Dorsal consonants are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum). They include the palatal, velar and, in some cases, alveolo-palatal and uvular consonants. They contrast with coronal consonants, articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, and laryngeal consonants, articulated in the pharyngeal cavity.
Function
The dorsum of the tongue can contact a broad region of the roof of the mouth, from the hard palate (palatal consonants), the flexible velum behind that (velar consonants), to the uvula at the back of the mouth cavity (uvular consonants). These distinctions are not clear cut, and sometimes finer gradations such as pre-palatal, pre-velar, and post-velar will be noted.
Because the tip of the tongue can curl back to also contact the hard palate for retroflex consonants (subapical-palatal), consonants produced by contact between the dorsum and the palate are sometimes called dorso-palatal.
Examples
| IPA symbol | Name of the consonant | Language | Example | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨ɲ⟩ | Voiced palatal nasal | Albanian | një | [ɲə] |
| ⟨ʝ⟩ | Voiced palatal fricative | Modern Greek | για | [ʝa] |
| ⟨ç⟩ | Voiceless palatal fricative | German | Reich | [ʁaɪ̯ç] |
| ⟨j⟩ | Voiced palatal approximant | English | yellow | [ˈjɛloʊ] |
| ⟨ŋ⟩ | Voiced velar nasal | sing | [ˈsɪŋ] | |
| ⟨ɡ⟩ | Voiced velar plosive | garden | [ˈɡɑː(ɹ)dn̩] | |
| ⟨k⟩ | Voiceless velar plosive | cake | [ˈkeɪk] | |
| ⟨ɣ⟩ | Voiced velar fricative | Modern Greek | góma (γόμα) | [ˈɣoma] |
| ⟨x⟩ | Voiceless velar fricative | Malay | akhir | [aːˈxir] |
| ⟨ʍ⟩ | Voiceless labio-velar approximant | English | whine | [ˈʍaɪn] |
| ⟨w⟩ | Voiced labio-velar approximant | water | [ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)] | |
| ⟨q⟩ | Voiceless uvular plosive | Arabic | Qurʾān (قرآن) | [qurʔaːn] |
| ⟨ɢ⟩ | Voiced uvular plosive | Persian | Qom (قم) | [ɢom] |
| ⟨ʁ⟩ | Voiced uvular fricative or approximant | French | Paris | [paʁi] |
| ⟨χ⟩ | Voiceless uvular fricative | German | Bach | [baχ] |
See also
References
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.