Supraglottal

Supraglottal is a term used in articulatory phonetics to describe the region of the vocal tract located above the glottis, the opening between the vocal folds. An articulation described as supraglottal involves constriction or shaping of the airway with articulators situated above the glottis, such as the lips and tongue. The glottis itself forms the lower boundary, so constrictions at or below it are described as glottal or subglottal.

In practice, many consonants are described by a supraglottal place of articulation, including alveolar, postalveolar, palatal, velar, and uvular consonants. The features of supraglottal articulation extend to less common places such as pharyngeal and epiglottal, where the constriction occurs in the pharyngeal space or at the epiglottis. Some analyses explicitly classify pharyngeal and epiglottal places as supraglottal, while others treat them as laryngeal or in a related supraglottal category depending on the theoretical framework.

The term is primarily used in phonetics and phonology to describe how sounds are produced, particularly in languages with a broad inventory of supraglottal consonants. It helps distinguish these sounds from glottal sounds, produced at the vocal folds, and from subglottal effects associated with the lower airway. Vowels, by contrast, are typically described in terms of tongue position and lip rounding rather than place of articulation, though their acoustic realization is influenced by supraglottal shaping of the vocal tract.

Etymology: from Latin supra- “above” + glottis.