A key aspect of any language is its physical reality in the world: how we transmit linguistic signals from one person to another. This chapter explores this physical reality by looking at the body parts used for language, how they move to create a linguistic signal, and how linguists categorize, describe, and notate these physical properties so they can record and access information about a language.
When you’ve completed this chapter, you’ll be able to:
- identify the locations and functions of parts of the human anatomy relevant to the articulation of spoken and signed languages,
- provide articulatory descriptions of phones, and
- identify the meanings of many common symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Contents
3.3 Describing consonants: Place
3.4 Describing consonants: Manner