Alveolar consonant
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(May 2015) |
| Alveolar | |
|---|---|
| ◌͇ |
Alveolar(/ælˈviːələr/;[1]UK also/ælviˈoʊlər/[2]) consonants arearticulatedwith the tongue against or close to the superioralveolar ridge,which is called that because it contains thealveoli(the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (theapical consonants), as inEnglish,or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the "blade" of the tongue; calledlaminal consonants), as inFrenchandSpanish.
TheInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA) does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants. Rather, the same symbol is used for allcoronalplaces of articulation that are notpalatalizedlike Englishpalato-alveolarsh,orretroflex.To disambiguate, thebridge([s̪,t̪,n̪,l̪],etc.) may be used for a dental consonant, or theunder-bar([s̠,t̠,n̠,l̠],etc.) may be used for thepostalveolars.[s̪]differs from dental[θ]in that the former is asibilantand 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 coronalplaces of articulationare foundallophonically,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 theExtended IPAmay be used:[s͇,t͇,n͇,l͇],etc.,though that could also mean extra-retracted.[3]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 forspeech pathologyand 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
[edit]Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:
Lack of alveolars
[edit]There are no languages which have no alveolars at all. The alveolar or dental consonants[t]and[n]are, along with[k],the most common consonants in human languages.[6]Nonetheless, there are a few languages that lack them. A few languages onBougainville Islandand aroundPuget Sound,such asMakah,lack nasals and therefore[n],but have[t].ColloquialSamoan,however, lacks both[t]and[n],but it has alateral alveolar approximant/l/.(Samoan words written withtandnare pronounced with[k]and[ŋ]in colloquial speech.) In StandardHawaiian,[t]is an allophone of/k/,but/l/and/n/exist.
Labioalveolarconsonants
[edit]In labioalveolars, the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge. Such sounds are typically the result of a severe overbite. In theExtensions to the IPAfor disordered speech, they are transcribed with the alveolar diacritic on labial letters: ⟨m͇ p͇ b͇ f͇ v͇⟩.
See also
[edit]- Index of phonetics articles
- Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers
- Place of articulation
Notes
[edit]- ^"alveolar".Oxford English Dictionary(Online ed.).Oxford University Press.(Subscription orparticipating institution membershiprequired.)
"alveolar".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. - ^"ALVEOLAR | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary".Cambridge Dictionary.
"alveolar".CollinsDictionary.com.HarperCollins. - ^E.g. in Laver (1994)Principles of Phonetics,p. 559–560
- ^Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996),p. 111.
- ^Chen, Qiguang [ trần kỳ quang ]. 2001. "A Brief Introduction of Bana Language [ ba na ngữ khái huống ]". Minzu Yuwen.
- ^Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984,Patterns of Sounds.Cambridge University Press
References
[edit]- Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian(1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages.Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN0-631-19815-6.
