Manner of Articulation
23.07.2012 § Leave a comment
In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound.
This morning I needed to look up a few English words while studying Japanese. I was thrilled to learn these new words because they are so rare to me; that always piques my interest. I had come across these terms in Chinese when I was serving the Chinese language school as a volunteer teacher. Now learning Japanese in English is like killing two birds with one stone: I get to learn both languages.
Here are some of the words:
Isochronous means that all syllables have the same sound duration such as with the Japanese language. I think Italian is that way. I remember when a purchasing client called from Italy and asked for Iris Wang. Her pronunciation of my last name was “Wang-ge”. The Italian tongue seems to need a vowel at all times.
Affricate—Sounds like “ch” are affricates, sounds made by half “bursting,” half “rubbing” the speech organs.
Bi-labial—a consonant sound made with the friction of both lips, such as b, p, and m
Bi-labial voiceless frication—This articulation does not exist in English. The Japanese pronunciation comes closest to the English “f” sound.
Labio-dental fricative—a consonant sound made with the friction of teeth and a lip, such as f, v, and s
Woven-Words 
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