ALTA National Registration Practice Exam

The term that describes a sound produced when the lips or tongue are moving between positions for two different sounds is known as a liquid. In phonetics, liquids are a category of consonants that are produced with little obstruction of airflow in the vocal tract. The tongue makes slight movements or adjustments while articulating these sounds, often occurring in the context of positioning for other sounds.

Examples of liquid sounds include "l" and "r," where the tongue is not fixed in one position but rather in a transitional state that allows for a smooth connection between different sound states. This quality of movement and flow is characteristic of liquids, differentiating them from other consonant types that involve more definitive and abrupt changes in airflow.

Other terms in the list refer to different categories of consonants: affricates are sounds that begin as stops and release slowly into fricatives; fricatives are produced by forcing air through a narrow channel created by two articulators; and stops involve complete closure in the vocal tract followed by a release. These distinctions clarify why liquid is the term that accurately describes the transitional nature of the sounds generated through movement between two different articulatory positions.