Alveolar consonant

Alveolar /ælˈviːələr/[1] 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 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.[2] 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[3] နှာ [n̥à] 'nose'
voiced alveolar nasal English run [ɹʌn]
voiceless alveolar plosive English stop [stɒp]
voiced alveolar plosive English debt [dɛt]
voiceless alveolar fricative English suit [suːt]
voiced alveolar fricative English zoo [zuː]
voiceless alveolar affricate English pizza [pit͡sə]
voiced alveolar affricate Italian zaino [ˈd͡zaino] backpack
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] grey
voiced alveolar lateral fricative Zulu dlala [ˈɮálà] to play
t͡ɬ voiceless alveolar lateral affricate Tsez элIни [ˈʔe̞t͡ɬni] winter
d͡ɮ voiced alveolar lateral affricate Pa Na[4] [d͡ɮau˩˧] 'deep'
alveolar approximant English red [ɹɛd]
alveolar lateral approximant English loop [lup]
velarized alveolar lateral approximant English milk [mɪɫk]
alveolar flap English better [bɛɾɚ]
alveolar lateral flap Venda [vuɺa] to open
alveolar trill Spanish perro [pero] dog
alveolar ejective Georgian ტიტა [tʼitʼa] tulip
t͡sʼ alveolar ejective affricate Nuxálk xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓[xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ] 'he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant'
alveolar ejective fricative Amharic ጼጋ [sʼɛɡa]
t͡ɬʼ alveolar lateral ejective affricate Navajo tłʼóoʼdi [t͡ɬʼóːʔtɪ̀] '(at) the outside'
alveolar lateral ejective fricative Adyghe плӀы [pɬ’ə]
voiced alveolar implosive Vietnamese đã [ɗɐː] Past tense indicator
ƭ voiceless alveolar implosive Serer ? ? ?
apical alveolar click release (many distinct consonants) Nama !oas [ᵑ̊ǃˀoas] hollow
alveolar lateral click release (many distinct consonants) Nama ǁî [ᵑ̊ǁˀĩː] discussed

Lack of alveolars

The alveolar or dental consonants [t] and [n] are, along with [k], the most common consonants in human languages.[5] 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. "alveolar". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
    "alveolar". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
  2. E.g. in Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 559–560
  3. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 111.
  4. Chen, Qiguang [陈其光]. 2001. "A Brief Introduction of Bana Language [巴那语概况]". Minzu Yuwen.
  5. Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.