Alveolar consonant — Safekipedia Discoverer

Alveolar consonants are sounds made when the tongue touches or comes close to the ridge behind the upper teeth, called the alveolar ridge. This ridge contains the sockets for the upper teeth, and it gives these consonants their name. These sounds can be made in different ways: using the tip of the tongue, which is called an apical consonant, or using the flat part just above the tip, known as a laminal consonant.

In many languages, such as English, alveolar consonants are very common. For example, the sounds "s" and "t" in English words are typically alveolar. However, in other languages like French and Spanish, the flat part of the tongue is used to make similar sounds.

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses the same symbols for all sounds made near the teeth or the roof of the mouth, unless special marks are added to show the exact place of articulation. These marks help distinguish between similar sounds, such as dental and postalveolar consonants. Even though the basic letters like "s" and "t" can refer to different sounds in different languages, when we specifically mean the alveolar sounds, we can add special marks to show that.

In IPA

Alveolar consonants are written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using specific symbols. These sounds are made when the tongue touches or comes close to the ridge above the upper teeth. The IPA does not have separate symbols for these sounds, but they are represented using existing characters that show how the tongue is positioned.

IPA	Description	Example
IPA	Description	Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning in English
n̥	voiceless alveolar nasal	Burmese	နှာ	[n̥à]	'nose'
n	voiced alveolar nasal	English	run	[ɹʌn]
t	voiceless alveolar plosive	English	top	[tɒp]
d	voiced alveolar plosive	English	debt	[dɛt]
t͜s	voiceless alveolar affricate	German	Zeit	[t͜saɪt]	time
d͜z	voiced alveolar affricate	Italian	zaino	[ˈd͜zaino]	backpack
s	voiceless alveolar fricative	English	suit	[suːt]
z	voiced alveolar fricative	English	zoo	[zuː]
t͜ɬ	voiceless alveolar lateral affricate	Tsez	э'лI'ни	[ˈʔe̞t͜ɬni]	winter
d͜ɮ	voiced alveolar lateral affricate	Pa Na		[d͜ɮau˩˧]	'deep'
ɬ	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Welsh	llwyd	[ɬʊɪd]	grey
ɮ	voiced alveolar lateral fricative	Zulu	dlala	[ˈɮálà]	to play
θ̠	voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative	Irish English	Italy	[ˈɪθ̠ɪli]
ð̠	voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative	Scouse English	maid	[meɪð̠]
ɹ	voiced alveolar approximant	English	red	[ɹɛd]
l	alveolar lateral approximant	English	loop	[lup]
ɫ	velarized alveolar lateral approximant	English	milk	[mɪɫk]
ɺ̥	voiceless alveolar lateral flap	Karu		[ɺ̥je.ˈtɐ̃.hə͂]	'that'
ɺ	voiced alveolar lateral flap	Venda		[vuɺa]	'to open'
ɾ̥	voiceless alveolar flap	Icelandic	hrafn	[ˈɾ̥apn̪̊]	'raven'
ɾ	voiced alveolar tap	English	better	[ˈbɛɾɚ]
r̥	voiceless alveolar trill	Konda		[pur̥i]	'anthill'
r	voiced alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	[ˈpero]	'dog'
tʼ	alveolar ejective	Georgian	ტიტა	[tʼitʼa]	'tulip'
t͜sʼ	alveolar ejective affricate	Chechen	цIе	[t͜sʼe]	'name'
sʼ	alveolar ejective fricative	Amharic	ጼጋ	[sʼɛɡa]
t͜ɬʼ	alveolar lateral ejective affricate	Navajo	tłʼóoʼdi	[t͜ɬʼóːʔtɪ̀]	'(at) the outside'
ɬ’	alveolar lateral ejective fricative	Adyghe	плӀы	[pɬ’ə]	'four'
ƭ	voiceless alveolar implosive	Mam	t'ut'an	[ɗ̥ɯɗ̥aŋ]	'finish'
ɗ	voiced alveolar implosive	Vietnamese	đã	[ɗɐː]	Past tense indicator
k͡ǃ q͡ǃ ɡ͡ǃ ɢ͡ǃ ŋ͡ǃ ɴ͡ǃ	apical alveolar clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nama	!oas	[ᵑ̊ǃˀoas]	hollow
k͡ǁ q͡ǁ ɡ͡ǁ ɢ͡ǁ ŋ͡ǁ ɴ͡ǁ	alveolar lateral clicks (many distinct consonants)	Nama	ǁî	[ᵑ̊ǁˀĩː]	discussed

Lack of alveolars

Some languages do not use certain sounds made with the tongue near the upper teeth. For example, the language spoken by the people of Northwest Mekeo doesn’t have these kinds of sounds at all. In places like Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, languages such as Makah don’t use a particular nasal sound but still have other similar sounds. In everyday spoken Samoan, some sounds usually written with “t” and “n” are actually said differently. In Hawaiian, one sound is used in place of another in certain situations.