Alveolar consonant

An **alveolar consonant** is a consonant with the tongue close to the alveolar ridge, which is the part just behind our teeth. Alveolar consonants that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue, like in English, are called apical consonants while those pronounced using the blade of the tongue which is the flat part of the tongue behind the tip, are called laminal consonants. Alveolar consonants in English are , , , , and . The alveolar consonants , the alveolar nasal, and , the voiceless alveolar plosive, are the most common sounds in human languages.

## Alveolar consonants in IPA

The alveolar/coronal consonants identified by the IPA are:

|rowspan="2"|IPA|rowspan="2"|Description|colspan="4"|Example|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||alveolar nasal||English||ru<span style="color:#700000">**n**</span>||[ɹʷʌ<span style="color:#700000">**n**</span>]||run|
||voiceless alveolar plosive||English||<span style="color:#700000">**t**</span>ap||[<span style="color:#700000">**t**</span>ʰæp]||tap|
||voiced alveolar plosive||English||<span style="color:#700000">**d**</span>ebt||[<span style="color:#700000">**d**</span>ɛt]||debt|
||voiceless alveolar fricative||English||<span style="color:#700000">**s**</span>uit||[<span style="color:#700000">**s**</span>juːt]||suit|
||voiced alveolar fricative||English||<span style="color:#700000">**z**</span>oo||[<span style="color:#700000">**z**</span>uː]||zoo|
||voiceless alveolar affricate||German||<span style="color:#700000">**Z**</span>eit||[<span style="color:#700000">**t͡s**</span>aɪt]||time|
||voiced alveolar affricate||Italian||<span style="color:#700000">**z**</span>aino||[ˈ<span style="color:#700000">**d͡z**</span>aino]||backpack|
||voiceless alveolar lateral fricative||Welsh||<span style="color:#700000">**Ll**</span>wyd||[<span style="color:#700000">**ɬ**</span>ʊɪd]||the name Lloyd or Floyd|
||voiced alveolar lateral fricative||Zulu||<span style="color:#700000">**dl**</span>ala||[ˈ<span style="color:#700000">**ɮ**</span>álà]||to play|
||voiceless alveolar lateral affricate||Tsez||э<span style="color:#700000">**лI**</span>ни||[ˈʔɛ̝<span style="color:#700000">**t͡ɬ**</span>ni]||winter|
||voiced alveolar lateral affricate||Oowekyala|||||||
||alveolar approximant||English||<span style="color:#700000">**r**</span>ed||[<span style="color:#700000">**ɹʷ**</span>ɛd]||red|
||alveolar lateral approximant||English||<span style="color:#700000">**l**</span>oop||[<span style="color:#700000">**l**</span>up]||loop|
||alveolar tap or flap||Spanish||pe<span style="color:#700000">**r**</span>o||[pe<span style="color:#700000">**ɾ**</span>o]||but|
||alveolar lateral flap||Venda||||[vu<span style="color:#700000">**ɺ**</span>a]||to open|
||alveolar trill||Spanish||pe<span style="color:#700000">**rr**</span>o||[pe<span style="color:#700000">**r**</span>o]||dog|
||alveolar ejective stop||Georgian||<span style="color:#700000">**ტ**</span>ი<span style="color:#700000">**ტ**</span>ა||[<span style="color:#700000">**tʼ**</span>i<span style="color:#700000">**tʼ**</span>a]||tulip|
||alveolar ejective fricative||Amharic||||[<span style="color:#700000">**sʼ**</span>ɛɡa]||grace|
||voiced alveolar implosive||Vietnamese||<span style="color:#700000">**đ**</span>ã||[<span style="color:#700000">**ɗ**</span>ɐː]||Past tense indicator|
||alveolar lateral click||Nama||<span style="color:#700000">****</span>î||[k<span style="color:#700000">**ǁ**</span>ĩĩ]||discussed|