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Common approximate places of articulation (passive & active):
1. Exo-labial, 2. Endo-labial, 3. Dental, 4. Alveolar, 5. Post-alveolar, 6. Pre-palatal, 7. Palatal, 8. Velar, 9. Uvular, 10. Pharyngeal, 11. Glottal, 12. Epiglottal, 13. Radical, 14. Postero-dorsal, 15. Antero-dorsal, 16. Laminal, 17. Apical, 18. Sub-apical
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs.[1]: 10  It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articulator. Active articulators are organs capable of voluntary movement which create the constriction, while passive articulators are so called because they are normally fixed and are the parts with which an active articulator makes contact.[2]: 24  Along with the manner of articulation and phonation, the place of articulation gives the consonant its distinctive sound.

Since vowels are produced with an open vocal tract, the point where their production occurs cannot be easily determined. Therefore, they are not described in terms of a place of articulation but by the relative positions in vowel space. This is mostly dependent on their formant frequencies and less on the specific tongue position and lip rounding.[3]: 34 

The terminology used in describing places of articulation has been developed to allow specifying of all theoretically possible contrasts. No known language distinguishes all of the places described in the literature so less precision is needed to distinguish the sounds of a particular language.[1]: 39 

Overview

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The human voice produces sounds in the following manner:[4][page needed][5][page needed]

  1. Air pressure from the lungs creates a steady flow of air through the trachea (windpipe), larynx (voice box) and pharynx (back of the throat). Therefore, the air moves out of the lungs through a coordinated action of the diaphragm, abdominal muscles, chest muscles and rib cage.
  2. The vocal folds in the larynx vibrate, creating fluctuations in air pressure, known as sound waves.
  3. Resonances in the vocal tract modify these waves according to the position and shape of the lips, jaw, tongue, soft palate, and other speech organs, creating formant regions and so different qualities of sonorant (voiced) sound.
  4. Mouth radiates the sound waves into the environment.
  5. Nasal cavity adds resonance to some sounds such as [m] and [n] to give nasal quality of the so-called nasal consonants.

The larynx

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The larynx or voice box is a cylindrical framework of cartilage that serves to anchor the vocal folds. When the muscles of the vocal folds contract, the airflow from the lungs is impeded until the vocal folds are forced apart again by the increasing air pressure from the lungs. The process continues in a periodic cycle that is felt as a vibration (buzzing). In singing, the vibration frequency of the vocal folds determines the pitch of the sound produced. Voiced phonemes such as the pure vowels are, by definition, distinguished by the buzzing sound of this periodic oscillation of the vocal cords.

The lips of the mouth can be used in a similar way to create a similar sound, as any toddler or trumpeter can demonstrate. A rubber balloon, inflated but not tied off and stretched tightly across the neck produces a squeak or buzz, depending on the tension across the neck and the level of pressure inside the balloon. Similar actions with similar results occur when the vocal cords are contracted or relaxed across the larynx.

Active articulators

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The active articulators are movable parts of the vocal apparatus that impede or direct the airstream, typically some part of the tongue or lips.[3]: 4  There are five major parts of the vocal tract that move: the lips, the flexible front of the tongue, the body of the tongue, the root of the tongue together with the epiglottis, and the glottis. They are discrete in that they can act independently of each other, and two or more may work together in what is called coarticulation.[1]: 10-11 

The five main active parts can be further divided, as many languages contrast sounds produced within the same major part of the vocal apparatus. The following 9 degrees of active articulatory areas are known to be contrastive (sorted such that the top-most is in the front-most area of the mouth and the bottom-most is in the rear-most area of the mouth):[1]: 10-15 

In bilabial consonants, both lips move so the articulatory gesture brings the lips together, but by convention, the lower lip is said to be active and the upper lip passive. Similarly, in linguolabial consonants the tongue contacts the upper lip with the upper lip actively moving down to meet the tongue; nonetheless, the tongue is conventionally said to be active and the lip passive if for no other reason than that the parts of the mouth below the vocal tract are typically active, and those above the vocal tract are typically passive.

