Voiced dental and alveolar stops

Updated on Oct 28, 2023

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IPA number 104 Unicode (hex) U+0064 Kirshenbaum d		Entity (decimal) d X-SAMPA d Braille Example

The voiced alveolar stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar stops is ⟨d⟩ (although the symbol ⟨d̪⟩ can be used to distinguish the dental stop, and ⟨d̠⟩ the postalveolar), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar stop:

Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.

There are four specific variants of [d]:

Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.

Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.

Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

References

Voiced dental and alveolar stops Wikipedia

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