Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants (Template:IPAc-en; UK also Template:IPAc-en) 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 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. The letters Template:Angbr 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 , 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 nasal	BurmeseTemplate:Sfnp			'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 Na			'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 coronal consonants entirely. 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.

Template:Vanchor 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: Template:Angbr IPA.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers
• Place of articulation

Further reading

• Template:SOWL