• Complete or partial closure of vocal tract
• Voiced/Unvoiced

Nasal

• Mouth closed and velum lowered
• Vowel-like structure, weaker energy
• Sound through nose
• English has only voiced nasals
• Can be identified by direction of formant movement
• m, n, ng
• Locations
  • Labial
    • Lips
    • m
  • Alveolar
    • Palatal ridge
    • n
  • Velar
    • Soft palate
    • ng

Plosive

• Closure which is released
• Voiced or unvoiced
  • Based on when voicing starts
  • t, d
• Trill
• Tap or flap
• Locations
  • Labial
    • Lips
    • p, b
  • Alveolar
    • Palatal ridge
    • t, d
  • Velar
    • Soft palate
    • k, g

Fricative

• Air forced through constriction
• Jet of turbulence
• Noisy
• Voiced
  • v, z
• Unvoiced
  • f, s
• Frequency cut-off
  • Inversely proportional to length of cavity in front of constriction
• Sibilants
  • Air forced over teeth
  • s, z
• Affricate
  • Abrupt start to frication
  • Ch, J

Approximant

• Articulators move close, some perturbations
• Vowel-like structure, weaker energy
• Upward trajectory of formants
• r, y, l , w