Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants (/ælˈviːələr/ ; UK also /ælviˈoʊlər/) 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.

Alveolar
◌͇

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. [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. 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.)

In IPA

Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning in English
n̥	voiceless alveolar nasal	Burmese	နှာ	[n̥à]	'nose'
n	voiced alveolar nasal	English	run	[ɹʌn]
t	voiceless alveolar plosive	English	top	[tɒp]
d	voiced alveolar plosive	English	debt	[dɛt]
t͡s	voiceless alveolar affricate	German	Zeit	[t͡saɪt]	time
d͡z	voiced alveolar affricate	Italian	zaino	[ˈd͡zaino]	backpack
s	voiceless alveolar fricative	English	suit	[suːt]
z	voiced alveolar fricative	English	zoo	[zuː]
t͡ɬ	voiceless alveolar lateral affricate	Tsez	э'лI'ни	[ˈʔe̞t͡ɬni]	winter
d͡ɮ	voiced alveolar lateral affricate	Pa Na		[d͡ɮau˩˧]	'deep'
ɬ	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Welsh	llwyd	[ɬʊɪd]	grey
ɮ	voiced alveolar lateral fricative	Zulu	dlala	[ˈɮálà]	to play
θ̠	voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative	Irish English	Italy	[ˈɪθ̠ɪli]
ð̠	voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative	Scouse English	maid	[meɪð̠]
ɹ	voiced alveolar approximant	English	red	[ɹɛd]
l	alveolar lateral approximant	English	loop	[lup]
ɫ	velarized alveolar lateral approximant	English	milk	[mɪɫk]
ɺ̥	voiceless alveolar lateral flap	Karu		[ɺ̥je.ˈtɐ̃.hə͂]	'that'
ɺ	voiced alveolar lateral flap	Venda		[vuɺa]	'to open'
ɾ̥	voiceless alveolar flap	Icelandic	hrafn	[ˈɾ̥apn̪̊]	'raven'
ɾ	voiced alveolar tap	English	better	[ˈbɛɾɚ]
r̥	voiceless alveolar trill	Konda		[pur̥i]	'anthill'
r	voiced alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	[ˈpero]	'dog'
tʼ	alveolar ejective	Georgian	ტიტა	[tʼitʼa]	'tulip'
t͡sʼ	alveolar ejective affricate	Chechen	цIе	[t͡sʼe]	'name'
sʼ	alveolar ejective fricative	Amharic	ጼጋ	[sʼɛɡa]
t͡ɬʼ	alveolar lateral ejective affricate	Navajo	tłʼóoʼdi	[t͡ɬʼóːʔtɪ̀]	'(at) the outside'
ɬ’	alveolar lateral ejective fricative	Adyghe	плӀы	[pɬ’ə]	'four'
ƭ	voiceless alveolar implosive	Mam	t'ut'an	[ɗ̥ɯɗ̥aŋ]	'finish'
ɗ	voiced alveolar implosive	Vietnamese	đã	[ɗɐː]	Past tense indicator
k͡ǃ q͡ǃ ɡ͡ǃ ɢ͡ǃ ŋ͡ǃ ɴ͡ǃ	apical alveolar clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nama	!oas	[ᵑ̊ǃˀoas]	hollow
k͡ǁ q͡ǁ ɡ͡ǁ ɢ͡ǁ ŋ͡ǁ ɴ͡ǁ	alveolar lateral clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nama	ǁî	[ᵑ̊ǁˀĩː]	discussed

Lack of alveolars

There are no languages that have no alveolars at all. The alveolar or dental consonants [t] and [n] are, along with [k], the most common consonants in human languages. 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 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

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

Notes

1. "alveolar". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
   "alveolar". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
2. "ALVEOLAR | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary". Cambridge Dictionary.
   "alveolar". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins.
3. E.g. in Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 559–560
4. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 111.
5. Chen, Qiguang [陈其光]. 2001. "A Brief Introduction of Bana Language [巴那语概况]". Minzu Yuwen.
6. Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press

References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.