Editing Consonant (section)

{{Short description|Speech sound articulated by  closing the vocal tract fully or partially}}
{{About||the musical concept|Consonance and dissonance|the alternative rock group|Consonant (band)}}
{{IPA notice}}

In [[articulatory phonetics]], a '''consonant''' is a [[speech sound]] that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the [[vocal tract]], except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are {{IPA|[p]}} and [b], pronounced with the [[lips]]; {{IPA|[t]}} and [d], pronounced with the front of the [[tongue]]; {{IPA|[k]}} and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue; {{IPA|[h]}}, pronounced throughout the vocal tract; {{IPA|[f]}}, [v], {{IPA|[s]}}, and [z] pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel ([[fricative]]s); and {{IPA|[m]}} and {{IPA|[n]}}, which have air flowing through the nose ([[nasal consonant|nasal]]s). Most consonants are [[Pulmonic consonant|pulmonic]], using air pressure from the lungs to generate a sound. Very few natural languages are non-pulmonic, making use of [[Ejective consonant|ejectives]], [[Implosive consonant|implosives]], and [[Click consonant|clicks]]. Contrasting with consonants are [[vowel]]s.

Since the number of speech sounds in the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one [[alphabet]], [[Linguistics|linguists]] have devised systems such as the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous [[symbol]] to each attested consonant. The [[English alphabet]] has fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant sounds, so [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]]s like {{angbr|ch}}, {{angle bracket|sh}}, {{angle bracket|th}}, and {{angle bracket|ng}} are used to extend the alphabet, though some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled {{angle bracket|th}} in "this" is a different consonant from the {{angle bracket|th}} sound in "thin". (In the IPA, these are {{IPA|[ð]}} and {{IPA|[θ]}}, respectively.)