This indicates the presence or absence of vibration of the vocal cords. Even during a plosive, it is possible to force air through the vocal cords for a short time. There are fine points which allow for semivoiced sounds as well.
These three features - voicing, place of articulation, and manner of
articulation - provide terminology by which we can define any
sound, e.g., voiced bilabial plosive, unvoiced dental fricative,
etc. For reference, a categorization of the consonants of
Japanese in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation,
and voicing is provided in Table 2.1 as below.
The consonant symbols of phonemes listed in Table 2.2 are used
to represent phonetic characters
. The consonant symbols are arranged
in the form of a chart. The places of articulation are shown across
the top of the chart, starting from the most forward articulation
(Bilabial) and going toward those sounds made in the back of the mouth
(Glottal). The manners of articulation are shown on the vertical axis
of the chart. By convention, the voiced/unvoiced distinction is shown
by putting the unvoiced symbols to the right of the voiced symbols.
PLACE Bilabial
Dental Post-alveolar Palatal
Velar Glottal
MANNER CATEGORY VLAB ULAB VDEN UDEN POST PALA VVEL UVEL
GLOT Plosive PLOS /b/ /p/ /d/ /t/ /g/ /k/
PLOY /by/ /py/ /dy/ /ty/ /gy/ /ky/ Nasal NASA /m/ /n/
NASY /my/ /ny/ Fricative FRIC /f/ /z/ /s/ /h/
FRIY /j/ /sh/ /hy/ Affricate AFFR /ts/ /ch/ Tap or Flap TAPF /r/
TAPY /ry/ Approximant APPR /w/ /y/
(We categorized Japanese consonants into the place of articulation - horizontal axis, and the manner of articulation - vertical axis, respectively.)
