Glossary of Phonetic Terms

Introduction

Phonetic alphabets isolate the discreet speech sounds of languages and represent speech sounds with combinations of letters, numbers, and characters which are known as “phones”. In addition, phonetic alphabets use a vocabulary of terms that describe phones and their articulation, including the following characteristics:

• Manner of articulation. Describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs make contact to produce a sound.

• Place of articulation. The point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active (moving) articulator (typically some part of the tongue) and a passive (stationary) articulator (typically some part of the roof of the mouth).

• Phonation type. Indicates whether a sound is voiced or voiceless. A voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords vibrate. A voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords do not vibrate.

• Airstream mechanism. The method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract.

Glossary

The following table defines terms used to describe speech sounds and their components, contains additional terms used in phonetics, and includes the abbreviations used in the phone tables of the Phonetic Alphabet Reference.

Term	Abbrev.	Description	Example in en-US
Advanced	adv	An advanced sound is pronounced farther to the front of the vocal tract than some reference point.
Advanced tongue root	atr	Moving the base of the tongue forward, expanding the pharyngeal cavity, by during the pronunciation of a vowel. Often includes lowering the larynx.
Affricate	aff	A consonant sound that begins with stop-like total closure for the vocal tract, followed by a more controlled, fricative-style release (i.e. a stricture causing friction.)	[ch] (chin), [j] (joy)
Allophone	-	Similar spoken sounds that are represented by the same phoneme (think letter of the alphabet). There may be multiple phones (pronunciations) for a single phoneme. For example, the different pronunciations of the letter “t” in the words tub, stub, but, butter, and button are allophones of the phoneme /t/.*
Alveolar	alv	A consonant that is articulated with the tongue against or close to the upper alveolar ridge, which contain the sockets for the upper teeth.	[t](talk), [d] (dig)
Alveolo-palatal	-	A consonant that is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate.
Apical	api	A consonant that is produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue.
Approximant	apr	Speech sounds made by moving articulators close to each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow.	[j], [w]
Articulator	-	There are five basic active articulators for creating speech: the lip, the flexible front of the tongue, the middle/back of the tongue, the root of the tongue together with the epiglottis, and the larynx.
Aspiration	asp	A strong burst of air that accompanies either the release of some obstruents.
Back	bck	Indicates that the position of the tongue is close to the back of the mouth during the articulation of a vowel. Back vowels are also called dark volewls.	[u]
Bilabial	blb	A consonant articulated with both lips.
Breathy voice	bvd	A sound in which the vocal cords vibrate, but are held further apart so that a larger volume of air escapes between them.
Center	cnt	Indicates that the position of the tongue is positioned halfway between the front and the back of the mouth during the articulation of a vowel.
Centralized	cen	A vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
Click	clk	A sound produced by closing the vocal tract at two places of articulation in the mouth, rarifying (uncompressing) the air in the enclosed space by lowering the tongue, and then releasing both closures.
Coronal	-	A consonant that is articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue
Creaky voiced	cvd	A sound in which the airflow through the glottis is very slow and the vocal chords vibrate more slowly than with normal voicing.
Dental	den	A consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as /t/, /d/, and /n/.
Denti-alveolar	dnt-alv	A consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and upper teeth
Dentolabial		A consonant that is articulated with the lower teeth against the upper lip
Diphthong	-	Literally "two sounds" or "two tones", a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation.
Dorsal	-	A consonant that is articulated with the mid body of the tongue (the dorsum).
Egressive	-	Sounds in which the air stream is created by pushing air out through the mouth or nose. Egresives may be one of the following types: Pulmonic egressive. The air stream is created by the lungs, ribs, and diaphragm to make sounds. Lingual egressive. With the velum closed, the speaker forces air out of the mouth using either the tongue or cheeks. Glottalic egressive sounds are known as ejectives.
Ejective	ejc	Voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis.
Flap (or Tap)	flp	A type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another.
Fricative	frc	A consonant sound formed with limited closure of the vocal tract, (i.e. a steady stricture causing friction).
Front	fnt	Indicates that the position of the tongue is close to the front of the mouth during the articulation of a vowel.	[i]
Glottal	glt	Sound production involving only the glottis.
Glottis	-	The combination of the vocal folds (vocal chords) and the space in between the folds.
High	hgh	Indicates that the tongue is in a raised vertical position relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw to pronounce certain vowels. Vowels thus pronounced are also higher in pitch. Also called closed vowels.	[i] and [u]
Implosive	imp	Implosives consonants are stops in which the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs
Interdental	-	A consonant that is produced by placing the blade of the tongue (the top surface just behind the tip of the tongue) against the upper incisors
Labial	lab	A consonant in which one or both lips are the active articulator.
Labial-alveolar		Consonants that have two primary places of articulation, at the lips and the gums.
labial-palatal	lbp	A sound made both by shaping the roundness of the lips and by raising the body of the tongue toward the hard palate. Rare.
