Dental consonant
Dentals are consonants articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both.The alveolar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
| IPA Symbol | Name | Example | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| t̪ | Voiceless dental plosive | |||
| d̪ | Voiced dental plosive | |||
| n̪ | Dental nasal | |||
| ɾ̪ | Dental flap | |||
| θ | Voiceless dental fricative | English | [bæθ] | bath |
| ð | Voiced dental fricative | English | [ðæt] | that |
| l̪ | Dental lateral approximant | |||
Examples:
- English th in this (SAMPA [D]), or English th in thing (SAMPA [T]) are dental fricatives.
- In French, Italian, and Spanish t, d, n, and l are all dental, whereas they're alveolar in English.