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An affricate is a consonant with a complete closure followed by a fricated release, treated as one coordinated sound in the analysis of a language. It combines a stop-like beginning with turbulence during release. This manner of articulation differs from a freely combined consonant cluster containing a plosive and a fricative.^[ref]

English jet begins with the affricate [d͡ʒ]; chair begins with [t͡ʃ]. The tie in these transcriptions signals the intended grouping. A recording can reveal the closure and following frication, but those phases alone do not settle whether a language organizes the sound as one unit or two. Contrasts, distribution and articulatory coordination provide further evidence. Counting written letters is especially unreliable: the two letters ch can represent one affricate.

Articulatory phonetics studies how the moving structures of the vocal tract produce speech. Airflow supplies energy; vocal fold vibration can provide a repeating source; the tongue, lips and other articulators shape or interrupt the flow. Producing voice and shaping recognizable speech are related but distinguishable processes.^[ref]

A simple observation compares a sustained “mmm” with a sustained “sss”. Lightly touching the outside of the throat can help detect the vibration accompanying voicing, while a mirror shows the different lip configurations. This is a qualitative demonstration: the external sensation alone does not measure the detailed motion of the vocal folds.

Descriptions of consonants commonly distinguish place of articulation, where a constriction is formed, from manner of articulation, how the airflow is modified. These descriptions explain why changing the tongue or lips can change the recorded sound without changing the source of airflow. Acoustic phonetics measures the resulting signal, while articulation describes its physical production.

A consonant is a speech sound articulated with a closure or constriction that significantly shapes or interrupts airflow. Its physical description typically specifies place of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing. These describe where the articulators act, how the air passes and whether the vocal folds vibrate.^[ref]

The sounds [p] and [b] both involve the lips and a closure, but differ in their usual voicing classification. A sustained [m] also closes the lips, while opening a route through the nose: an oral closure does not imply that all airflow stops. The distinction between a plosive and a nasal consonant therefore depends on airflow paths, not merely the fact that two lips touch.

The category concerns speech sounds, rather than letters: a written symbol's name and its sound in a particular word are different objects of study. A consonant can also function as a syllabic consonant, so a syllable nucleus is not invariably a vowel.

A consonant cluster is a sequence of multiple consonants without an intervening vowel, considered within the chosen phonological representation. Its possible position and composition depend on a language's phonotactics. The written number of consonant letters is insufficient to identify a spoken cluster.

In an ordinary pronunciation of “stay”, [st] forms a syllable onset cluster; the final [ts] in “cats” forms a syllable coda cluster. By contrast, the English spelling ch can represent one affricate, transcribed [t͡ʃ], rather than two independently combined consonants. This comparison distinguishes spelling, phonetic detail and phonological grouping.^[ref] A recording and explicit transcription make the analysis inspectable; rapid articulation need not insert a silence between the cluster's members.

A fricative is a consonant produced with a narrow constriction that generates sustained turbulent airflow and its associated noise. The articulators approach closely without creating the complete oral closure of a plosive. Place of articulation and voicing further distinguish different fricatives.^[ref]

Sustain [f] and then [v]. Both use the lower lip and upper teeth, but the second normally adds vocal fold vibration. A spectrogram can display a noise component and, where present, periodic structure. The physical source of the noise is the constricted airflow, while the vocal tract shapes its spectrum. Merely calling a sound unvoiced does not identify it as a fricative.

A nasal consonant combines a constriction or closure in the mouth with an open airflow route through the nose. Lowering the soft palate opens that route; the mouth can remain closed at the consonant's place of articulation. A sustained [m] therefore produces sound despite closed lips, whereas closing both routes stops sustained outward flow.^[ref]

Compare [m], [n] and [ŋ]. They share a nasal manner of articulation, while their oral closures occupy different places. Comparing [m] with [b] instead holds the bilabial closure approximately fixed while changing the available airflow route. Voicing and the resonant vocal tract shape the recorded signal; the written letter alone does not specify those physical properties.

A plosive is an oral stop consonant: articulators form a complete oral closure, pressure can build behind it, and releasing the closure can produce a brief burst. During the closure, the nasal airflow route is normally closed. This distinguishes the mechanism from a nasal consonant with the same oral place of articulation.^[ref]

The sounds [p] and [b] both use a bilabial closure, while differing in their usual voicing classification. A recording of a released [p] can show a closure interval followed by a burst and the following sound. The release need not always be audibly strong, so an absent obvious burst alone does not show that no closure occurred. Articulation and the observed acoustic trace provide complementary evidence.

A syllabic consonant is a consonant functioning as a syllable nucleus. Consonant articulation and nuclear position describe different properties, so the combination is not contradictory. In phonetic transcription, a mark below the symbol can indicate syllabicity, as in [n̩].^[ref]

Some pronunciations of English “button” use a final syllabic [n̩]; others contain a vowel before the final nasal. The first pattern does not require an unrecorded vowel simply because the word has a second syllable. Listening and inspecting the acoustic interval can help distinguish the realizations, while identifying a syllable boundary is not equivalent to finding a silent gap in the waveform.

A syllable coda is the constituent following the syllable nucleus within a syllable. It can contain one or more consonants, or be absent. A syllable with a coda is conventionally called closed; one without a coda is open. These labels concern syllable organization, not whether the speaker's mouth is literally open.^[ref]

In “cat”, [t] is the syllable coda; in “cats”, [ts] forms a final consonant cluster. The pronunciation of “see” has no coda in this analysis, despite its final written letters. Comparing these examples separates the acoustic sequence and its phonology from orthography.

A syllable onset is the constituent preceding the syllable nucleus within a syllable. It may contain one consonant or a consonant cluster, and some syllables have no onset. A language's phonotactics constrains which combinations can occupy that position.^[ref]

In “cat”, [k] is a simple syllable onset; in “stay”, [st] forms a cluster before the vowel. A vowel-initial pronunciation can instead begin directly with the syllable nucleus. This is a statement about spoken structure: the number of written initial letters need not equal the number of onset consonants, and no physical pause is required at every syllable boundary.

A vowel is a speech sound produced with a relatively open vocal tract, allowing its configuration to shape the sound without the complete closure or strong constriction characteristic of many consonants. Vowel height, vowel backness and lip rounding describe major articulatory differences. The vocal tract's acoustic resonances help determine the resulting formants.^[ref]

For example, [i] is a close front unrounded vowel, whereas [u] is close, back and rounded. Moving between them changes the tongue and lips, even if the fundamental frequency of vocal fold vibration is kept approximately constant. This separates vowel quality from pitch.

Many vowels occupy a syllable nucleus, but articulatory and syllabic descriptions answer different questions: a syllabic consonant can occupy that position too. Written vowel letters are also distinct from vowel sounds; the same spelling can correspond to different pronunciations.