Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (so-called apical consonants), as in English, or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the "blade" of the tongue; called laminal consonants), as in French and Spanish. The laminal alveolar articulation is often mistakenly called dental, because the tip of the tongue can be seen near to or touching the teeth. However, it is the rearmost point of contact that defines the place of articulation; this is where the oral cavity ends, and it is the resonant space of the oral cavity that gives consonants and vowels their characteristic timbre.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants. Rather, the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation which aren't palatalized like English palato-alveolar sh, or retroflex. To disambiguate, the bridge Template:IPA etc) may be used for a dental consonant, or the under-bar Template:IPA etc) may be used for the postalveolars. Note that Template:IPA differs from dental Template:IPA in being a sibilant, while Template:IPA differs from postalveolar Template:IPA in being unpalatalized.

The bare letters Template:IPA etc cannot be assumed to specifically represent alveolars. The language may not make such distinctions, such that two or more coronal places are found allophonically, or the transcription may simply be too broad to distinguish dental from alveolar. If it is necessary to specify a consonant as alveolar, a diacritic from the Extended IPA may be used: Template:IPA etc. Nontheless, the symbols <s, t, n, l> themselves are frequently called 'alveolar', and the language examples below are all alveolar sounds.

(The Extended IPA diacritic was devised for speech pathology and is frequently used to mean 'alveolarized', as in the labioalveolar sounds Template:IPA, where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.)

The alveolar/coronal consonants identified by the IPA are:

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
Image:Xsampa-n.png	alveolar nasal	English	run	[[[Template:IPA]]Template:IPA]	run
Image:Xsampa-t.png	voiceless alveolar plosive	English	tap	[Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	tap
Image:Xsampa-d.png	voiced alveolar plosive	English	debt	[Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	debt
Image:Xsampa-s.png	voiceless alveolar fricative	English	suit	[sut]	suit
Image:Xsampa-z.png	voiced alveolar fricative	English	zoo	[zu]	zoo
Image:Xsampa-K2.png	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Welsh	Llwyd	[Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	the name Lloyd or Floyd
Image:Xsampa-Kslash.png	voiced alveolar lateral fricative	Zulu	dlala	[[[Template:IPA]]Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	to play
Image:Xsampa-rslash2.png	alveolar approximant	English	red	[Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	red
Image:Xsampa-l.png	alveolar lateral approximant	English	loop	[lup]	loop
Image:Xsampa-4.png	alveolar flap	Spanish	pero	[[[Template:IPA]]Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	but
Image:Xsampa-lslash.png	alveolar lateral flap	Venda		[[[Template:IPA]]Template:IPATemplate:IPA]	to open
Image:Xsampa-r.png	alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	[pero]	dog
Image:IPA alveolar ejective.png	alveolar ejective	Georgian	ტიტა	[tʼitʼa]	tulip
Image:IPA alveolar ejective fricative.png	alveolar ejective fricative
Image:Xsampa-d lessthan.png	voiced alveolar implosive	Vietnamese	đã	[ɗɐː]	Past tense indicator
Image:Xsampa-doublebarslash.png	lateral alveolar click	Nama	ǁî	[kǁĩĩ]	discussed

[edit]

Alveolar consonant

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