Place of Articulation - Coarticulation

Coarticulation

Some languages have consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation, called coarticulation. When these are doubly articulated, the articulators must be independently movable, and therefore there may only be one each from the major categories labial, coronal, dorsal, radical, and laryngeal.

The only common doubly articulated consonants are labial–velar stops like, and less commonly, which are found throughout West and Central Africa. Other combinations are rare. They include labial–(post)alveolar stops, found as distinct consonants only in a single language in New Guinea, and a uvular–epiglottal stop, found in Somali.

More commonly, coarticulation involves secondary articulation of an approximantic nature, in which case both articulations can be similar, such as labialized labial or palatalized velar . This is the case of English, which is a velar consonant with secondary labial articulation.

Common coarticulations include:

• Labialization, rounding the lips while producing the obstruction, as in and English .
• Palatalization, raising the body of the tongue toward the hard palate while producing the obstruction, as in Russian and .
• Velarization, raising the back of the tongue toward the soft palate (velum), as in the English dark el, (also transcribed ).
• Pharyngealization, constriction of the throat (pharynx), such as Arabic "emphatic" .