An Introduction to French Pronunciation

6
The Consonant Phonemes 29
The Consonant Phonemes
6.1 Principles of Classification
As in the case of the vowels (see 4.1), before we can classify
the consonants of French systematically we have to determine
what factors are relevant. In practice, for French (and, indeed,
for most other western European languages), the factors to
be taken into account are the following:
(i) the point of articulation (see 6.2);
(ii) the manner (or mode) of articulation (see 6.3);
(iii) the presence or absence of voice (see 6.4).
6.2 Point of Articulation
6.2.1 Two points of articulation do not involve the tongue:
(i) the lips;
(ii) the top teeth and the bottom lip.
6.2.2 All others involve the use of the tongue as an active
articulator (see 2.4.1):
(iii) the top teeth (when the other articulator is not the
bottom lip);
(iv) the teeth-ridge;