In dorsal gestures, different parts of the body of the tongue contact different parts of the roof of the mouth, but it cannot be independently controlled so they are all subsumed under the term dorsal. That is unlike coronal gestures involving the front of the tongue, which is more flexible.

The epiglottis may be active, contacting the pharynx, or passive, being contacted by the aryepiglottal folds. Distinctions made in these laryngeal areas are very difficult to observe and are the subject of ongoing investigation, and several still-unidentified combinations are thought possible.

The glottis acts upon itself. There is a sometimes fuzzy line between glottal, aryepiglottal, and epiglottal consonants and phonation, which uses these same areas.

Passive articulators

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The passive are the more stationary parts of the vocal tract that the active articulator touches or gets close to; they can be anywhere from the lips, upper teeth, gums, or roof of the mouth to the back of the throat.[3]: 4  Although it is a continuum, there are several contrastive areas so languages may distinguish consonants by articulating them in different areas, but few languages contrast two sounds within the same area unless there is some other feature which contrasts as well. The following 9 degrees of passive articulatory areas are known to be contrastive (sorted such that the top-most is in the front-most area of the mouth and the bottom-most is in the rear-most area of the mouth):

The regions are not strictly separated. For instance, in some sounds in many languages, the surface of the tongue contacts a relatively large area from the back of the upper teeth to the alveolar ridge, which is common enough to have received its own name, denti-alveolar. Likewise, the alveolar and post-alveolar regions merge into each other, as do the hard and soft palate, the soft palate and the uvula, and all adjacent regions. Terms like pre-velar (intermediate between palatal and velar), post-velar (between velar and uvular), and upper vs. lower pharyngeal may be used to specify more precisely where an articulation takes place. However, although a language may contrast pre-velar and post-velar sounds, it does not also contrast them with palatal and uvular sounds (of the same type of consonant) so contrasts are limited to the number above, if not always their exact location.

Table of gestures and passive articulators and resulting places of articulation

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The following table shows the possible combinations of active and passive articulators.

The possible locations for sibilants as well as non-sibilants to occur are indicated in dashed red. For sibilants, there are additional complications involving tongue shape; see the article on sibilants for a chart of possible articulations.

Front/back → Front Back
Major class → Labial Coronal "Guttural"
Acute/grave
↓ 		Active articulator → Lower lip
(Labial) 		Tongue blade
(Laminal) 		Tongue tip
(Apical) 		Underside of tongue
(Subapical) 		Tongue body
(Dorsal) 		Tongue root
(Radical) 		Larynx
(Laryngeal)
Passive articulator
↓
Grave Upper lip bilabial linguolabial
Upper teeth labiodental
Acute Upper teeth interdental dental
Upper teeth/alveolar ridge denti-alveolar
Alveolar ridge laminal alveolar apico-alveolar
Back of alveolar ridge
(postalveolar) 		palato-alveolar apical retroflex alveolo-palatal
Hard palate (front) retroflex palatal
Grave Soft palate subapical velar velar
Uvula uvular
Pharynx pharyngeal epiglotto-pharyngeal
Epiglottis (ary-)epiglottal
Glottis glottal

A precise vocabulary of compounding the two places of articulation is sometimes seen. However, it is usually reduced to the passive articulation, which is generally sufficient. Thus dorsal–palatal, dorsal–velar, and dorsal–uvular are usually just called "palatal", "velar", and "uvular". If there is ambiguity, additional terms have been invented, so subapical–palatal is more commonly called "retroflex".

Note: Additional shades of passive articulation are sometimes specified using pre- or post-, for example prepalatal (near the border between the postalveolar region and the hard palate; prevelar (at the back of the hard palate, also post-palatal or even medio-palatal for the middle of the hard palate); or postvelar (near the border of the soft palate and the uvula). They can be useful in the precise description of sounds that are articulated somewhat farther forward or back than a prototypical consonant; for this purpose, the "fronted" and "retracted" IPA diacritics can be used. However, no additional shade is needed to phonemically distinguish two consonants in a single language.[a]

Homorganic consonants

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Main article: Homorganic consonant

Consonants that have the same place of articulation, such as the alveolar sounds /n, t, d, s, z, l/ in English, are said to be homorganic. Similarly, labial /p, b, m/ and velar /k, ɡ, ŋ/ are homorganic. A homorganic nasal rule, an instance of assimilation, operates in many languages, where a nasal consonant must be homorganic with a following stop. We see this with English intolerable but implausible; another example is found in Yoruba, where the present tense of ba "hide" is mba "is hiding", while the present of sun "sleep" is nsun "is sleeping".

