Alveolar consonant

Alveolar
◌̳
Tongue shape
Places of articulation (passive & active):
1. Exo-labial, 2. Endo-labial, 3. Dental, 4. Alveolar, 5. Post-alveolar, 6. Pre-palatal, 7. Palatal, 8. Velar, 9. Uvular, 10. Pharyngeal, 11. Glottal, 12. Epiglottal, 13. Radical, 14. Postero-dorsal, 15. Antero-dorsal, 16. Laminal, 17. Apical, 18. Sub-apical

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 that are not palatalized like English palato-alveolar sh, or retroflex. To disambiguate, the bridge ([s̪, t̪, n̪, l̪], etc.) may be used for a dental consonant, or the under-bar ([s̠, t̠, n̠, l̠], etc.) may be used for the postalveolars. Note that [s̪] differs from dental [θ] in that the former is a sibilant and the latter is not. [s̠] differs from postalveolar [ʃ] in being unpalatalized.

The bare letters [s, t, n, l], 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: [s͇, t͇, n͇, l͇], etc., though that could also mean extra-retracted.[1] The letters s, t, n, l 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 [p͇, b͇, m͇, f͇, v͇], where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.)

Alveolar consonants in IPA

Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning in English
alveolar nasal English run [ɹʌn] run
voiceless alveolar stop English stop [stɒp] stop
voiced alveolar stop English debt [dɛt] debt
voiceless alveolar fricative English suit [suːt] suit
voiced alveolar fricative English zoo [zuː] zoo
voiceless alveolar affricate German Zeit [t͡saɪt] time
voiced alveolar affricate Italian zaino d͡zaino] backpack
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] grey
voiced alveolar lateral fricative Zulu dlala ɮálà] to play
t͡ɬ voiceless alveolar lateral affricate Tsez элIни [ˈʔe̞t͡ɬni] winter
d͡ɮ voiced alveolar lateral affricate Oowekyala
alveolar approximant English red [ɹɛd] red
alveolar lateral approximant English loop [lup] loop
velarized alveolar lateral approximant English milk [mɪɫk] milk
alveolar flap English better [bɛɾɚ] better
alveolar lateral flap Venda [vuɺa] to open
alveolar trill Spanish perro [pero] dog
alveolar ejective Georgian [ia] tulip
alveolar ejective fricative Amharic [ɛɡa] grace
alveolar lateral ejective fricative Adyghe плӀы [pɬ’ə] four
voiced alveolar implosive Vietnamese đã [ɗɐː] Past tense indicator
alveolar lateral click release (many distinct consonants) Nama ǁî [ǁĩː] discussed

Lack of alveolars

The alveolar or dental consonants [t] and [n] are, along with [k], the most common consonants in human languages.[2] Nonetheless, there are a few languages that lack them. A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack nasals and therefore [n], but have [t]. Colloquial Samoan, however, lacks both [t] and [n], but it has a lateral alveolar approximant /l/. (Samoan words written with t and n are pronounced with [k] and [ŋ] in colloquial speech.) In Standard Hawaiian, [t] is an allophone of /k/, but /l/ and /n/ exist.

Labioalveolar 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: m͇ p͇ b͇ f͇ v͇.

See also

Notes

  1. E.g. in Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 559–560
  2. Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press

References

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