This page provides an in-depth exploration of consonants as constrictions in phonetics, describing how they are formed with narrow constrictions in the vocal tract. It explains the roles of active (lo...This page provides an in-depth exploration of consonants as constrictions in phonetics, describing how they are formed with narrow constrictions in the vocal tract. It explains the roles of active (lower) and passive (upper) articulators and offers a detailed inventory of these articulators across global languages, such as lips and various parts of the tongue and mouth.
The palatal approximant [j] is made with the tongue towards the palate, and the [w] sound has two places of articulation: the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum and the lips are rounded, s...The palatal approximant [j] is made with the tongue towards the palate, and the [w] sound has two places of articulation: the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum and the lips are rounded, so it is called a labial-velar approximant. And if we keep the tongue at the alveolar ridge but allow air to flow along the sides of the tongue, we get the alveolar lateral approximant [l], where the word lateral means “on the side”. The sounds [ɹ] and [l] are also sometimes called “liquids”