Central and lateral articulation

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Main article: Lateral consonant

The tongue contacts the mouth with a surface that has two dimensions: length and width. So far, only points of articulation along its length have been considered. However, articulation varies along its width as well. When the airstream is directed down the center of the tongue, the consonant is said to be central. If, however, it is deflected off to one side, escaping between the side of the tongue and the side teeth, it is said to be lateral. Nonetheless, for simplicity's sake the place of articulation is assumed to be the point along the length of the tongue, and the consonant may in addition be said to be central or lateral. That is, a consonant may be lateral alveolar, like English /l/ (the tongue contacts the alveolar ridge, but allows air to flow off to the side), or lateral palatal, like Castilian Spanish ll /ʎ/. Some Indigenous Australian languages contrast dental, alveolar, retroflex, and palatal laterals, and many Native American languages have lateral fricatives and affricates as well.

Coarticulation

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Some languages have consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation, which is called coarticulation. When these are doubly articulated, the articulators must be independently movable, and therefore there may be only one each from the major categories labial, coronal, dorsal and pharyngeal.

The only common doubly articulated consonants are labial–velar stops like [k͡p], [ɡ͡b] and less commonly [ŋ͡m], which are found throughout Western Africa and Central Africa. Other combinations are rare but include labial–(post)alveolar stops [t͡p d͡b n͡m], found as distinct consonants only in a single language in New Guinea, and a uvular–epiglottal stop, [q͡ʡ], found in Somali.

More commonly, coarticulation involves secondary articulation of an approximantic nature. Then, both articulations can be similar such as labialized labial [mʷ] or palatalized velar [kʲ]. That is the case of English [w], which is a velar consonant with secondary labial articulation.

Common coarticulations include these:

  • Labialization, rounding the lips while producing the obstruction, as in [kʷ] and English [w].
  • Palatalization, raising the body of the tongue toward the hard palate while producing the obstruction, as in Russian [tʲ] and [ɕ].
  • Velarization, raising the back of the tongue toward the soft palate (velum), as in the English dark el, [lˠ] (also transcribed [ɫ]).
  • Pharyngealization, constriction of the throat (pharynx), such as Arabic "emphatic" [tˤ].

See also

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Notes

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Place of articulation

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In , the place of articulation is the specific point of constriction or closure in the vocal tract where an active approaches or contacts a passive to obstruct and produce a sound. This parameter forms one of three core classificatory features for , alongside (how the obstruction occurs) and voicing (vibration of the vocal folds). Places of articulation vary across languages but are fundamental to distinguishing sounds, such as the bilabial closure for /p/ versus the alveolar contact for /t/ in English. Active articulators, which include the lower lip, tongue tip, tongue blade, tongue body, and root, move toward stationary passive articulators like the upper lip, upper teeth, alveolar ridge, , (velum), , pharyngeal wall, and to create the necessary narrowing. The resulting places are typically described from front to back along the vocal tract, encompassing bilabial (lips together, as in /m/), labiodental (lower lip to upper teeth, as in /f/), dental (tongue to teeth, as in /θ/), alveolar (tongue tip to alveolar ridge, as in /n/), postalveolar (tongue blade behind alveolar ridge, as in /ʃ/), retroflex (tongue tip curled back, as in some /ɹ/ variants), palatal ( body to , as in /j/), velar ( back to , as in /ŋ/), uvular ( back to ), pharyngeal ( root to ), and glottal (constriction at the vocal folds, as in the [ʔ]). While English primarily utilizes about nine of these places, other languages employ additional ones like epiglottal or labiovelar combinations for unique consonants. Understanding place of articulation is crucial in and language teaching, as it underlies sound inventories, phonological rules, and speech disorders involving misarticulation, such as substituting alveolar for dental sounds. Instrumental techniques like electropalatography and ultrasound imaging have advanced the study of these places by visualizing and movements in real time.

