Alveolar (; UK also ) consonants are
articulated
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were sometim ...
with the tongue against or close to the superior
alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the
alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (the
apical consonants), as in English, or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the "blade" of the tongue; called
laminal consonant
A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact
with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, a ...
s), as in French and Spanish.
The
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
(IPA) does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants. Rather, the same symbol is used for all
coronal places of articulation that are not
palatalized like English
palato-alveolar ''sh'', or
retroflex. To disambiguate, the ''bridge'' (, ''etc.'') may be used for a dental consonant, or the
under-bar (, ''etc.'') may be used for the
postalveolars. differs from dental in that the former is a
sibilant and the latter is not. differs from postalveolar in being unpalatalized.
The bare letters , etc. cannot be assumed to specifically represent alveolars. The language may not make such distinctions, such that two or more coronal
places of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
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: , ''etc.'', though that could also mean extra-retracted. The letters are frequently called 'alveolar', and the language examples below are all alveolar sounds.
(The Extended IPA diacritic was devised for
speech pathology
Speech is a human vocal communication using language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which hum ...
and is frequently used to mean "alveolarized", as in the labioalveolar sounds , where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.)
In IPA
Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:
Lack of alveolars
The alveolar or dental consonants and are, along with , the most common consonants in human languages.
[Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, ''Patterns of Sounds.'' Cambridge University Press] Nonetheless, there are a few languages that lack them. A few languages on
Bougainville Island and around
Puget Sound, such as
Makah
The Makah (; Klallam: ''màq̓áʔa'')Renker, Ann M., and Gunther, Erna (1990). "Makah". In "Northwest Coast", ed. Wayne Suttles. Vol. 7 of '' Handbook of North American Indians'', ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Instit ...
, lack nasals and therefore , but have . Colloquial
Samoan, however, lacks both and , but it has a
lateral alveolar approximant . (Samoan words written with ''t'' and ''n'' are pronounced with and in colloquial speech.) In Standard
Hawaiian, is an allophone of , but and exist.
consonants
In labioalveolars, the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge. Such sounds are typically the result of a severe overbite. In the
Extensions to the IPA for disordered speech, they are transcribed with the alveolar diacritic on labial letters: .
See also
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Index of phonetics articles
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Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers
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Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
Notes
References
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{{IPA navigation
Place of articulation
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