Voiceless alveolar and dental plosives (or stops) are a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The alveolar is familiar to English-speakers as the "t" sound in "stick".
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is . The voiceless dental plosive can be distinguished with the underbridge diacritic, and the postalveolar with a retraction line, , and the extIPA has a double underline diacritic which can be used to explicitly specify an alveolar pronunciation, .
The sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain , and some distinguish more than one variety. Some languages without a are colloquial Samoan (which also lacks an ), Abau, and Nǁng of South Africa.
There are only a few languages which distinguish dental and alveolar stops (or often more precisely laminal and apical alveolar stops), including Kota, Toda, Venda and many Australian Aboriginal languages; certain varieties of Hiberno-English also distinguish them (with dental being the local realization of the Standard English phoneme spelled ).
Features
Features of a voiceless 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"
|+ Occurrence of in various languages
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! colspan="3" | Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Aleut || || || 'dough' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| Armenian || Eastern || || || 'house' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Assyrian Neo-Aramaic || /|| || 'three' || colspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" | Bashkir || || || 'four' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar
|-
| colspan="2" | Belarusian || || || 'century' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Belarusian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Basque || || || 'place' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Basque phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || || || 'you' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'land' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Chuvash || || || 'horse' || colspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" | Czech || || || 'this' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Czech phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Dinka || || || 'child' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with alveolar .
|-
| Dutch || Belgian || || || 'language' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| rowspan="4" | English || Dublin || rowspan="3" | thin || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | 'thin' || rowspan="4" | Laminal denti-alveolar. || In Dublin, it may be instead. || rowspan="4" | See English phonology.
|-
| Indian || rowspan="2" | Corresponds to .
|-
| Southern Irish
|-
| Ulster || train || || 'train' || Allophone of before , in free variation with an alveolar stop.
|-
| colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'pacifier' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Finnish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | French || || || 'crooked' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See French phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Hakka || / || ||'he/she' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with an unaspirated form.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Hindustani || Hindi || / || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'three' || rowspan="2" | Laminal denti-alveolar. || Contrasts with aspirated form <>. || rowspan="2" | See Hindustani phonology
|-
| Urdu || / || Contrasts with aspirated form <>.
|-
| Hmong || White Hmong || / || || 'son', 'boy' or 'male name' || colspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" | Indonesian || || || 'curtain' ||colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨t⟩.
|-
| colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'such' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Italian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Japanese || / || || 'special' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Japanese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kashubian || || || 'bird' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kazakh || || || 'salt' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kyrgyz || || || 'salt' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Latvian || || || 'table' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Latvian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Malayalam || || || 'waiting' ||colspan="3"| Contrasts . See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || 'husband' || colspan="3" | Interdental.
|-
| colspan="2" | Marathi || || || 'tabla' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Marathi phonology
|-
| Minangkabau||Padang|| || || 'old' ||colspan="3" |Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Nepali || || || 'clapping' || colspan="3" | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Nunggubuyu || || || 'whiskers' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Odia || / || || 'star' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form.
|-
| colspan="2" | Pazeh || colspan="2" align="center" | || 'keep clapping' || colspan="3" | Dental.
|-
| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'volume' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Polish phonology
|-
| Portuguese || Many dialects || || || 'mountain' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. Likely to have allophones among native speakers, as it may affricate to , and/or in certain environments. See Portuguese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Punjabi || / || || 'oil' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|-
| colspan="2" | Russian || || || 'fat'|| colspan="3"|Laminal denti-alveolar. See Russian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Scottish Gaelic || || || 'house' || colspan="3"| Apical dental. Contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated forms.
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || / || || 'sorrow' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Sinhala || || || 'hand' || colspan="3" |
|-
| colspan="2" | Slovene || || || 'type' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Slovene phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Slovak || || || 'this' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Slovak phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Somali || || || 'vomit' || colspan="3" | Dentalization of alveolar plosive.
|-
| colspan="2" | Spanish || || || 'tango' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Spanish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Swedish || || || 'train' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Swedish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Telugu || || || 'wrong' || colspan="3" | Contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated forms.
|-
| colspan="2" | Turkish || || || 'horse' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Turkish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Ukrainian || || || 'brother' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Ukrainian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Uzbek || || – || || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar. Slightly aspirated before vowels.
