Manner of articulation

The concept of manner is mainly used in the discussion of consonants, although the movement of the articulators will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the vocal tract, thereby changing the formant structure of speech sounds that is crucial for the identification of vowels.

For consonants, the place of articulation and the degree of phonation or voicing are considered separately from manner, as being independent parameters.

Often nasality and laterality are included in manner, but some phoneticians, such as Peter Ladefoged, consider them to be independent.

Manners of articulation with substantial obstruction of the airflow (stops, fricatives, affricates) are called obstruents.

Manners without such obstruction (nasals, liquids, approximants, and also vowels) are called sonorants because they are nearly always voiced.

Voiceless sonorants are uncommon, but are found in Welsh and Classical Greek (the spelling "rh"), in Standard Tibetan (the "lh" of Lhasa), and the "wh" in those dialects of English that distinguish "which" from "witch".

All of these manners of articulation are pronounced with an airstream mechanism called pulmonic egressive, meaning that the air flows outward, and is powered by the lungs (actually the ribs and diaphragm).