Introduction and Fundamentals

Overview

In , the place of articulation refers to the specific location within the vocal tract where the is obstructed or modified to produce a sound, involving the interaction between active articulators (such as the or ) and passive articulators (such as the teeth or ). This parameter is essential for distinguishing , as seen in English where the bilabial stop /p/ is formed by bringing both together to block , while the alveolar stop /t/ involves the tip contacting the alveolar ridge behind the upper teeth. The concept emphasizes the anatomical positioning that shapes sound production without delving into the full mechanics of restriction. The classification of places of articulation traces back to ancient Indian grammarians, notably in the 4th century BCE, who systematically described oral places in his , organizing sounds by articulatory sites like the , , and to ensure precise pronunciation in Vedic texts. This early framework influenced later traditions, evolving through medieval Arabic and European scholarship into the modern International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) standards established in the late 19th century by the , which standardized places for cross-linguistic transcription. Place of articulation interacts with (how airflow is obstructed, such as stops or fricatives) and voicing (vibration of the vocal folds) to form the basis of consonant charts in phonetic inventories, allowing systematic categorization of sounds across languages. For instance, in the IPA chart, columns represent places from bilabial to glottal, with rows indicating manners, and voicing distinguishing pairs like voiced /b/ and voiceless /p/ at the bilabial place. Understanding place of articulation is crucial in , where children progressively master consonantal places, often acquiring anterior places like bilabials before posterior ones like velars, influencing developmental milestones. In , it guides interventions for articulation disorders by targeting specific places to correct errors in sound production. Additionally, in , place features enhance automatic systems by modeling articulatory knowledge to improve consonant identification in noisy environments.

Anatomical Foundations

The supralaryngeal vocal tract, extending from the to the , forms the primary and modifier of airflow for above the . This tract includes the oral cavity, , and , where constrictions and resonances shape the acoustic properties of and vowels. Air from the lungs passes through this region, interacting with movable and fixed structures to produce articulatory gestures. Active articulators are the movable components that initiate contact or constriction within the vocal tract to modify . The lower lip can protrude or retract to approximate the upper lip or teeth, facilitating labial sounds. The , the most versatile , is divided into the tip (apex), blade (front portion), front, back, and ; it raises, lowers, advances, or retracts to contact various passive structures, enabling a wide range of places from alveolar to velar. The lowers or elevates to adjust the overall opening and position, influencing vowel formants and consonant articulation. The velum () raises to close the nasal passage or lowers to allow nasal , directing pathways. Passive articulators are stationary structures against which active articulators move to form constrictions. These include the upper lip for bilabial contact, upper teeth for dental approximations, the alveolar ridge (gum line behind the upper teeth) for alveolar sounds, the for palatal gestures, the and for velar and uvular places, the pharyngeal wall for pharyngeal constrictions, the at the laryngopharynx entrance, and the as the space between the vocal folds. The interaction between active and passive articulators defines the place of articulation, with the degree of constriction determining whether fricatives, stops, or result. The , located below the supralaryngeal tract, primarily controls through the vocal folds but also serves as a site for glottal articulation distinct from supralaryngeal places. The vocal folds vibrate to produce voicing across all supralaryngeal sounds, yet the functions as a passive for glottal fricatives like /h/, where turbulence occurs at the glottal opening without supralaryngeal constriction. This distinction highlights the larynx's dual role in both global voicing and localized glottal gestures. Standard phonetic diagrams, such as mid-sagittal sections of the vocal tract, illustrate these structures in a vertical slice through the head's midline, showing the alignment of articulators from to lips. Modern imaging techniques have enhanced understanding of articulator dynamics beyond static diagrams. Real-time (MRI) captures three-dimensional movements of the , velum, and pharyngeal wall during continuous speech, revealing subtle coarticulation patterns and individual variability. imaging, applied non-invasively to the and jaw, provides high-temporal-resolution data on surface contours and trajectories, offering insights into articulatory timing and adaptation in diverse languages. Recent advances as of 2025 include the development of large-scale real-time MRI databases, such as the rtMRIDB for studying vocal tract movements in languages like Japanese, and frameworks for automatic phonetic segmentation from images in child speech. These methods confirm the precision of active control and passive surface interactions in real-time production.

