Voiceless dental and alveolar plosives
Consonantal sounds
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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".
| Voiceless alveolar plosive | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| t | |||
| IPA number | 103 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | t | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0074 | ||
| X-SAMPA | t | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| Voiceless dental plosive | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| t̪ | |||
| IPA number | 103 408 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | tâ̪ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0074âU+032A | ||
| X-SAMPA | t_d | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is â¨tâ©. The voiceless dental plosive can be distinguished with the underbridge diacritic, â¨t̪⩠and the postalveolar with a retraction line, â¨tÌ â©, and the extIPA has a double underline diacritic which can be used to explicitly specify an alveolar pronunciation, â¨tÍâ©.
The [t] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically.[1] Most languages have at least a plain [t], and some distinguish more than one variety. Some languages without a [t] are colloquial Samoan (which also lacks an [n]), Abau, and NÇng of South Africa.[citation needed]
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 [t̪] being the local realization of the Standard English phoneme /θ/ spelled â¨thâ©).
Features
Sagittal sections of voiceless dental and alveolar plosives
Features of a voiceless alveolar stop:
- Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
- There are three specific variants of [t]:
- 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.
- Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
- It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleut[2] | tiistaxÌ | [t̪iËstaÏ] | 'dough' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Armenian | Eastern[3] | Õ¿Õ¸ÖÕ¶ | â | 'house' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | ||
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | Ü¬Ü Ü¬Ì±Ü/Å£la | [t̪lÉ] | 'three' | ||||
| Bashkir | дүÑÑ/dürt | â | 'four' | Laminal denti-alveolar | |||
| Belarusian[4] | ÑÑагоддзе | [s̪t̪äËÉ£od̪d̪͡z̪ʲe] | 'century' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Belarusian phonology | |||
| Basque | toki | [t̪oki] | 'place' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Basque phonology | |||
| Bengali | তà§à¦®à¦¿ | [t̪umi] | 'you' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology | |||
| Catalan[5] | terra | [Ët̪ÉrÉ] | 'land' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Catalan phonology | |||
| Chuvash | ÑÑ | [ut] | 'horse' | ||||
| Czech | toto | â | 'this' | Laminal denti-alveolar.[6] See Czech phonology | |||
| Dinka[7] | mÉth | [mÉÌt̪] | 'child' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with alveolar /t/. | |||
| Dutch | Belgian | taal | [t̪aËl̪] | 'language' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | ||
| English | Dublin[8] | thin | [t̪ʰɪn] | 'thin' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | In Dublin, it may be [t͡θ] instead. | See English phonology. |
| Indian | Corresponds to [θ].[8] | ||||||
| Southern Irish[9] | |||||||
| Ulster[10] | train | [t̪ɹeËn] | 'train' | Allophone of /t/ before /r/, in free variation with an alveolar stop. | |||
| Finnish | tutti | [Ët̪ut̪Ëi] | 'pacifier' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Finnish phonology | |||
| French[11] | tordu | [t̪ÉÊd̪y] | 'crooked' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See French phonology | |||
| Hakka[12] | ä»/ta3 | [t̪ʰa˧] | 'he/she' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with an unaspirated form. | |||
| Hindustani[13] | Hindi | तà¥à¤¨/tÄ«n | [t̪iËn] | 'three' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | Contrasts with aspirated form <थ>. | See Hindustani phonology |
| Urdu | تÛÙ/tÄ«n | Contrasts with aspirated form <تھ>. | |||||
| Hmong | White Hmong | ð¬ð¬°ð¬§ð¬µ / tub | [t̪u˦] | 'son', 'boy' or 'male name' | |||
| Indonesian[14] | tabir | [t̪äbɪr] | 'curtain' | Laminal denti-alveolar, most often transcribed in IPA with â¨tâ©. | |||
| Italian[15] | tale | [Ët̪ale] | 'such' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Italian phonology | |||
| Japanese[16] | ç¹å¥/tokubetsu | [t̪oÌkɯÌáµbeÌtÍ¡sɨáµ] | 'special' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Japanese phonology | |||
