Description of English Consonants
Consonants are segments of speech produced when the air stream is interrupted or stopped at various points of articulation by the tongue, lips, or teeth. Consonants may be produced with or without vibration of the vocal cords.
When you describe a consonants, there are at least 3 things that have to be included:(1)voicing
(2)place of articulation, and (3)manner of articulation. For example, /p/ is vl.,bilabial,explosive(or stop). It tells you that /p/ is a voiceless consonant because the air is released in an explosive manner. The following are more examples of sounds of sound description.