Articulating organ
The articulation organ or articulator , colloquially also speech instrument, is used in phonetics to describe the relatively flexible, mostly lower part of the vocal tract , which is used in articulation , a sub-process of sound formation. With the formation of consonants or semi-vowels , two parts of the vocal path are brought into contact or approximated with one another. The upper, rather immobile part is the place of articulation .
In phonetics, the following organs of articulation are distinguished:
- Lower lip → labial sounds
- Tip of the tongue (apex) → apical sounds
- Tongue wreath (corona) → coronal sounds
- Tongue sheet (lamina) → laminal sounds
- Back of the tongue (dorsum) → dorsal sounds
- Tongue root (radix) → radical sounds
- Vocal folds (glottis) → glottal sounds
Since the vocal cords are also the place of articulation of the glottal sounds, they are not always explicitly stated as the articulator.
In contrast to voicing , articulation location and mode , the articulators are normally not used to name individual sounds, but can be used in individual cases for distinction.
| designation | Articulating organ | Articulation place | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| bilabial | Lower lip (labium inferius) | Upper lip (labium superius) | [ p ] [ b ] [ m ] |
| labiodental | bottom lip | upper incisors | [ f ] [ v ] |
| dental | Tongue sheet | upper incisors | [ d̪ ] |
| alveolar | Tip of the tongue (apex linguae) | Tooth dam (alveolus dentalis) | [ d ] |
| postalveolar | Tongue sheet | hard palate (palatum durum) | [ ʃ ] [ ʒ ] |
| retroflex | Tip of tongue | Hard palate | [ ɻ ] |
| palatal | Back of the tongue (dorsum linguae) | Hard palate | [ ç ] |
| velar | Back of the tongue | soft palate, soft palate (velum) | [ k ] [ ɡ ] |
| uvular | Back of the tongue | Uvula (uvula) | [ ʀ ] |
| pharyngal | Tongue root (radix linguae) | Throat wall (pharynx) | [ ħ ] |
| glottal | Vocal folds | Glottis (glottis) | [ h ] |