| Kashubian[17] | ptôch | [ptÉx] | 'bird' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Kazakh | Ñұз | [t̪us̪] | 'salt' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Kyrgyz[18] | ÑÑз | [t̪us̪] | 'salt' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Latvian[19] | tabula | [Ët̪äbulä] | 'table' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Latvian phonology | |||
| Malayalam | à´à´¾à´¤àµà´¤àµ | [kaËt̪ËɨÌ] | 'waiting' | Contrasts /t̪ t Ê d̪ É/. See Malayalam phonology | |||
| Mapudungun[20] | füṯa | [ËfÉt̪É] | 'husband' | Interdental.[20] | |||
| Marathi | तबला | [t̪ÉbËlaË] | 'tabla' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Marathi phonology | |||
| Minangkabau | Padang | tuo | [t̪u.oÌ] | 'old' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | ||
| Nepali | तालॠ| [t̪äli] | 'clapping' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology | |||
| Nunggubuyu[21] | darag | [t̪aɾaɡ] | 'whiskers' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Odia | ତାରା/tara | [t̪ärä] | 'star' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. | |||
| Pazeh[22] | [mut̪apÉt̪aËpÉh] | 'keep clapping' | Dental. | ||||
| Polish[23] | tom | â | 'volume' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Polish phonology | |||
| Portuguese[24] | Many dialects | montanha | [mõËt̪ÉɲÉ] | 'mountain' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Likely to have allophones among native speakers, as it may affricate to [tÊ], [tÉ] and/or [ts] in certain environments. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Punjabi | ਤà©à¨²/تÛÙ | [t̪eËl] | 'oil' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | |||
| Russian[25] | ÑолÑÑÑй | [Ët̪ʷoÌɫ̪s̪t̪ɨÌj] | 'fat' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Russian phonology | |||
| Scottish Gaelic[26] | taigh | [t̪ʰɤj] | 'house' | Apical dental. Contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated forms. | |||
| Serbo-Croatian[27] | ÑÑга/tuga | [t̪ÇËgä] | 'sorrow' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Sinhala | චච| [at̪É] | 'hand' | ||||
| Slovene[28] | tip | [Ët̪îËp] | 'type' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Slovene phonology | |||
| Slovak | toto | [Ët̪ot̪o] | 'this' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Slovak phonology | |||
| Somali | matag | [mat̪ag] | 'vomit' | Dentalization of alveolar plosive. | |||
| Spanish[29] | tango | [Ët̪ãÅÉ¡oÌ] | 'tango' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Spanish phonology | |||
| Swedish[30] | tÃ¥g | [Ët̪ʰoËÉ¡] | 'train' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Swedish phonology | |||
| Telugu | తపà±à°ªà± | [t̪apËu] | 'wrong' | Contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated forms. | |||
| Turkish | at | [ät̪] | 'horse' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Turkish phonology | |||
| Ukrainian[31][32] | бÑÐ°Ñ | â | 'brother' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Ukrainian phonology | |||
| Uzbek[33] | [example needed] | â | Laminal denti-alveolar. Slightly aspirated before vowels.[33] | ||||
| Vietnamese[34] | tuần | [t̪wÉn˨˩] | 'week' | Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with aspirated form. See Vietnamese phonology | |||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[35] | tant | [t̪ant̪] | 'so much' | Laminal denti-alveolar. | ||
Alveolar
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | иÒабÑп | â | 'thank you' | See Abkhaz phonology | |
| Adyghe | ÑÑÑ | â | 'five' | ||
| Afrikaans[36] | â | 'pot' | |||
| Arabic | Egyptian | تÙÙØ©/tÅka | [ËtoËkæ] | 'barrette' | See Egyptian Arabic phonology |
| Assyrian | ÜÜܬÜ/bèta | [beËta] | 'house' | Most speakers. In the Tyari, Barwari and Southern dialects θ is used. | |
| Bengali | à¦à¦¾à¦§à¦¾à¦à¦¿ | [gÉd̪ʱÉti] | 'the donkey' | True alveolar in some eastern dialects. But all Bengali speakers allophone of /t/ after and before denti-alveolar and postalveolar /t̪, t̪ʰ, d̪, d̪ʱ, tÊ, tÊÊ°, dÊ, dÊʱ, Ê/. See Bengali phonology | |
| Cantonese | è·/dit | [ti:tÌ˧] | 'fall' (v.) | See Cantonese Phonology | |
| éµ/é/tit | [tÊ°i:tÌ˧] | 'iron' | |||
| Chechen | ÑаÑÑал/tarsal | [tÉËrsÉl] | 'squirrel' | ||
| Danish | Standard[37] | dÃ¥se | [ËtÉ̽ËsÉ] | 'can' (n.) | Usually transcribed in IPA with â¨d̥⩠or â¨dâ©. Contrasts with the affricate [tÍ¡s] or aspirated stop [tÊ°] (depending on the dialect), which are usually transcribed in IPA with â¨tˢ⩠or â¨tâ©.[38] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch[39] | taal | [taËÉ«] | 'language' | See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Most speakers | tick | â | 'tick' | See English phonology |
