# Alveolar stop

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alveolar_stop
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alveolar_stop.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_stop
> Source revision: 1310824316
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

In [phonetics](/source/Phonetics) and [phonology](/source/Phonology), an **alveolar stop** is a type of consonantal[1] sound, made with the tongue in contact with the [alveolar ridge](/source/Alveolar_ridge) located just behind the teeth (hence [alveolar](/source/Alveolar_consonant)), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a [stop consonant](/source/Stop_consonant)).[2] The most common sounds are the stops [t][3] and [d], as in English *toe* and *doe*, and the voiced nasal [n]. The 2-D finite element mode of the front part of the midsagittal tongue can stimulate the air pressed release of an alveolar stop.[4] [Alveolar consonants](/source/Alveolar_consonant) in children's productions have generally been demonstrated to undergo smaller vowel-related coarticulatory effects than labial and velar consonants, thus yielding consonant-specific patterns similar to those observed in adults.[5]

The upcoming vowel target is adjusted to demand force and effort during the coarticulating process.[6] More generally, several kinds are distinguished:

- [t], [voiceless alveolar plosive](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive)
- [d], [voiced alveolar plosive](/source/Voiced_alveolar_plosive)
- [n], [voiced alveolar nasal](/source/Voiced_alveolar_nasal)
- [n̥], [voiceless alveolar nasal](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_nasal)
- [tʼ], [alveolar ejective](/source/Alveolar_ejective)
- [ɗ ], [voiced alveolar implosive](/source/Voiced_alveolar_implosive)
- [ɗ̥ ] or [tʼ↓] [voiceless alveolar implosive](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_implosive) (very rare)

Note that alveolar and [dental stops](/source/Dental_stop) are not always carefully distinguished. Acoustically, the two types of sounds are similar, and it is rare for a language to have both types, though there are languages which have both and in which they are [phonemic](/source/Phoneme), such as in the [Bengali](/source/Bengali_language) spoken in [Bangladesh](/source/Bangladesh) (as opposed to that spoken in [West Bengal](/source/West_Bengal)).

If necessary, an alveolar consonant can be transcribed with the combining [equals sign](/source/Equals_sign) below , as with for the voiceless alveolar stop. A [dental consonant](/source/Dental_consonant) can be transcribed with the [combining bridge below](/source/Combining_Diacritical_Marks) , and a [postalveolar consonant](/source/Postalveolar_consonant) with the [retraction diacritic](/source/Relative_articulation#Advanced_and_retracted), the [combining minus sign below](/source/Plus_and_minus_signs#Other_uses) .

## References

1. ["List of Consonants"](http://depts.washington.edu/lingsup/ling200/consrand.php). *University of Washington*. Retrieved 8 April 2019.

1. International Phonetic Association (2014). *Handbook of the International Phonetic Association a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521652360. [OCLC 931695762](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/931695762)

1. Liberman, A. M.; Cooper, F. S.; Shankweiler, D. P.; Studdert-Kennedy, M. (1967). "Perception of the speech code.". *Psychological Review*. **74** (6): 431–461. [doi:10.1037/h0020279](https://doi.org/10.1037/h0020279). [ISSN 1939-1471](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1939-1471). [PMID 4170865](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4170865)

1. Chen, Lan (2005). "Effect of intraoral air pressure on the release of an alveolar stop closure". *The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America*. **118** (3): 2026. [Bibcode:2005ASAJ..118.2026C](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005ASAJ..118.2026C). [doi:10.1121/1.4785776](https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4785776)

1. Zharkova, Natalia (2017-09-02). ["Voiceless alveolar stop coarticulation in typically developing 5-year-olds and 13-year-olds"](https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/fulltext.aspx?url=252442/0CDC80DE-217E-406B-A892-3FA4AEA4C7D1.pdf&pub_id=252442). *Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics*. **31** (7–9): 503–513. [doi:10.1080/02699206.2016.1268209](https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2016.1268209). [ISSN 0269-9206](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0269-9206). [PMID 28085509](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28085509). [S2CID 10243498](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10243498)

1. Zharkova, Natalie (2017). ["Voiceless alveolar stop coarticulation in typically developing 5-year-olds and 13-year-olds"](https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/fulltext.aspx?url=252442/0CDC80DE-217E-406B-A892-3FA4AEA4C7D1.pdf&pub_id=252442). *Papers from the 16th ICPLA Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia - 1*. **31** (7–9): 503–513. [doi:10.1080/02699206.2016.1268209](https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2016.1268209). [PMID 28085509](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28085509). [S2CID 10243498](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10243498)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alveolar stop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_stop) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_stop?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.