Primary Places of Articulation

Major Categories and Descriptions

The major places of articulation in phonetics are organized hierarchically along the vocal tract, from the lips to the glottis, reflecting the primary points of constriction or closure during consonant production. These categories group related articulatory positions based on the active articulator (typically the tongue or lips) and the passive articulator (a fixed structure in the vocal tract). The labial places involve the lips, coronal places engage the tongue tip or blade, dorsal places use the tongue body, radical places the tongue root or base, and laryngeal places the glottis. This organization facilitates cross-linguistic comparison and phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Labial places include bilabial and labiodental articulations. In bilabial sounds, the two lips approximate to form a closure, as in the voiceless stop (English "pin") or voiced stop (English "bin"), where is briefly blocked before release. Labiodental articulations involve the lower against the upper teeth, producing fricatives such as the voiceless (English "") and voiced (English ""), with turbulent through the narrow channel. These places are common in but less frequent in others without labiodental fricatives. Coronal places encompass dental, alveolar, postalveolar, and retroflex articulations, all involving the front portion of the tongue (corona) against upper structures. Dental sounds feature the tongue tip or blade contacting the upper teeth, as in the voiceless [θ] (English "thin") and voiced [ð] (English "this"), with friction at the teeth. Alveolar articulations position the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind the upper teeth), yielding stops like (English "tin") and (English "din"), nasals , s [s z], and lateral . Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) sounds occur slightly behind the alveolar ridge, often with tongue blade raising toward the , as in the s [ʃ] (English "ship") and [ʒ] (English "measure"). Retroflex articulations, less common in European languages, involve curling the tongue tip backward to contact the or postalveolar region, producing stops such as [ʈ] and [ɖ], or s [ʂ], as in or . Dorsal places refer to articulations using the body of the tongue against the . Palatal sounds raise the tongue body to the , creating stops [c ɟ], nasal [ɲ], or , as in Spanish "caña" for [ɲ]. Velar articulations position the back of the tongue against the (velum), forming stops (English "kin") and (English "go"), nasal [ŋ] (English "sing"), and fricatives [x ɣ], common across many languages. These places often show coarticulatory effects with adjacent vowels, advancing or retracting based on context. Radical places involve the root or base of the tongue in the lower vocal tract, including uvular, pharyngeal, and epiglottal articulations. Uvular sounds constrict the body against the , producing stops [q ɢ] or fricatives [χ ʁ], as in "qalb" [qalb] or French uvular [ʁ] in "rue". Pharyngeal articulations narrow the using the tongue root against the pharyngeal wall, yielding fricatives [ħ ʕ], prominent in like . Epiglottal sounds, rarer, articulate with the aryepiglottic folds against the , such as the fricative [ʜ] or stop [ʡ], found in languages like Agul (Dagestani). emphatic consonants, such as [sˤ tˤ dˤ], involve secondary at coronal places, enhancing pharyngeal constriction for contrast. Clicks in (e.g., !Xóõ) use lingual ingressive airflow with anterior closures at dental [|], alveolar [!], or palatal [ǂ] places, demonstrating place-specific velaric initiation. Laryngeal place occurs at the , where the vocal folds approximate for the [ʔ] (English "uh-oh") or create friction for (English ""), without involvement of supraglottal structures. This place marks the end of the pulmonic pathway. Traditional classifications sometimes overlook fine distinctions within places, but emerging aerodynamic reveals sub-places through and measurements.

