Coronal consonant

Places of articulation
Labial Bilabial Labial–velar Labial–coronal Labiodental Dentolabial Bidental Coronal Linguolabial Interdental Dental Denti-alveolar Alveolar Postalveolar Palato-alveolar Retroflex Dorsal Postalveolar Alveolo-palatal Palatal Labial–palatal Velar Uvular Uvular–epiglottal Radical Pharyngeal Epiglotto-pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal Peripheral
Tongue shape
Apical Laminal Subapical Lateral Sulcal Palatal Pharyngeal See also: Manner of articulation
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Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the blade of the tongue), domed (with the tongue bunched up), or subapical (using the underside of the tongue), as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such dexterity. Coronals have another dimension, grooved, that is used to make sibilants in combination with the orientations above. In Arabic and Maltese philology, the sun letters transcribe coronal consonants.

In Australian languages, coronals contrast with peripheral consonants.

Australian coronal consonants

	Laminal	Apical
Alveopalatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	c ~ t̠ʲ	t̪	t	ʈ
Nasal	ɲ ~ n̠ʲ	n̪	n	ɳ
Lateral	ʎ ~ l̠ʲ	l̪	l	ɭ

Places of articulation

Coronal places of articulation include the dental consonants at the upper teeth, the alveolar consonants at the upper gum (the alveolar ridge), the various postalveolar consonants (domed palato-alveolar, laminal alveolo-palatal, and apical retroflex) just behind that, the true retroflex consonants curled back against the hard palate, and linguolabial consonants with the tongue against the upper lip.

Familiar coronal consonants
(missing: linguolabial, alveolo-palatal, retroflex)

IPA Symbol	Name of the consonant	Example	IPA
z	Voiced alveolar fricative	zoo	/zuː/
s	Voiceless alveolar fricative	sea	/siː/
ð	Voiced dental fricative	that	/ðæt/
θ	Voiceless dental fricative	thud	/θʌd/
ʒ	Voiced postalveolar fricative	vision	/vɪʒən/
ʃ	Voiceless postalveolar fricative	she	/ʃiː/
n	Alveolar nasal	name	/neɪm/
d	Voiced alveolar stop	day	/deɪ/
t	Voiceless alveolar stop	tea	/tiː/
ɹ	Alveolar approximant	reef	/ɹiːf/
l	Lateral alveolar approximant	lift	/lɪft/
r	Alveolar trill	Spanish perro	/pero/
ɾ	Alveolar tap	Spanish pero	/peɾo/

See also

• Peripheral consonants, the set of non-coronal consonants
• Apical consonant
• Laminal consonant
• Subapical consonant
• Place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.