Dental consonant

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Dental consonant

In linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages. Dentals are primarily distinguished from sounds in which contact is made with the tongue

Tongue

The tongue is skeletal muscle on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing . It is the primary organ of taste. Much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds....
and the gum

Gingiva

The gingiva , or gums, consists of the mucosal tissue that lies over the alveolar bone....
ridge, as in English (see Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....
), 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).

Dentals cross-linguistically
For many languages, such as Albanian

Albanian language

Albanian is an Indo-European languages spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including the west of the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia....
or Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
, velarization

Velarization

Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the Soft palate during the articulation of the consonant....
is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants so that velarized consonants (such as Albanian ) tend to be dental or denti-alveolar while non-velarized consonants tend to be retracted to an alveolar position.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, Hindi

Hindi

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Dental consonant'

Start a new discussion about 'Dental consonant'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

In linguistics

Linguistics

Consonant

Tongue

Gingiva

The gingiva , or gums, consists of the mucosal tissue that lies over the alveolar bone....
ridge, as in English (see Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonant

Dentals cross-linguistically

For many languages, such as Albanian

Albanian language

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
, velarization

Velarization

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
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 also exists in these languages, but is quite alveolar and apical in articulation. To the Indian speaker, the alveolar and of English sound more like the corresponding retroflex consonant

Retroflex consonant

In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar consonant to palatal consonant region of the mouth....
s of his own language than like the dentals.

Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
and are laminal denti-alveolar

Denti-alveolar

In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and upper teeth, such as and in languages such as Spanish and French....
while and are prototypically alveolar but assimilate to the place of articulation

Place of articulation

In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator ....
of a following consonant. Likewise, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, , , are denti-alveolar ( , and respectively) and and become denti-alveolar before a following dental consonant.

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. In the case of French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, 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

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
are:

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	dental nasal Dental nasal The dental nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n_d....	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	onda		wave
	voiceless dental plosive Voiceless dental plosive The voiceless dental plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t_d....	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....		[	bull
	voiced dental plosive Voiced dental plosive The voiced dental plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d_d....	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	donde		where
	voiceless dental sibilant fricative	Polish Polish language Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....	kosa		scythe
	voiced dental sibilant fricative	Polish Polish language Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....	koza		goat
	voiceless dental nonsibilant fricative Voiceless dental fricative The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T.... (also often called "interdental")	English English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...	thing		thing
	voiced dental nonsibilant fricative Voiced dental fricative The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, eth, is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is D.... (also often called "interdental")	English English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...	this		this
	dental approximant	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	codo		elbow
	dental lateral approximant	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	alto		tall
	dental flap	Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	pero		but
	dental trill	Marshallese Marshallese language The Marshallese language is a Malayo-Polynesian languages of the Marshall Islands. There are two major dialects: R?lik and Ratak ....	Ebadon		Ebadon
	dental ejective Dental ejective The dental ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t_n_>....
	voiced dental implosive Voiced dental implosive The voiced dental implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d_n_<....
	dental click release Dental click The dental clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia....	Xhosa Xhosa language Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately Xhosa, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a Tone , that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation....	ukúcola		to grind fine

Dental consonant

Dentals cross-linguistically

Dental consonants in the world's languages

See also

Bibliography