|-
| colspan="2" | Vietnamese || || || 'week' || colspan="3"| Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Vietnamese phonology
|-
| Zapotec || Tilquiapan || || || 'so much' || colspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar.
|}
Alveolar
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Occurrence of in various languages
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Abkhaz || || || 'thank you' || See Abkhaz phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Adyghe || || || 'five' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Afrikaans || || || 'pot' ||
|-
| Arabic || Egyptian || / || || 'barrette' || See Egyptian Arabic phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Assyrian || / || || 'house' || Most speakers. In the Tyari, Barwari and Southern dialects θ is used.
|-
| colspan="2" |Bengali
|
|
|'the donkey'
|True alveolar in some eastern dialects. But all Bengali speakers allophone of after and before denti-alveolar and postalveolar . See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Cantonese || / || || 'fall' (v.) || rowspan="2" | See Cantonese Phonology
|-
| // || || 'iron'
|-
| colspan="2" | Chechen || / || || 'squirrel' ||
|-
| Danish || Standard || || || 'can' (n.) || Usually transcribed in IPA with or . Contrasts with the affricate or aspirated stop (depending on the dialect), which are usually transcribed in IPA with or . See Danish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Dutch || || || 'language' || See Dutch phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | English || Most speakers || rowspan="2" | tick || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'tick' || See English phonology
|-
| New York || Varies between apical and laminal, with the latter being predominant.
|-
| colspan="2" | Hebrew|| || || 'image' || see Modern Hebrew phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'raft'|| See Hungarian phonology
|-
| Indonesian || Most speakers || tabir || [täbɪr] || 'curtain' || Commonly [t̪] by other speakers.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kabardian || || || 'five' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Khmer || / || || 'tea' || See Khmer phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Korean || / || || 'bamboo forest' || See Korean phonology
|-
| rowspan="3" | Kurdish || Northern || || || 'you' || rowspan="3" | See Kurdish phonology
|-
|Central || || || rowspan="2" | 'forehead'
|-
|Southern || ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'thin' || Less often voiced . It is usually transcribed , and it contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed . See Luxembourgish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Malayalam || || || 'wind' || Contrasts . See Malayalam phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Maltese || || || 'true' ||
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Mandarin || / || || 'ground' || rowspan="2" | See Mandarin Phonology
|-
| / || || 'ladder/stairs'
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || 'elderly' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Nunggubuyu || || || 'greedy' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Nuosu || / || || 'place' || Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
|-
| Portuguese || Some dialects || || || 'thing' (pejorative) || Allophone before alveolar . In other dialects takes a denti-alveolar allophone instead. See Portuguese phonology
|-
| Scots || Most dialects || || || 'take' || Traditionally apical. Can be aspirated word-initially in more English-influenced varieties.
|-
| colspan="2" | Tagalog || || || 'sweet' || See Tagalog phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Thai || / || || 'eye' || Contrasts with an aspirated form.
|-
| colspan="2" | West Frisian || || || 'tooth' || See West Frisian phonology
|}
Postalveolar
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Occurrence of
! | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| |Acehnese
|teubèe
|
|'sugarcane'
| See Acehnese phonology
|-
| Bengali || || || 'taka' || Apical postalveolar;
| / || || 'hat' || Apical postalveolar
|-
|Nepali
|
|
| 'team'
|Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Nepali phonology
|-
| Odia|| / || || 'crepe jasmine' ||Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms.
|-
| Yele || || || 'tongue' || Contrasts .
|}
Variable
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Occurrence of a voiceless plosive variable between alveolar and dental positions
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| Arabic || Modern Standard || / || || 'fig' || Laminal denti-alveolar or alveolar, depending on the speaker's native dialect. See Arabic phonology
|-
| rowspan="3" | English || Broad South African || rowspan="3" | talk || || rowspan="3" | 'talk' || rowspan="3" | Laminal denti-alveolar for some speakers, alveolar for other speakers.
|-
| Scottish ||
|-
| Welsh ||
|-
| German || Standard || || || 'daughter' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar. See Standard German phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Greek || || || 'three' || Varies between dental, laminal denti-alveolar and alveolar, depending on the environment. See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Malay || / || || 'catch' || More commonly dental. Often unreleased in syllable codas. See Malay phonology
|-
| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'dance' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and laminal alveolar. It is usually transcribed . It may be partially voiced , and it contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed . See Norwegian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Persian || || || 'berry' || Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar.