Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: 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 different postalveolar articulations (some of which also involve the back of the tongue as an articulator): palato-alveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex. Only the front of the tongue (coronal) has such dexterity among the major places of articulation, allowing such variety of distinctions. Coronals have another dimension, grooved, to make sibilants in combination with the orientations above.
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 (including domed palato-alveolar, laminal alveolo-palatal, and apical retroflex) just behind that, the subapical retroflex consonants curled back against the hard palate, and linguolabial consonants with the tongue against the upper lip. Alveolo-palatal and linguolabial consonants sometimes behave as dorsal and labial consonants, respectively, rather than as coronals.
| IPA symbol | meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| place of articulation | passive (mouth) | dental | |
| advanced (denti-alveolar) | |||
| alveolar | |||
| retracted (postalveolar) | |||
| active (tongue) | apical | ||
| laminal | |||
| retroflex | |||
| secondary | palatalized coronal | ||
| alveolo-palatal | |||
| palato-alveolar | |||
| labialized coronal | |||
| velarized coronal | |||
| pharyngealized coronal | |||
| voice-onset time | aspirated coronal | ||
Examples
Arabic
In Arabic and Maltese philology, the sun letters represent coronal consonants.
European
| IPA symbol | Name of the consonant | Language | Example | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiced alveolar sibilant | English | zoo | /zuː/ | |
| Voiceless alveolar sibilant | sea | /siː/ | ||
| Voiced dental fricative | that | /ðæt/ | ||
| Voiceless dental fricative | thud | /θʌd/ | ||
| Voiced palato-alveolar fricative | vision | /ˈvɪʒən/ | ||
| Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative | she | /ʃiː/ | ||
| Alveolar nasal | name | /neɪm/ | ||
| Voiced alveolar plosive | day | /deɪ/ | ||
| Voiceless alveolar plosive | tea | /tiː/ | ||
| Alveolar approximant | reef | /ɹiːf/ | ||
| Alveolar lateral approximant | lift | /lɪft/ | ||
| Alveolar trill | Spanish | perro | /ˈpero/ | |
| Alveolar flap | pero | /ˈpeɾo/ |
Australian Aboriginal
In Australian Aboriginal languages, coronals contrast with peripheral 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 |
Lack of coronals
The Northwest Mekeo language lacks coronal consonants entirely.[2]
See also
- Peripheral consonants, the set of non-coronal consonants
- Apical consonant
- Laminal consonant
- Subapical consonant
- Place of articulation
- List of phonetics topics
References
- ^ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 0521473780.
- ^ Blevins, Juliette (2009). "Another Universal Bites the Dust: Northwest Mekeo Lacks Coronal Phonemes". Oceanic Linguistics. 48 (1): 264–273. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0033. ISSN 1527-9421. Retrieved 2025-07-07.