age) of both the oral and nasal cavities of the vocal tract, and therefore no air flow. Examples include English / ptk / (voiceless) and / bdg / (voiced). If the consonant is voiced, the voicing is the only sound made during occlusion; if it is voiceless, a plosive is completely silent. What we hear as a / p / or / k / is the effect that the onset of the occlusion has on the preceding vowel, and well as the release burst and its effect on the following vowel. The shape and position of the tongue (the place of articulation) determine the resonant cavity that gives different plosives their characteristic sounds. All languages ??have plosives.
· Nasal stop, usually shortened to nasal, where there is complete occlusion of the oral cavity, and the air passes instead through the nose. The shape and position of the tongue determine the resonant cavity that gives different nasal stops their characteristic sounds. Examples include English / m, n /. Nearly all languages ??have nasals, the only exceptions being in the area of ??Puget Sound and a single language on Bougainville Island.
· Fricative, sometimes called spirant, where there is continuous frication (turbulent and noisy airflow) at the place of articulation. Examples include English / f, s / (voiceless), / v, z / (voiced), etc. Most languages ??have fricatives, though many have only an / s /. However, the Australian languages ??are almost completely devoid of fricatives of any kind.
· Sibilants are a type of fricative where the airflow is guided by a groove in the tongue toward the teeth, creating a high-pitched and very distinctive sound. These are by far the most common fricatives. Fricatives at coronal (front of tongue) places of articulation are usually, though not always, sibilants. English sibilants include / s / and / z /.
· Lateral fricatives are a rare type of fricative, where the frication occurs on one or both sides of the edge of the tongue. The «ll» of the Welsh language and the «hl» of Zulu are lateral fricatives.
· Affricate, which begins like a plosive, but this releases into a fricative rather than having a separate release of its own. The English letters «ch» and «j» represent affricates. Affricates are quite common around the world, though less common than fricatives.
· Flap, often called a tap, is a momentary closure of the oral cavity. The «tt» of «utter» and the «dd» of «udder» are pronounced as a flap in North American English. Many linguists distinguish taps from flaps, but there is no consensus on what the difference might be. No language relies on such a difference. There are also lateral flaps.
· Trill, in which the articulator (usually the tip of the tongue) is held in place, and the airstream causes it to vibrate. The double «r» of Spanish «perro» is a trill. Trills and flaps, where there are one or more brief occlusions, constitute a class of consonant called rhotics.
· Approximant, where there is very little obstruction. Examples include English / w / and / r /. In some languages, such as Spanish, there are sounds which seem to fall between fricative and approximant.
· One use of the word semivowel is a type of approximant, pronounced like a vowel but with the tongue closer to the roo...
