Coronal consonant

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.

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. Alveolo-palatal and linguolabial consonants sometimes behave as dorsal and labial consonants, respectively, rather than as coronals.

Coronal sibilants

		IPA symbol	meaning
place of articulation	passive (mouth)	⟨s̪⟩	dental
		⟨s̟⟩	denti-alveolar (advanced)
		⟨s͇⟩	alveolar
		⟨s̠⟩	postalveolar (retracted)
		⟨ʂ⟩	retroflex
	active (tongue)	⟨s̺⟩	apical
		⟨s̻⟩	laminal
	secondary	⟨sʲ⟩	palatalized coronal
		⟨ɕ⟩	alveolo-palatal
		⟨ʃ⟩	palato-alveolar
		⟨sʷ⟩	labialized coronal
		⟨sˠ⟩	velarized coronal
		⟨sˤ⟩	pharyngealized coronal
voice-onset time		⟨sʰ⟩	aspirated coronal

Examples

In Arabic and Maltese philology, the sun letters represent coronal consonants.

Familiar

Familiar coronal consonants

IPA symbol	Name of the consonant	Language	Example	IPA
⟨z⟩	Voiced alveolar sibilant	English	zoo	/zuː/
⟨s⟩	Voiceless alveolar sibilant		sea	/siː/
⟨ð⟩	Voiced dental fricative		that	/ðæt/
⟨θ⟩	Voiceless dental fricative		thud	/θʌd/
⟨ʒ⟩	Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant		vision	/ˈvɪʒən/
⟨ʃ⟩	Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant		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⟩	Alveolar lateral approximant		lift	/lɪft/
⟨r⟩	Alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	/ˈpero/
⟨ɾ⟩	Alveolar flap		pero	/ˈpeɾo/

Australian Aboriginal

In Australian Aboriginal 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

See also

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