Manner of Articulations

The manner of articulation of consonants, on the other hand, is the dimension, which essentially describes how the speech sound is produced. It refers to the interaction between the various articulators and the airstream such as how narrow the constriction is, whether air is completely blocked and suddenly released through the mouth, whether air is flowing through the nose and so forth.

The manners of articulation such as plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, lateral approximant and approximants/glides are briefly described in the table below.

Manners of articulation	Description
Stops/ Plosives	A complete closure is made in the vocal tract and the soft palate is also raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure and is then released explosively.
Fricatives	When two vocal organs come close enough together, air is squeezed between them without being stop, causing a hissing or friction sound.
Affricates	A complete closure is made in the mouth and the soft palate is raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is released more slowly than the plosive.
Nasals	The lips or the tongue against the palate makes a closure, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nose.
Lateral approximant	The blade of tongue against the alveolar ridge makes a partial closure. Air flows around the sides of the tongue.
Approximants	Vocal organs come near to each other, but not so close as to cause audible friction