The voiced alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of
consonant
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 and pronou ...
al sounds used in many
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
s. The symbol in 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 standard written representation ...
that represents voiced
dental,
alveolar, and
postalveolar plosives is (although the symbol can be used to distinguish the dental plosive, and the postalveolar), and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is
d.
There are only a few languages that distinguish dental and alveolar stops, among them
Kota,
Toda,
Venda and some
Irish dialects.
Features
Features of the voiced alveolar stop:
* There are three specific variants of :
**
Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper
teeth, termed respectively ''
apical'' and ''
laminal''.
**
Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the
alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
**
Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively ''apical'' and ''laminal''.
Varieties
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Variable
See also
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Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
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External links
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{{IPA navigation
Alveolar consonants
Plosives
Central consonants
Voiced oral consonants
Pulmonic consonants