Interactive Sagittal Section
The diagram is making a [h] sound.
*Closure if nasal, fricative if oral
created by Daniel Currie Hall
Information
Use the controls above to set the position of the lips, tongue, velum, and vocal folds. The resulting articulation will be displayed on the sagittal section above, and reflected in the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription on the right.
The Interactive Sagittal Section is meant to be illustrative, not normative. For example, the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ are shown here as apico-alveolar, but they can also be made with a lamino-alveolar constriction.
Except for lip rounding, secondary articulations are ignored in the transcription. For example, if the lips are closed, positioning the tongue for a fricative will have no effect on the transcription.
The general structure of this sagittal section is based on diagrams in The sounds of language: An introduction to phonetics, by Henry Rogers, particularly Figure 1.2.