Manner of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the
articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One
parameter of manner is stricture, that is, how closely the speech organs approach one another. Others
include those involved in the r-like sounds (taps and trills), and the sibilancy of fricatives.
The concept of manner is mainly used in the discussion of consonants, although the movement of the
articulators will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the vocal tract, thereby changing
the formant structure of speech sounds that is crucial for the identification of vowels. For consonants,
the place of articulation and the degree of phonation of voicing are considered separately from manner,
as being independent parameters. Homorganic consonants, which have the same place of articulation,
may have different manners of articulation. Often nasality and laterality are included in manner, but some
phoneticians, such as Peter Ladefoged, consider them to be independent.