Voiced alveolar and dental plosives (or stops) are a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The alveolar is familiar to English-speakers as the "d" sound in "adore".
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar plosives is ; the diacritic in can be used to distinguish the dental.
There are only a few languages that distinguish dental and alveolar stops (or often more precisely laminal and apical alveolar stops), among them Kota, Toda, Venda and some Irish dialects.
Features
Features of a voiced alveolar stop:
- There are three specific variants of :
- Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
- Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
- Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! colspan="3"|Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Albanian || || || 'door' ||colspan="3"|
|-
| Arabic || Egyptian || / || || 'world' ||colspan="3"| See Egyptian Arabic phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Armenian || Eastern || / || ||'face' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| Western|| / || ||'to give' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Bashkir || / ' || || 'four' ||colspan="3"|
|-
| colspan="2" | Basque || || || 'money' ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Belarusian || /|| || 'travel' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Belarusian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || / |||| 'milk'||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'dragon' ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Dinka || || || 'distinct' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. Contrasts with alveolar .
|-
| colspan="2" | Dhivehi || /Malé Latin| || || 'sad' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| Dutch || Belgian || || || 'thing' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| rowspan="5" | English || Dublin || rowspan="4" | then || rowspan="4" | || rowspan="4" | 'then' || rowspan="5" | Laminal denti-alveolar. || rowspan="2" | Corresponds to in other dialects. In Dublin it may be . || rowspan="5" |See English phonology
|-
| Southern Irish
|-
| Geordie || Word-initial allophone of ; may be realized as instead.
|-
|Indian
|
|-
| Ulster|| dream || || 'dream' || Allophone of before , in free variation with an alveolar stop.
|-
| colspan="2" | Esperanto || || || 'world' || colspan="3"|See Esperanto phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | French || || || 'canopy'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See French phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Georgian || || ||'tail'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Georgian phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Hindustani
| Hindi
| /
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" | 'milk'
| rowspan="2" | Laminal denti-alveolar. Hindustani contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
| Contrasts with aspirated form <ध>.
| rowspan="2" | See Hindi-Urdu phonology
|-
| Urdu
| /
| Contrasts with aspirated form <دھ>.
|-
| colspan="2" |Hungarian
|
|
|'tax'
| colspan="3" |See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Irish || || || 'dark'||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Irish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'to give'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Italian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Japanese || / || || 'masculine'||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Japanese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kashubian|| colspan="2" | || ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kazakh || || || 'friend' ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kyrgyz || || || 'friend' ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Latvian || || || 'fever' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Latvian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Malayalam
|ദിവസം/divasam
|
|'day'
| colspan="3" |See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Marathi || / |||| 'stone'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. Marathi contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. See Marathi phonology
|-
| Minangkabau||Padang|| || || 'near' ||colspan="3" |Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Nepali ||/|||| 'daytime'|| colspan="3"|Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali Phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Odia || /|||| 'ten'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
|-
| colspan="2" | Pashto || /|||| 'two'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'home'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Polish phonology
|-
| Portuguese || Many dialects || || || 'to give'||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. May palatalize or lenite in certain environments, depending on dialect. See Portuguese phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Punjabi
|Gurmukhi||ਦਾਲ/dāl|| rowspan="2" ||| rowspan="2" |'lentils'|| colspan="3" & rowspan="2" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
|Shahmukhi
|/dāl
|-
| colspan="2" | Russian || /|||| 'two'||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with a palatalized alveolar variant. See Russian phonology
|-
| Scottish Gaelic || Uist and Barra|| || || 'following' || colspan="3" | Allophone of after nasals. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || / || || 'rainbow' ||colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Sinhala
|
|
|'day'
|
|
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Slovene || || || 'today' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Slovene phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Spanish || || || 'sunken'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Spanish phonology
|-
| colspan="2"| Telugu || || || 'Kindness'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. Aspirated form articulated as breathy consonant.
|-
| colspan="2" | Turkish || || || 'twig'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Turkish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Ukrainian || /|| || 'tree' || colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Ukrainian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Uzbek || | || [siɸætidæ]|| 'as'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" |Wu
|/
|
|'the Tang dynasty'
| colspan="3" |
|-
| Zapotec|| Tilquiapan || dan || || 'countryside'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar.
|}
Alveolar
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Adyghe || /daahė ||||'pretty'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Assyrian|| ܘܪܕܐ || ]|| 'flower' ||Predominant in the Urmia, Jilu, Baz, Gawar and Nochiya dialects. Corresponds to in other varieties.
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || ডাব/ḍab |||| 'green coconut' || True alveolar in some eastern dialects. But all Bengali speakers allophone of after and before denti-alveolar or postalveolar . See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'said before' || colspan="3" | Laminal alveolar. See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Czech || || || 'into'|| See Czech phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Dutch || || || 'roof'|| See Dutch phonology
|-
| English || Most speakers || dash || || 'dash' || See English phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'bond' || See Finnish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Greek || || || 'shame'|| See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Hebrew || / do'ar |||| 'mail'|| See Modern Hebrew phonology
|-
| rowspan="1" | Hmong || White Hmong || / || || 'water' || In Green Hmong, it'll be /
|-
| colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'onto the moon' || Allophone of [d̪] before [r] or [ɾ]. See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kabardian || / daahė ||||'pretty'||! colspan="2" |
|-
|colspan=2| Khmer || / || || 'bottle' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Korean || / adeul || || 'son'||See Korean phonology
|-
| rowspan="3" |Kurdish
|Northern
|
|
| rowspan="3" |'tooth'
| rowspan="3" |See Kurdish phonology
|-
|Central
|/ dadân
|
|-
|Southern
|/dîân
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'brother' || More often voiceless . See Luxembourgish phonology
|-
| rowspan="3" | Malay
|Standard (incl. Malaysian)|| rowspan="3" ||| || rowspan="3" | 'branch'|| rowspan="2" |See Malay phonology
|-
|Indonesian
|
|-
|Kelantan-Pattani
|[dahɛː]
|See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
|-
| colspan="2" |Malayalam
|എന്റെ/ente
|
|'my' or 'mine'
|See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Maltese|| || || 'wit' ||
|-
| colspan="2"| Tagalog || || || 'maiden' || See Tagalog phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Thai|| / dāw|| || 'star'||
|-
| colspan="2" |Welsh
|diafol
|[djavɔl]
|'devil'
|See Welsh phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | West Frisian|| || || 'village'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Yi ||/ || || 'competent'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Yonaguni || / dunan || || 'Yonaguni' ||
|}
Postalveolar
To distinguish from the voiced dental and alveolar plosives, a voiced postalveolar plosive can be transcribed as . A more explicit (though convoluted) transcription , using a combination of extIPA and obsolete diacritics, can also be used.
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || || || 'robber' || Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. || / || || 'to put' || Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. || || || 'dance' || Partially voiced or fully voiceless . Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and laminal alveolar. || /edāre || || 'office' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar. || || || 'day' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and alveolar, with the former being predominant.