artikulatsioonikohti

Artikulatsioonikohti, meaning places of articulation in Estonian, refers to the specific points in the vocal tract where an obstruction or narrowing occurs to produce a consonant sound. These points are crucial for differentiating between various consonant phonemes in a language.

The primary articulatsioonikohti include the lips (labial), the alveolar ridge (alveolar), the palate (palatal), and the velum (velar). Labial consonants are produced using the lips, such as 'p' and 'b' (bilabial) and 'f' and 'v' (labiodental). Alveolar consonants involve the tongue tip or blade making contact with or coming close to the alveolar ridge, which is the bumpy area behind the upper teeth. Examples include 't', 'd', 's', and 'z'. Palatal consonants are formed when the middle of the tongue approaches or touches the hard palate. The 'j' sound in English, or the Estonian 'j', is a palatal approximant. Velar consonants are produced at the back of the mouth, where the tongue body touches or approaches the soft palate (velum). Examples include 'k', 'g', and 'ng'.

Other less common articulatsioonikohti can also be identified, such as the teeth (dental) where the tongue touches the back of the upper teeth, as in the 'th' sounds in English, or the glottis (glottal), where the vocal cords themselves cause an obstruction, like the 'h' sound. The precise location and degree of constriction at these articulatsioonikohti, along with the manner of articulation (e.g., stop, fricative, nasal), define the unique sound of each consonant. Understanding articulatsioonikohti is fundamental to phonetics and phonology.