Table of Articulators and Places

The table below provides a systematic overview of the primary places of articulation, organized in sagittal progression from the front () to the back () of the vocal tract. This progression reflects the anatomical layout of the oral and pharyngeal cavities, facilitating for production. The active refers to the movable part (e.g., or ) that approaches or contacts the passive , the stationary target (e.g., teeth or ). Columns include representative IPA symbols for consonants at each place and examples of languages where they occur prominently. The table covers over 18 places by incorporating standard categories, double articulations, and rare variants documented in linguistic , excluding highly idiosyncratic cases.
Active ArticulatorPassive ArticulatorPlace of ArticulationIPA ExamplesLanguages/Occurrences
Lower lipUpper lipBilabial[p, b, m, ɸ, β]English (e.g., in "pit"), universal
Lower lipUpper teethLabiodental[f, v, ɱ]English (e.g., in "fan")
Tongue tipUpper lipLinguolabial (rare)[t̼, d̼, n̼]Vao ()
Upper lipLower teethDentilabial (rare)[f͆, v͆]Greenlandic dialects (rare)
Tongue tipUpper teethDental[θ, ð, t̪, d̪, n̪]English (e.g., [θ] in "thin"), Spanish
Tongue tip or bladeAlveolar ridgeAlveolar[t, d, n, s, z, l, ɾ, ɹ]English (e.g., in "top")
Tongue bladePost-alveolar regionPostalveolar[ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ]English (e.g., [ʃ] in "ship")
Tongue tip (curled back)Hard palateRetroflex[ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ʂ, ɻ] (e.g., [ʈ] in "ṭīk"), Mandarin
Tongue blade (laminal)Alveolo-palatal (double, rare)Alveolo-palatal[t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, ɲ̠, ɕ, ʑ]Polish, Mandarin
Tongue bodyHard palatePalatal[c, ɟ, ɲ, ç, j]Hungarian (e.g., [ɲ] in "nyelv"), English in "yes"
Lips and tongue bodyHard palateLabial-palatal (rare)[c͡β, ɟ͡b]Some West African languages (e.g., Gur)
Tongue bodySoft palateVelar[k, g, ŋ, x, ɣ]English (e.g., in "cat")
Lips and tongue bodySoft palateLabio-velar[k͡p, g͡b, ŋ͡m, w]Ewe (e.g., [k͡p] in "kpe"), English in "wet"
Tongue bodyUvulaUvular[q, ɢ, ɴ, χ, ʁ] (e.g., in ""), French [ʁ] in "rue"; Archi (endangered Nakh-Daghestanian) features 16 uvular variants including pharyngealised [qˤ, χˤ] from recent fieldwork
Tongue rootPharyngeal wallPharyngeal[ħ, ʕ] (e.g., [ħ] in "ḥarf")
Epiglottis/aryepiglottic foldsPharyngeal wallEpiglottal (rare)[ʡ, ʜ, ʢ, ʡ̞] (, endangered); Agul (Caucasus, endangered) with [ʡ] in stops and fricatives
Vocal foldsGlottisGlottal[ʔ, h, ɦ]English (e.g., [ʔ] in "uh-oh"), universal
This tabular format serves as a quick reference, contrasting with prose descriptions of major categories. For visual representation, refer to sagittal diagrams of articulator positions, such as those illustrating and lip configurations across languages (e.g., updated models incorporating markers for variants like Archi's uvular-pharyngeal interactions).

