Minds and Computers : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

Figure 16.1
Taxonomy of English obstruent phonemes.
Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar Glottal
Voiced stops
Voiceless stops
Nasals
Voiced fricatives
Voiceless fricatives
Voiced affricates
Voiceless affricates
Approximants

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Stops, or plosives, are phonemes such that their production
involves completely obstructing the passage of air through the artic-
ulatory apparatus. Plosives can be voiced, such as /d/, or voiceless,
such as /t/.
Fricatives are phonemes whose production involves restricting the
passage of air through the articulatory apparatus such that the
passage of air creates a sibilant, hissing sound. Fricatives can also be
voiced, such as /z/ or voiceless, such as /s/.
Nasal sounds are those whose production involves the resonation
of air in the nasal cavity. It is these obstruent sounds whose produc-
tion is inhibited when we have a cold. If you hold your nose while
trying to produce these phonemes, you will find that the sound is flat
and wooden, whereas holding your nose has no e
ffect on the produc-
tion of any other obstruent phonemes. All nasal phonemes are
voiced.
A
ffricate phonemes are combinations of plosives and fricatives.
The passage of air is initially completely restricted, then partially
restricted. There are only two a
ffricates in English – the voiceless
a
ffricate that is the initial sound in the word ‘chat’ and the voiced
a
ffricate that is the final sound in the word ‘fridge’.
Finally, we have approximants. The classification of these
phonemes is somewhat contentious but the one above serves our pur-
poses. All approximants are voiced. The approximant phonemes are
the closest obstruents to sonorant phonemes.
This exhausts the manner of articulation of obstruent phonemes.
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