Places of Articulation-Active and Passive Articulators

 What are articulators?

Articulators are the mouth organs like the tongue and lips if they help in producing some speech sounds. For example, we need to raise the tip of the tongue to touch the upper teeth in order to produce / θ, ð/ sounds.

What are the places of articulation?

The places of articulation are determined by the points where two organs of the mouth like the tip of the tongue and teeth meet to create some gap to produce consonant sounds.

What are Active and Passive articulators?

The articulator that plays an active role in producing a sound is called an active articulator. For example, when the tip of the tongue is raised to touch the upper teeth to produce the sounds   / θ, ð/, in that situation, the tip of the tongue is an active articulator and the upper teeth is the passive articulator because it does not move from its place.

There are different places of articulation in our mouth to articulate (speak) consonant sounds. For convenience, all these places of articulation have been divided into the following categories: 

1.        Bilabial: To produce bilabial sounds, both the upper lip and the lower lip are made to make contact with each other. Thus the following sounds are produced in this process: / p, b, m, w/

2.        Labio-dental: This place of articulation is determined when / f / and / v /sounds are produced. For the production of these two sounds in English, the lower lip is raised to touch the upper teeth. The consonant sounds / f / and / v /are called labio-dental sounds 

3.  Dental: While producing the sounds / θ, ð/, the tip of the tongue is raised to touch the upper teeth. So the consonant sounds   / θ, ð/   are called the dental sounds.

3.        Alveolar: Teeth ridge is called alveolar. The blade (the front portion) of the tongue is raised against the teeth ridge to produce the following consonant sounds: / t, d, s,  z, n, l/ 

4.        Post Alveolar: The place of articulation ‘post-alveolar’ is situated at the back of the teeth ridge. To produce the post-alveolar sounds / tʃ, ʃ, ʒ, dʒ/, the blade of the tongue is raised to touch the back of the teeth ridge.

6.  Retroflex: To produce a retroflex sound in 

English language, the tip of the tongue is curled back towards the hard palate.