Consonants in description

II.  Consonant Speech Sounds

Speech organs

= articulators

--->  Articulatory phonetics

--->  how speech sounds are produced

---->the mechanism involved in speech production

--->egressive pulmonic airstream

                        Vs

      Ingressive pulmonic airstream

All English sounds ---> egressive pulmonic airstream

     --->air flows out from the lungs.

--->  Ingressive pulmonic airstream

     -----> air flows into the lungs 

Different consonant sounds are produced by the complete or partial obstruction of airstream.

A.  Places of Articulation |Articulators |Phonemes

1.  Bilabials --->both  lips  -----> [p, b, m, w]

2.  Labiodental---> lips and teeth ----->  [f, v]

3.   Interdental --->  tongue and teeth  -----> [θ, ð]

4.  Alveolar---> the alveolar ridge ----->  the part of the gums

      behind the  upper front teeth  alveolar articulations

          [t, d, s, z, l, r, n]

5.  palatals (palato-alveolar, palatals and palato-velars) 

      --->  the hard palate  ----->  [ʃ,  ʒ,  ʧ, ʤ, j]

6.  velars  ---> the soft palate ----->  [k, g, ŋ]

7.  Glottal  --->  the glottis ----->  [h]

There are 24 consonants.