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The principal organs of articulation

nasal cavity: nasal consonants and nasalized vowels nasal cavity: nasal consonants and nasalized vowels oral cavity: all consonants except nasals; also very important for vowel quality lips: labial and labialized consonants and rounded vowels teeth: dental consonants tongue tip: apical consonants alveolar ridge: alveolar consonants (hard) palate: palatal consonants tongue blade: palatal consonants tongue back: velar and uvular consonants uvula: uvular consonants velum (soft palate): velar consonants pharynx: pharyngeal consonants (rare); also very important for vowel quality epiglottis: epiglottal consonants (rare) glottis: glottal stop and fricative vocal folds: voiced sounds larynx: voiced sounds and glottal stop/fricative
Diagram of the organs of articulation

Green underlined words are links to further information about the sounds made with the indicated part of the vocal tract.

See also:

(Part of the Electronic glossary of linguistic terms
by J. Albert Bickford and David Tuggy)

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