Laminal consonant

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Places of articulation

Laminal

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A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex (tongue tip) only. This distinction applies only to coronal consonants, which use the front of the tongue.

Laminal vs. apical is not a very common contrast within a language. Where such a contrast occurs, it is typically phonemic with fricatives and affricates rather than stops, although some native languages of California make the distinction with plosives as well. The Basque language differentiates between laminal and apical in the alveolar region, as does Serbo-Croatian, while Polish and Mandarin make the distinction with postalveolar consonants.

Comparing languages, however, such as French and English, we find that French coronals are laminal (often mistakenly called "dental") while English coronals are apical. Mispronouncing this detail affects not only the sound of the consonants, but interferes with the French vowels as well. Failure to take into account the subtle distinction between these two articulations is a common 'give-away' of a non-native speaker, even when pronunciation is otherwise perfect.

Because laminal consonants use the flat of the tongue, they cover a broader area of contact than apical consonants. Laminal consonants in some languages have been recorded with a broad occlusion (closure) covering the entire front of the mouth, from the hard palate to the teeth. Therefore it is difficult to compare the two: alveolar laminals and apicals are two different articulations.

A very common laminal articulation is sometimes called denti-alveolar; it spans the alveolar ridge to the teeth, but is a little further forward than other alveolar laminal consonants which cover more of the alveolar ridge (and might be considered postalveolar). This, to be utterly precise, is the situation for French.

Part of the confusion in naming laminal consonants is, quite literally, a matter of point of view: when looking at a person pronouncing a laminal alveolar or denti-alveolar, the tip of the tongue can be seen touching the back of the teeth, or even protruding between the teeth. This gives them the common name of dental. However, the important element acoustically is where the rear-most occlusion is, for this is the point where the resonant chamber in the mouth terminates, and this determines the size and shape, and therefore the acoustics, of the oral cavity, which produces the harmonics of the vowels. By this consideration the French coronals are alveolar, and differ from English alveolars primarily in being laminal rather than apical (that is, in French the tongue is flatter). There are true laminal dentals in some languages, with no alveolar contact, and they sound different from the French consonants. Nevertheless, the breadth of contact has some importance, for it influences the shape of the tongue further back, and therefore the shape of the resonant cavity. Also, if the release of a denti-alveolar consonant is not abrupt, the tongue may peel off from the roof of the mouth from back to front, in effect shifting from an alveolar to a dental pronunciation.