Place of articulation

The active articulator usually moves in order to make the constriction. The passive articulator usually just sits there and gets approached.

A sound's place of articulation is usually named by using the Latin ajective for the active articulator (ending with an "o") followed by the Latin adjective for the passive articulator. For example, a sound where the tongue tip (the "apex") approaches or touches the upper teeth is called an "apico-dental". Most of the common combinations of active and passive articulator have abbreviated names (usually leaving out the active half).

These are the abbreviated names for the places of articulation used in English:

Bilabial: A sound made with both lips. For a bilabial sound, the active articulator is the bottom lip, and the passive articulator is the top lip.

/p/ pie voiceless bilabial plosive/b/ by voiced bilabial plosive/m/ my voiced bilabial nasal

Labio-dental: Describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the lower lip touching or nearly touching the upper teeth. For example, in English the /f/ in /fæt/ fat, and the /v/ in /væt/ vat are labiodentals fricatives.

Inter-dental: describes a speech sound (a consonant) produced with the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, e.g. /q/ and /;/ in the English words /qik/ thick and /;is/ this.

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Alveolar: describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the front of the tongue touching or nearly touching the gum ridge behind the upper teeth (the alveolar ridge). For example, in English the /t / in /tin/ tin, and the /d/ in /din/ din are alveolar stops.

Palatal: The palate is sometimes known as the “roof of the mouth” (though the word “ceiling” would seem to be more appropriate). It can be divided into the hard palate, which runs from the alveolar ridge at the front of the mouth to the beginning of the soft palate at the back, and the soft palate itself. The English glide [j] is a palatal.

Velar: describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the back of the tongue touching the soft palate (the velum) at the back of the mouth. For example, in English the /k/ in /kin/ kIn and the /g/ in /get/ get are velars,

Glottal: The glottal is an articulation involving the glottis, the space between the vocal chords.

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