Editing Place of articulation (section)

==Passive articulators==
The passive are the more stationary parts of the vocal tract that the active articulator touches or gets close to; they can be anywhere from the lips, upper teeth, gums, or roof of the mouth to the back of the throat.{{r|Bickford2006|p=4}} Although it is a continuum, there are several contrastive areas so languages may distinguish consonants by articulating them in different areas, but few languages contrast two sounds within the same area unless there is some other feature which contrasts as well. The following 9 degrees of passive articulatory areas are known to be contrastive (sorted such that the top-most is in the front-most area of the mouth and the bottom-most is in the rear-most area of the mouth):
*The upper lip (''{{lcons|labial}}'')
*The upper teeth, either on the edge of the teeth or inner surface (''{{lcons|dental}}'')
*The [[alveolar ridge]], the gum line just behind the teeth (''{{lcons|alveolar}}'')
*The back of the alveolar ridge (''{{lcons|post-alveolar}}'')
*The [[hard palate]] on the roof of the mouth (''{{lcons|palatal}}'')
*The [[soft palate]] further back on the roof of the mouth (''{{lcons|velar}}'')
*The [[uvula]] hanging down at the entrance to the throat (''{{lcons|uvular}}'')
*The throat itself, a.k.a. the [[human pharynx|pharynx]] (''{{lcons|pharyngeal}}'')
*The [[epiglottis]] at the entrance to the windpipe, above the voice box (''{{lcons|epiglottal}}'')

The regions are not strictly separated. For instance, in some sounds in many languages, the surface of the tongue contacts a relatively large area from the back of the upper teeth to the alveolar ridge, which is common enough to have received its own name, ''{{lcons|denti-alveolar}}''. Likewise, the alveolar and post-alveolar regions merge into each other, as do the hard and soft palate, the soft palate and the uvula, and all adjacent regions. Terms like ''pre-velar'' (intermediate between palatal and velar), ''post-velar'' (between velar and uvular), and ''upper'' vs. ''lower'' pharyngeal may be used to specify more precisely where an articulation takes place. However, although a language may contrast pre-velar and post-velar sounds, it does not also contrast them with palatal and uvular sounds (of the same type of consonant) so contrasts are limited to the number above, if not always their exact location.