Alveolar consonants (; ) are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, so called 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 consonants), as in French and Spanish.
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 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 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.E.g. in Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 559–560 The letters are frequently called 'alveolar,' and the examples from the languages 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 , where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.)
In IPA Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:
IPA Description Example Language Orthography IPA Meaning in English voiceless alveolar nasalBurmese 'nose' voiced alveolar nasal English run voiceless alveolar plosive English top voiced alveolar plosive English debt voiceless alveolar affricate German time voiced alveolar affricate Italian backpack voiceless alveolar fricative English suit voiced alveolar fricative English zoo voiceless alveolar lateral affricate Tsez winter voiced alveolar lateral affricate Pa NaChen, Qiguang [陈其光]. 2001. "A Brief Introduction of Bana Language [巴那语概况]". Minzu Yuwen. 'deep' voiceless alveolar lateral fricative Welsh grey voiced alveolar lateral fricative Zulu to play voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative Irish English Italy voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative Scouse English maid voiced alveolar approximant English red alveolar lateral approximant English loop velarized alveolar lateral approximant English milk voiceless alveolar lateral flap Karu 'that' voiced alveolar lateral flap Venda 'to open' voiceless alveolar flap Icelandic 'raven' voiced alveolar tap English better voiceless alveolar trill Konda 'anthill' voiced alveolar trill Spanish 'dog' alveolar ejective Georgian 'tulip' alveolar ejective affricate Chechen 'name' alveolar ejective fricative Amharic alveolar lateral ejective affricate Navajo '(at) the outside' alveolar lateral ejective fricative Adyghe 'four' voiceless alveolar implosive Mam 'finish' voiced alveolar implosive Vietnamese Past tense indicator apical alveolar clicks (many distinct consonants) Nama hollow alveolar lateral clicks (many distinct consonants) Nama discussed
Lack of alveolars Northwest Mekeo lacks phonemic coronal consonants but has allophonic [dzʲ, n]. A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack nasals and therefore but have . Colloquial Samoan, however, lacks both and but 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.
See also Index of phonetics articles Labioalveolar consonant Labial–alveolar consonant Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers Place of articulation
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Further reading