Coronal consonant

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.

Coronal sibilants

		IPA symbol	meaning
place of articulation	passive (mouth)	⟨s̪⟩	dental
		⟨s̟⟩	advanced (denti-alveolar)
		⟨s͇⟩	alveolar
		⟨s̠⟩	retracted (postalveolar)
	active (tongue)	⟨s̺⟩	apical
		⟨s̻⟩	laminal
		⟨ʂ⟩	retroflex
	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

Arabic

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

European

European 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 palato-alveolar fricative		vision	/ˈvɪʒən/
⟨ʃ⟩	Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative		she	/ʃiː/
⟨n⟩	Alveolar nasal		name	/neɪm/
⟨d⟩	Voiced alveolar plosive		day	/deɪ/
⟨t⟩	Voiceless alveolar plosive		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^[1]

	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