| New York[40] | Varies between apical and laminal, with the latter being predominant.[40] | ||||
| Hebrew | ת××× × | [tmuËna] | 'image' | see Modern Hebrew phonology | |
| Hungarian[41] | tutaj | [ËtutÉj] | 'raft' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Indonesian | Most speakers | tabir | [täbɪr] | 'curtain' | Commonly [t̪] by other speakers. |
| Kabardian | ÑÑ ÑÑ | â | 'five' | ||
| Khmer | áá/tê | [tae] | 'tea' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Korean | ëì²/daesup | [tÉsupÌ] | 'bamboo forest' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kurdish | Northern | tu | [tÊ°Ê] | 'you' | See Kurdish phonology |
| Central | تÛÙÛÚµ | [tÊ°ÉweËÉ«] | 'forehead' | ||
| Southern | تÛÙÚµ | [tÊ°eËwɨɫ] | |||
| Luxembourgish[42] | dënn | [tÉn] | 'thin' | Less often voiced [d]. It is usually transcribed /d/, and it contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /t/.[42] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malayalam | à´à´¾à´±àµà´±àµ | [kaËtËɨÌ] | 'wind' | Contrasts /t̪ t Ê d̪ É/. See Malayalam phonology | |
| Maltese | tassew | [tasËsew] | 'true' | ||
| Mandarin | å°/dì | [ti˥˩] | 'ground' | See Mandarin Phonology | |
| 梯/tī | [tʰi˥˥] | 'ladder/stairs' | |||
| Mapudungun[20] | füta | [ËfÉtÉ] | 'elderly' | ||
| Nunggubuyu[21] | darawa | [taɾawa] | 'greedy' | ||
| Nuosu[which?] | ê/da | [ta˧] | 'place' | Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms | |
| Portuguese[43] | Some dialects | troço | [ËtɾÉsu] | 'thing' (pejorative) | Allophone before alveolar /ɾ/. In other dialects /ɾ/ takes a denti-alveolar allophone instead. See Portuguese phonology |
| Scots | Most dialects | tak | [täk] | 'take' | Traditionally apical. Can be aspirated word-initially in more English-influenced varieties. |
| Tagalog | matamis | [mÉtÉËmis] | 'sweet' | See Tagalog phonology | |
| Thai | à¸à¸²/ta | [taË˧] | 'eye' | Contrasts with an aspirated form. | |
| West Frisian | tosk | [Ëtosk] | 'tooth' | See West Frisian phonology | |
Postalveolar
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acehnese | teubèe | [tÌ É¯.ËbÉÉ̯] | 'sugarcane' | See Acehnese phonology |
| Bengali[44] | à¦à¦¾à¦à¦¾ | [tÌ aka] | 'taka' | Apical postalveolar;[44] contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Bengali phonology |
| Hindustani[45][46] | à¤à¥à¤ªà¥/ Ù¹ÙÙ¾Û | [tÌ oËpiË] | 'hat' | Apical postalveolar |
| Nepali | à¤à¥à¤²à¥ | [tÌ oli] | 'team' | Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Nepali phonology |
| Odia | à¬à¬à¬° / á¹agara | [tÌ ÉgÉrÉ] | 'crepe jasmine' | Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. |
| Yele | dêê | [tÌ ÉË] | 'tongue' | Contrasts /t̪ t̪͡p t̪ʲ tÌ tÌ Í¡p tÌ Ê²/. |
Variable
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Modern Standard | تÙÙâ/tÄ«n | [tiËn] | 'fig' | Laminal denti-alveolar or alveolar, depending on the speaker's native dialect. See Arabic phonology |
| English | Broad South African[47] | talk | [toËk] | 'talk' | Laminal denti-alveolar for some speakers, alveolar for other speakers.[47][48][49] |
| Scottish[48] | [tÊ°Ék] | ||||
| Welsh[49] | [tÊ°ÉËk] | ||||
| German | Standard[50] | Tochter | [ËtÉxtÉ] | 'daughter' | Varies between laminal denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar.[50] See Standard German phonology |
| Greek[51] | ÏÏία tria | [Ëtɾiä] | 'three' | Varies between dental, laminal denti-alveolar and alveolar, depending on the environment.[51] See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Malay | ØªÚ Ú©Ú¤/tangkap | [t̪äÅ.käpÌ] | 'catch' | More commonly dental. Often unreleased in syllable codas. See Malay phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[52] | dans | [tÌ»Éns] | 'dance' | Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and laminal alveolar. It is usually transcribed /d/. It may be partially voiced [dÌ¥], and it contrasts with voiceless aspirated form, which is usually transcribed /t/.[52] See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian[53] | تÙت | [t̪ʰuËt̪ʰ] | 'berry' | Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar.[53] See Persian phonology | |
| Slovak[54][55] | to | [tÌ»ÉÌ] | 'that' | Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and laminal alveolar.[54][55] See Slovak phonology | |
| Toki Pona | toki | [toki] | 'language' | Can be aspirated. | |