Putting consonants in a chart

Fully describing a consonant involves answering each of the seven questions discussed earlier, that is, specifying the consonant for each of the parameters:
  1. active articulator
  2. passive articulator
  3. constriction degree
  4. state of glottis
  5. nasality
  6. laterality
  7. airstream mechanism

If we want to list consonants in a chart, there's an immediate problem: there are seven dimensions in which consonants can differ from each other, but only two dimensions in which a printed chart can arrange them.

There's a traditional way of dealing drawing consonant charts that deals with the problem relatively well. The general approach is used in the official IPA consonant chart and in the charts in the textbook.

bilabial labio-dental dental alveolar postalveolar retroflex palatal velar
stop p b     t d       k g
fricative   f v theta edh s z esh ezh      
nasal m     n       ng
approximant (w)     l    r j (w)
affricate         tS  dZ      



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