Distinctive Feature - Place Features

Place Features

Place features: The features that specify the place of articulation.

• Labial segments are articulated with the lips. As consonants, these include bilabial and labiodental consonants.

1. are produced with lip rounding. are not.

• Coronal sounds are articulated with the tip and/or blade of the tongue. These include a large number of consonants, which can be made with the tip, blade or underside of the tongue (apical, laminal, or subapical consonant, respectively), making contact with the upper lip (linguolabial), between the teeth (interdental), with the back of the teeth (dental), with the alveolar ridge (alveolar), behind the alveolar ridge (postalveolar), or on or in front of the hard palate ((pre)palatal). With postalveolar sibilants, additional tongue shapes need to be distinguished, i.e. "domed" or slightly palatalized ("hushing" or "palato-alveolar"), palatalized (alveolopalatal), and "closed" ("hissing-hushing").

1. Anterior segments are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue at or in front of the alveolar ridge.
2. For segments the tongue is extended for some distance in the mouth.

• Dorsal sounds are articulated by raising the dorsum of the tongue. All vowels are dorsal sounds. Dorsal consonants include palatal, velar and uvular consonants.

1. segments raise the dorsum close to the palate. segments do not.
2. segments bunch the dorsum to a position low in the mouth.
3. segments are produced with the tongue dorsum bunched and retracted slightly to the back of the mouth. segments are bunched and extended slightly forward.
4. This feature (mainly) applies to the position of the root of the tongue when articulating vowels. vowels have an advanced tongue root. In fact, this feature is often referred to as Advanced tongue root, though there is a debate on whether tense and ATR are same or different features.

• Radical sounds are articulated with the root of the tongue. These include pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants.
• Purely laryngeal sounds do not involve the tongue at all. These primarily include glottal consonants.