- Dental consonant
-
Dental ◌̪
Places of
articulation
LabialBilabial Labial–velar Labial–coronal Labiodental Dentolabial
Bidental
CoronalLinguolabial Interdental Dental Denti-alveolar Alveolar Postalveolar Palato-alveolar Alveolo-palatal Retroflex
DorsalPalatal Labial–palatal Velar Uvular Uvular–epiglottal
RadicalPharyngeal Epiglotto-pharyngeal Epiglottal
GlottalTongue shape
ApicalLaminal Subapical
LateralSulcal
PalatalPharyngeal
See also: Manner of articulationThis page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as /t/, /d/, /n/, and /l/ in some languages. Dentals are primarily distinguished from sounds in which contact is made with the tongue and the gum ridge, as in English (see Alveolar consonant), due to the acoustic similarity of the sounds and the fact that in the Roman alphabet they are generally written using the same symbols (t, d, n, and so on).
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic for dental consonant is [ ̪ ] (U+032A ̪ combining bridge below).[1]
Contents
Dentals cross-linguistically
For many languages, such as Albanian, Irish or Russian, velarization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants so that velarized consonants (such as Albanian /ɫ/) tend to be dental or denti-alveolar while non-velarized consonants tend to be retracted to an alveolar position.[2]
Sanskrit, Hindi and all other Indic languages have an entire set of dental plosives which occur phonemically as voiced and voiceless, and with or without aspiration. The nasal stop /n/ also exists in these languages, but is quite alveolar and apical in articulation.[citation needed] To the Indian speaker, the alveolar /t/ and /d/ of English sound more like the corresponding retroflex consonants of his own language than like the dentals.[citation needed]
Spanish /t/ and /d/ are laminal denti-alveolar[3] while /l/ and /n/ are prototypically alveolar but assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant. Likewise, Italian /t/, /d/, /t͡s/, /d͡z/ are denti-alveolar ([t̪], [d̪], [t̪͡s̪], and [d̪͡z̪] respectively) and /l/ and /n/ become denti-alveolar before a following dental consonant.[4]
Although denti-alveolar consonants are often described as dental, it is the rear-most point of contact that is most relevant, for this is what defines the maximum acoustic space of resonance and will give a consonant its characteristic sound.[5] In the case of French, the rear-most contact is alveolar or sometimes slightly pre-alveolar.
Dental consonants in the world's languages
The dental/denti-alveolar consonants as transcribed by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
IPA Description Example Language Orthography IPA Meaning 
dental nasal Spanish onda [õn̪d̪a] wave 
voiceless dental plosive Spanish toro [t̪oɾo] bull 
voiced dental plosive Spanish donde [d̪õn̪d̪e] where s̪ voiceless dental sibilant fricative Polish kosa [kɔs̪a] scythe z̪ voiced dental sibilant fricative Polish koza [kɔz̪a] goat 
voiceless dental nonsibilant fricative
(also often called "interdental")English thing [θɪŋ] thing 
voiced dental nonsibilant fricative
(also often called "interdental")English this [ðɪs] this 
dental approximant Spanish codo [koð̞o] elbow 
dental lateral approximant Spanish alto [al̪t̪o] tall 
dental flap Spanish pero [peɾ̪o] but 
dental trill Marshallese Ebadon [ebˠɑr̪ˠon̪] Ebadon 
dental ejective 
voiced dental implosive 
dental click release Xhosa ukúcola [ukʼúkǀola] to grind fine See also
References
- ^ The International Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode, UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-unicode.htm
- ^ Recasens & Espinosa (2005:4)
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:257)
- ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
Bibliography
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Recasens, Daniel; Espinosa, Aina (2005), "Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 1–25, doi:10.1017/S0025100305001878
- Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association · History of the IPA · Kiel convention (1989) · Journal of the IPA (JIPA) · Naming conventionsPhonetics Special topics Encodings Consonants IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • 
audioPlace → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ Affricates p̪f ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Vowels Vowels: IPA help • chart • chart with audio • viewCategories:- Consonants
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