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.

Places of articulation
• Labial
Bilabial
Labial-velar
Labial-alveolar
Labiodental
• Bidental
• Coronal
Linguolabial
Interdental
Dental
Denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Apical
Laminal
Postalveolar
Alveolo-palatal
Retroflex
• Dorsal
Palatal
Labial-palatal
Velar
Uvular
Uvular-epiglottal
• Radical
Pharyngeal
Epiglotto-pharyngeal
Epiglottal
• Glottal

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 which aren't 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 being a sibilant, rather than a thibilant. [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 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.. Nonetheless, the symbols <s, t, n, l> themselves 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.)

Contents 1 Alveolar consonants in IPA 2 Lack of alveolars 3 See also 4 References

Alveolar consonants in IPA

The alveolar/coronal consonants identified by the IPA are:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning in English
	alveolar nasal	English	run	[ɹʷɐn]	run
	voiceless alveolar plosive	English	tap	[tʰæp]	tap
	voiced alveolar plosive	English	debt	[dɛt]	debt
	voiceless alveolar fricative	English	suit	[sut]	suit
	voiced alveolar fricative	English	zoo	[zu]	zoo
	voiceless alveolar affricate	German	Zeit	[t͡saɪt]	time
	voiced alveolar affricate	Italian	zucchero	[ˈd͡zukkero]	sugar
	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Welsh	Llwyd	[ɬʊɪd]	the name Lloyd or Floyd
	voiced alveolar lateral fricative	Zulu	dlala	[ˈɮálà]	to play
	alveolar approximant	English	red	[ɹʷɛd]	red
	alveolar lateral approximant	English	loop	[lup]	loop
	alveolar flap	Spanish	pero	[peɾo]	but
	alveolar lateral flap	Venda		[vuɺa]	to open
	alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	[pero]	dog
	alveolar ejective	Georgian	ტიტა	[tʼitʼa]	tulip
	alveolar ejective fricative	Amharic		[sʼɛɡa]	grace
	voiced alveolar implosive	Vietnamese	đã	[ɗɐː]	Past tense indicator
	alveolar lateral click	Nama	ǁî	[kǁĩĩ]	discussed

Lack of alveolars

The alveolar or dental consonants [t] and [n] are, along with [k], the most common consonants in human languages.^[1] Nonetheless, there are a few languages which 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], though it has a lateral alveolar approximant [l]. (Samoan words written with the letters t and n are pronounced with [k] and [?] except in formal speech.)

See also

• Place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.