Labial-velar	lbv	Consonants that have two primary places of articulation, at the velum and the lips.
Labiodental	lbd	A consonant that is articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Labio-palatalization	-	Consonants that are articulated with the lips and with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate.
Laminal	lam	A consonant that is produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat, top surface just behind the tip of the tongue.
Lateral	lat	"L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. The approximant /l/ is the only lateral in English.	[l]
Lateral release	lar	A consonant that is produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract and then releasing it to escape at one side or both sides of the tongue.
Less rounded	lrd	A vowel sound made with the lips less rounded.
Linguolabial	lla	A consonant articulated by placing the tongue tip or blade against the upper lip, which is drawn downward to meet the tongue.
Lowered	low	A sound articulated with the tongue or lip lowered (the mouth more open) than some reference point. Also called open vowel.	[a]
Mid	mid	A vowel that is produced with the tongue positioned mid-way between an open (low) vowel and a close (high) vowel.
Mid-centralized	mcn	A vowel closer to the mid-point of the vowel space, both in terms of front-to-back and top-to-bottom, than some point of reference.
Monophthong	-	Literally "one sound" or "one tone", a vowel whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed.
More rounded	mrd	A vowel sound made with the lips more rounded.
Nasal	nas	A consonant that is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose.	[n], [m]
Nasal release	nsr	A consonant that is produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract and then releasing it, allowing the air to escape freely through the nose.
No audible release	nar	A consonant that is produced by blocking the oral tract , but there is no audible indication of when that occlusion ends.
Non-syllabic	nsy	Vowel-like sounds that are not the most prominent part of a syllable.
Obstruent	-	A consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, resulting in partial or total closure of the vocal tract.
Oral	-	A consonant sound that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose.	[p], [w], [v] or [x].
Orthography	-	The correct method of writing a language, including spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks and punctuation.
Palatal	pal	A consonant that is articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth).
Pharyngeal	phr	A consonant that is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.
Pharynx	-	The pharynx lies behind the oral cavity.
Phone	-	A notation (letters, numbers, characters) that represents a discreet sound in a spoken language. Changing a phone in a word will alter its pronunciation. See Phoneme and Allophone.
Phoneme	-	A basic component of written language, typically a letter of an alphabet, (or the combination of multiple letters) that represents a group of similar sounds. Changing a phoneme in a word will alter its spelling. A written word is an assemblage of phonemes. A phoneme may represent multiple phones. See Phone and Allophone.	[c] (cow, certain); [th] (that, thimble, teeth)
Postalveolar		A consonant that is articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate
Radical	-	A consonant that is articulated with the root (base) of the tongue in the throat.
Raised	rai	A sound that is articulated with the tongue or lip raised higher than some reference point.
Retracted	ret	A sound that is pronounced farther to the back of the vocal tract than some reference point.
Retracted tongue root	rtr	The neutral position or the the retraction of the base of the tongue in the pharynx during the pronunciation of a vowel.
Retroflex	rfx	A consonant that is articulated with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate or uvula
Rhoticity	rho	Rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ in all positions within a word, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only if it is followed by a vowel sound.
Rounded	rnd	The pronunciation of a vowel with lips formed in a circular opening.
Semi-high	smh	A vowel pronounced with the tongue positioned between a high (close) vowel and a mid vowel.
Semi-low	sml	A vowel pronounced with the tongue positioned between a low (open) vowel and a mid vowel.
Sibilant		A type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth.	[s](sin), [ʃʷ̜] (shin)
Sonorant	-	A speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. Vowels are sonorants.
Stop	stp	A consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract, followed by an explosive release of air. Also called plosive.
Subapical	-	A consonant made by contact with the underside of the tip of the tongue.
Syllable	-	The building blocks of words, syllables are typically made up of a syllable nuclear (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).
Syllabic	syl	A consonant which either forms a syllable on its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable.
Tone	-	The use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning.
Trill	trl	A consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation.
Unrounded	unr, urd	A vowel pronounced with the lips not rounded, that is, relaxed.
Upper-mid	umd	A vowel pronounced with the tongue between the high (close) and mid vowel positions.
Uvular	uvl	A consonant that is articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants.
Velar	vel	A consonant that is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).
Velarize	vph	A secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.
Velum	-	The back part of the roof of the mouth; the soft palate.
Vocal Tract	-	Consists of the laryngeal cavity, the pharynx, the oral cavity, and the nasal cavity.
Voiced	vcd	A voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords vibrate.
Voiceless	vls	A voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords do not vibrate.
Vowel	vwl	A spoken sound pronounced with an open vocal tract.

Note

In transcription, individual phones are placed between slashes: /sh/.

Individual phonemes are placed in square brackets: [ʃ]