pronounced as /notice/Dorsal consonants are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum). They include the palatal, velar and, in some cases, alveolo-palatal and uvular consonants. They contrast with coronal consonants, articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, and laryngeal consonants, articulated in the pharyngeal cavity.
The dorsum of the tongue can contact a broad region of the roof of the mouth, from the hard palate (palatal consonants), the flexible velum behind that (velar consonants), to the uvula at the back of the mouth cavity (uvular consonants). These distinctions are not clear cut, and sometimes finer gradations such as pre-palatal, pre-velar, and post-velar will be noted.
Because the tip of the tongue can curl back to also contact the hard palate for retroflex consonants (subapical-palatal), consonants produced by contact between the dorsum and the palate are sometimes called dorso-palatal.
| (IPA|ɲ) | Voiced palatal nasal | Albanian | Albanian: [[Albanian alphabet|'''nj'''ë]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɲə]/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (IPA|ʝ) | Voiced palatal fricative | Modern Greek | Greek, Modern (1453-);: '''γι'''α | pronounced as /[ʝa]/ | |
| (IPA|ç) | Voiceless palatal fricative | German | German: [[Reich|Rei'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[ʁaɪ̯ç]/ | |
| (IPA|j) | Voiced palatal approximant | English | yellow | pronounced as /[ˈjɛloʊ]/ | |
| (IPA|ŋ) | Voiced velar nasal | sing | pronounced as /[ˈsɪŋ]/ | ||
| (IPA|ɡ) | Voiced velar plosive | garden | pronounced as /[ˈɡɑː(ɹ)dn̩]/ | ||
| (IPA|k) | Voiceless velar plosive | cake | pronounced as /[ˈkeɪk]/ | ||
| (IPA|ɣ) | Voiced velar fricative | Modern Greek | (Greek, Modern (1453-);: γόμα) | pronounced as /[ˈɣoma]/ | |
| (IPA|x) | Voiceless velar fricative | Malay | Malay: a'''kh'''ir | pronounced as /[aːˈxir]/ | |
| (IPA|ʍ) | Voiceless labio-velar approximant | English | whine | pronounced as /[ˈʍaɪn]/ | |
| (IPA|w) | Voiced labio-velar approximant | water | pronounced as /[ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)]/ | ||
| (IPA|q) | Voiceless uvular plosive | Arabic | (Arabic: قرآن) | pronounced as /[qurʔaːn]/ | |
| (IPA|ɢ) | Voiced uvular plosive | Persian | Qom (Persian: قم) | pronounced as /[ɢom]/ | |
| (IPA|ʁ) | Voiced uvular fricative or approximant | French | French: [[Paris|Pa'''r'''is]] | pronounced as /[paʁi]/ | |
| (IPA|χ) | Voiceless uvular fricative | German | German: [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Ba'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[baχ]/ |
pronounced as /navigation/