Alveolar - Definition and Overview

Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). The alveolar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	Voiceless alveolar plosive	English	tap	[tʰæp]	tap
	voiced alveolar plosive	English	debt	[dɛt]	debt
	alveolar nasal	English	run	[ɹʌn]	run
	alveolar trill	Spanish	perro	[pero]	dog
	alveolar flap	Spanish	pero	[peɾo]	but
	voiceless alveolar fricative	English	suit	[sut]	suit
	voiced alveolar fricative	English	zoo	[zu]	zoo
	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Mishnaic Hebrew	שׂין (śîn)	[ɬiːn̪]	The letter śîn
	voiced alveolar lateral fricative	Mishnaic Hebrew	למד (lāmedh)	[ˈɮɔː.mɛð]	The letter lāmedh
	alveolar approximant	English	red	[ɹɛd]	red
	alveolar lateral approximant	English	loop	[lup]	loop
	alveolar lateral flap	Venda		[vuɺa]	to open
	lateral alveolar click	Nama	||î	[||ĩĩ]	discussed

See also

• place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics