American reference variety | "bread" |
| ⟨tu⟩ | [tu] | French, Metropolitan reference variety | "you" (informal) |
| ⟨ñu⟩ | [ɲu] | Spanish, Latin American reference variety | "gnu" |
| ⟨kaze⟩ | [kaze] | Japanese, Standard (Tokyo) reference variety | "wind" |
| ⟨xala⟩ | [χala] | Modern Standard Arabic | "took off" |
| ⟨hat⟩ | [hæt] | English, General American reference variety | "hat" |
Source: forms checked against established pedagogical grammars and pronunciation references for each listed language and reference variety. Transcriptions represent careful citation-style pronunciation at a broad phonetic level.
Step 1 — Classify by place
For each onset consonant in the table, state its place of articulation using the terms introduced in this chapter.
Step 2 — Identify the front-to-back pattern
Order the six onset consonants from frontmost to backmost place of articulation.
Step 3 — Compare across languages
The Spanish form [ɲu] and a hypothetical English pronunciation of "nyu" both involve the tongue approaching the palate. Explain, using this chapter's cross-language principle, why it would be inaccurate to claim that English speakers automatically produce a true palatal nasal when they approximate this Spanish sound.
Practice — Place identification: For each consonant below, name the place of articulation.
- [f]
- [d]
- [ʒ]
- [ɡ]
- [ʔ]
Common Mistakes
Error: Naming place of articulation using only the active articulator, for example calling every tongue-tip consonant "alveolar" regardless of where contact actually occurs.
Correction: The tongue tip can reach several different passive articulators — teeth, alveolar ridge, postalveolar region, or the area just behind it for retroflex consonants. Place names the passive articulator together with the active one; identify both before assigning a label.
Error: Assuming that every language's consonant inventory uses the same set of places as English.
Correction: Many languages use places that are rare or absent in most English varieties, including retroflex, uvular, and pharyngeal places, while other languages use a narrower range of places than English does. Neither pattern is more natural or more correct than the other.
Error: Treating place of articulation as if it alone fully described a consonant.
Correction: Place answers only "where." A complete consonant description also requires manner, the subject of Chapter 8, and voicing or phonation, introduced in Chapter 6. Avoid describing a consonant as "just an alveolar sound" without specifying these additional dimensions when precision matters.
Chapter Review
Part A — Definitions
1. Define active articulator and passive articulator, and explain how the two combine to produce a place label.
2. List the ten core places of articulation introduced in this chapter in front-to-back order.
3. Explain the difference between dental, alveolar, and postalveolar place, citing one example consonant for each.
Part B — Classification
1. Classify the following English consonants by place: [m], [v], [n], [ŋ].
2. Explain why [ʈ] and [t] are not the same place of articulation, even though both involve the tongue tip.
Part C — Cross-Language Reasoning
1. A learner claims that because Arabic [χ] and English ch in Bach (as pronounced by many English speakers who use a velar or uvular fricative there) "sound similar," they must be exactly the same sound. Evaluate this claim using the cross-language principle from this chapter.
Cumulative Review
1. Using the phoneme-allophone distinction from Chapter 5, explain whether a change in place of articulation alone is enough to prove that two phones belong to separate phonemes, or whether contrast must still be tested directly.
2. Using Chapter 6's voicing distinction, describe one consonant from this chapter's dataset using all three dimensions introduced so far: voicing, and place (manner will be added in Chapter 8).
Chapter Performance Task
Performance Task
Building a Place Map
Working independently or with a partner:
- Select six consonants from this chapter representing at least five different places of articulation.
- For each consonant, identify the active articulator, the passive articulator, and one verified example word or form from a named language and variety.
- Arrange your six consonants in a simple front-to-back diagram or list.
- Record yourself producing each consonant in isolation and in one example word, and self-evaluate using the articulatory descriptions from this chapter.
Answer Key (click to expand)
Place Classification Lab
Step 1: [p] bilabial; [t] alveolar; [ɲ] palatal; [k] velar; [χ] uvular; [h] glottal.
Step 2: Front to back: [p] (bilabial) — [t] (alveolar) — [ɲ] (palatal) — [k] (velar) — [χ] (uvular) — [h] (glottal).
Step 3 (model answer): A shared or similar auditory impression does not establish identical place of articulation. English does not have a contrastive palatal nasal phoneme, so English speakers approximating Spanish [ɲ] typically produce a sequence such as [nj] — an alveolar nasal followed by a palatal glide — rather than the single palatal nasal segment that Spanish speakers produce. The auditory result may be similar enough for casual purposes, but the articulatory facts are different, consistent with the cross-language principle that a similar-sounding category in one language does not guarantee an identical phonetic category in another.
Practice — Place Identification
1. [f] labiodental. 2. [d] alveolar. 3. [ʒ] postalveolar. 4. [ɡ] velar. 5. [ʔ] glottal.
Chapter Review — Part A (model answers)
1. The active articulator is the moving structure, typically the lower lip or a part of the tongue; the passive articulator is the structure approached or touched, typically the upper lip, teeth, or a region of the roof of the mouth. A place label identifies the passive articulator and, when needed for precision, the active articulator as well. 2. Bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, glottal (pharyngeal and epiglottal are addressed at an overview level between uvular and glottal). 3. Dental: tongue tip or blade at the upper teeth, as in [θ]. Alveolar: tongue tip or blade at the alveolar ridge, as in [t]. Postalveolar: tongue blade just behind the ridge, as in [ʃ].
Chapter Review — Part B
1. [m] bilabial; [v] labiodental; [n] alveolar; [ŋ] velar. 2. [ʈ] is retroflex, produced with the tongue tip curled back toward the hard palate behind the alveolar ridge, while [t] is alveolar, produced with the tongue tip at the alveolar ridge itself. Both use the tongue tip as the active articulator, but the passive articulator, and therefore the place, is different.
Chapter Review — Part C
1. The claim is not well supported. Auditory similarity is not sufficient evidence of phonetic identity. Arabic [χ] is specifically uvular, while the fricative many English speakers use in borrowed forms like Bach may be produced farther forward, closer to velar place, depending on the speaker. Without articulatory or acoustic evidence confirming the exact place, the two should not be assumed identical; they should be described and compared using the place terminology from this chapter rather than by auditory impression alone.
Cumulative Review
1. A change in place of articulation alone does not automatically prove separate phonemes; contrast must still be tested directly, for example with a minimal pair, since two phones with different places could still turn out to be allophones in complementary distribution for a particular language. 2. Answers will vary; for example, Spanish [p] in [pan] can be described as a voiceless bilabial sound (manner, "stop," will be added once Chapter 8 is complete).
Looking Ahead
What You Can Now Do
You can now identify and compare the major places of articulation used to classify consonants, locate those places on the official IPA chart, and avoid assuming that a shared place label guarantees an identical sound across languages. Place of articulation will combine with manner and voicing in every remaining consonant chapter.