Plosives: These are consonants whose articulation involves obstruction of airflow for a moment, followed by its release. At the bottom are the approximant sounds. From top to bottom, the sequence is of listing the stop or plosive sounds at the very top. The rest of the sounds are written in between these. Pulmonic Consonants: These are symbols that are arranged in a sequence from left to right, that correspond with lip sounds on the extreme left and glottal sounds on the extreme right. The IPA has two broad categories of consonants: the pulmonic consonants and the non-pulmonic consonants. They are represented in the IPA as letters with hook-like elongations at the bottom right-hand. Retroflexed consonants are those which are spoken with the tongue between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. Between these broad categories, there are many other gradations to categorize the subtle differences between the consonant sounds. Liquid consonants are those that involve very little or no resistance to airflow while articulating them. Affricatives are consonants in which there is a plosive followed by a fricative. Fricative consonants involve a partial obstruction of airflow when speaking. There are several categories based on how much the airflow is blocked.

Open-back Vowels: These vowel sounds involve the tongue being positioned close to the back of the mouth as well as being close to the roof of the mouth.Ĭonsonants are those sounds that involve an obstruction of the airflow during their articulation. Open-front Vowels: The tongue position, during the articulation of these vowels, is close to the floor of the mouth. Near-open Vowels: The position of the tongue, in the production of these vowels, is close to that involved in articulating open vowels, but there is a slightly greater obstruction of airflow than in the latter. Open-mid Vowels: The production of these vowels involves the tongue being positioned lower in the moth than in the production of mid vowels.

Mid-central Vowel: The sound of this vowel is popularly known as ‘Schwa’. Like the name suggests, the tongue is close to the palate, but not close enough as in the high vowels.Ĭlose-mid Vowels: Also known as mid-high vowels, these are articulated when the tongue stops short of being horizontally positioned in the mouth. Near-close Vowels: The production of this type of vowel also depends upon the position of the tongue in the mouth. They are produced by the tongue being positioned higher in the mouth, and therefore, close to the palate. If they do not, then it is unrounded.Ĭlose Vowels: These are also known as high vowels. If the lips become round while articulating the vowel, it is rounded. Vowels are also called rounded or unrounded based on the lip movement. Center and back vowels are spoken with the tongue in the center and at the back of the mouth respectively. When a vowel is spoken with the tongue sticking out forward in the mouth, it is called a front vowel.

Open vowels are spoken with the tongue positioned low in the mouth. The mid vowel is spoken with the tongue in a horizontal position. When a vowel is spoken in such a way that the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth, it is termed as a close vowel. The system is different, however, and the IPA vowels are categorized based on movement of the tongue. There are vowels in the IPA, just like in any other language. Today, if you know the phonetic alphabet symbols, you can pronounce words in the correct way. People in ancient times could only learn the spoken form of a language if they were in day-to-day contact with those who were fluent in it. Even to this day, a search for Eyjafjallajökull brings up many results for ‘how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull?’ The name comes from the Icelandic language, and it is no surprise that not many people knew what to make of the word when they first saw it. It was found that people searching the web for information on this volcano also searched for its pronunciation. When the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, spraying its ash in the atmosphere all over Europe, the world witnessed a strange phenomenon quite apart from this spectacle. This is a common problem everyone faces, and that is why the phonetic alphabet system has been established to deal with this very issue. Often, a word, especially one from a language other than which you have learned at a young age, turns out to have a totally different pronunciation than what its spelling suggests.

Tongue face symbols in word 2010