Articulatorily

Articulatorily is an adverb formed from the adjective articulatory. In linguistics and related fields, it describes actions or processes related to articulation—the movements and positioning of the speech articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, jaw, velum, and larynx) used to produce speech sounds. The term is primarily found in technical or scholarly writing and is less common in everyday language.

Etymology and form: The base is articulatory, derived from the Latin root articulare meaning to arrange or join. The adverbial suffix -ly yields articulatorily, signaling that the action or process is carried out in relation to articulation. As a result, it often appears in descriptions of how sounds are produced rather than of the sounds themselves.

Usage: Articulatorily can modify verbs to indicate the manner of articulation. For example, one might say that a speech gesture was produced articulatorily, noting the involvement and movement of specific articulators. In practice, writers frequently opt for phrases like "in an articulatory manner" or use "articulatory" as an adjective (e.g., "articulatory mechanisms") or a compound such as "articulatorily produced" to convey a similar idea. The adverb is relatively rare outside of specialized texts and is most likely to appear in phonetics, speech science, and related research discussions.

See also: articulatory phonetics, articulation, articulator, speech production.

Overall, articulatorily is a niche term used to specify the manner of articulation in scholarly descriptions of speech, and it is less common in general English usage.