Variations in Articulation

Homorganic and Coarticulated Consonants

Homorganic consonants are those articulated at the same place of articulation, forming series where multiple manners of articulation share a common location. In English, for instance, the nasal stops /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ form a homorganic series with the voiceless stops /p/, /t/, and /k/, respectively, all produced at the , alveolar ridge, and velum. This pattern facilitates phonological processes like nasal assimilation, where a adopts the place of a following to create homorganic clusters. Coarticulation involves the overlap of articulatory gestures between adjacent sounds, influencing the realization of place of articulation. Anticipatory coarticulation occurs when a sound is affected by an upcoming segment, such as a velar /k/ shifting toward a palatal place before a high /i/ in languages like English (e.g., "key" with advanced position) or Italian (e.g., /ki/ realized as [tɕi]). Perseverative coarticulation, conversely, arises from carry-over effects, as when a preceding velar influences the following vowel's backness in words like "." These coarticulatory effects often lead to phonological assimilation, where place features spread between segments. In English, the prefix /ɪn-/ assimilates in place to a following labial, as in "in-possible" becoming "impossible" with sharing the labial place of /p/, a process driven by anticipatory regressive assimilation. Similar rules apply cross-linguistically, such as nasal place assimilation in Catalan, where /n/ becomes homorganic with a following coronal or labial (e.g., /n/ + /t/ → [nt], /n/ + /p/ → [mp]). Diverse languages exhibit coarticulated consonants involving multiple places simultaneously. In Yoruba, labial-velar stops like /kp/ and /gb/ are produced with simultaneous closure at the lips and velum, and preceding nasals assimilate to a homorganic [ŋm] (e.g., in "ọmọ gbọ" 'he hears'). In Somali, coronal consonants coarticulate with pharyngeals, resulting in retracted or pharyngealized realizations that spread pharyngeal constriction forward. Modern research employs acoustic analysis, such as spectrograms, to demonstrate place coarticulation in rapid speech. Locus equations, measuring transitions from consonant release to vowel steady state, reveal anticipatory effects on place cues, with shallower slopes for alveolar versus velar stops indicating less coarticulation for alveolars in English. coefficients in stop bursts further highlight anticipatory place shifts, as seen in VOT and burst spectra varying with following vowels across speakers.

Central, Lateral, and Secondary Articulation

In phonetics, articulation can vary in the direction of airflow through the oral cavity. Central articulation, the default for most consonants, involves airflow primarily through the midline of the mouth, with the tongue or other articulators forming a constriction that directs the airstream centrally. Lateral articulation, by contrast, features a central blockage by the tongue, allowing airflow to escape around one or both sides of the mouth; this produces sounds classified as [+lateral] in feature geometry. Representative examples include the alveolar lateral approximant in English "let," where air flows laterally past the tongue sides, and the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ] in Welsh "llaw" (hand), which adds frication to the lateral airflow. Secondary articulation modifies a primary constriction by adding a simultaneous, less prominent gesture elsewhere in the vocal tract, often vowel-like in quality, which alters the sound's timbre without changing the main place of articulation. Common types include labialization, involving lip protrusion and rounding (e.g., the velar stop [kʷ] in Kwakw'ala "kʷesa" meaning 'splashing water,' contrasting with non-labialized in "kasa" 'beat softly'); palatalization, raising the tongue body toward the hard palate (e.g., Russian [tʲ] in "mʲatʲ" 'to rumble,' distinct from velarized [tˠ] in "matʲ" 'mother'); and velarization or pharyngealization, retracting the tongue root (e.g., Arabic emphatic [sˤ] in "sˤaːfɪr" 'whistle,' versus plain in "saːfɪr" 'ambassador'). These secondary gestures are phonemically contrastive in many languages and are transcribed with diacritics in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Double articulation occurs when a secondary gesture achieves equal prominence to the primary one, resulting in two simultaneous strictures of comparable degree, often treated as a single complex segment. Examples include labio-velar stops like [k͡p] in Eggon "àk͡pà" 'kneel,' where lip closure pairs with velar closure, contrasting with sequences like [kp]. Such sounds are rarer than secondary articulations and cluster geographically, appearing mainly in West and Central African languages (e.g., Idoma) and some like Yeletnye [t͡p]. Cross-linguistically, lateral sounds show rich diversity in places of articulation, particularly in Australian languages, where series of dental [ɮ̪], alveolar , retroflex [ɭ], and palatal [ʎ] laterals distinguish meaning; acoustic studies of Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara, and Warlpiri reveal distinct formant patterns, with retroflex laterals showing lower F3 frequencies due to tongue curling. Secondary articulations vary by region: Slavic languages like Russian emphasize palatalization as a tongue body raising feature, creating contrasts via [-back] posture without pharyngeal involvement, while African languages often feature pharyngealization (e.g., Arabic emphatics) or labial-velar doubles in Bantu and Niger-Congo families. Recent articulatory modeling studies address secondary places in click languages like !Xóõ, a of , using biomechanical simulations to show how morphology biases click production; these models demonstrate reduced effort for certain secondary velar or uvular accompaniments to the primary anterior click influx, influencing acoustic output and cross-linguist .

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