| Above: | Dental |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̪ |
| Ipa Number: | 408 |
| Decimal: | 810 |
A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as pronounced as //θ//, pronounced as //ð//. In some languages, dentals are distinguished from other groups, such as alveolar consonants, in which the tongue contacts the gum ridge. Dental consonants share acoustic similarity and in the Latin script are generally written with consistent symbols (e.g. t, d, n).
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic for dental consonant is . When there is no room under the letter, it may be placed above, using the character, such as in /p͆/.
For many languages, such as Albanian, Irish and Russian, velarization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants. Thus, velarized consonants, such as Albanian pronounced as //ɫ//, tend to be dental or denti-alveolar, and non-velarized consonants tend to be retracted to an alveolar position.
Sanskrit, Hindustani and all other Indo-Aryan languages have an entire set of dental stops that occur phonemically as voiced and voiceless and with or without aspiration. The nasal pronounced as //n// also exists but is quite alveolar and apical in articulation. To native speakers, the English alveolar pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// sound more like the corresponding retroflex consonants of their languages than like dentals.
Spanish pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// are denti-alveolar, while pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //n// are prototypically alveolar but assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant. Likewise, Italian pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //t͡s//, pronounced as //d͡z// are denti-alveolar (pronounced as /[t̪]/, pronounced as /[d̪]/, pronounced as /[t̪͡s̪]/, and pronounced as /[d̪͡z̪]/ respectively) and pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //n// become denti-alveolar before a following dental consonant.
Although denti-alveolar consonants are often described as dental, it is the point of contact farthest to the back that is most relevant, defines the maximum acoustic space of resonance and gives a characteristic sound to a consonant. In French, the contact that is farthest back is alveolar or sometimes slightly pre-alveolar.
Dental/denti-alveolar consonants as transcribed by the International Phonetic Alphabet include:
| IPA | Description | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | |||
| pronounced as /n̪/ | dental nasal | Russian | банк / bank | pronounced as /[ba'''n̪'''k]/ | 'bank' | |
| pronounced as /t̪/ | voiceless dental plosive | Finnish | tutti | pronounced as /['''t̪'''u'''t̪ː'''i]/ | 'pacifier' | |
| pronounced as /d̪/ | voiced dental plosive | Arabic | دين / din | pronounced as /['''d̪'''iːn]/ | 'religion' | |
| pronounced as /s̪/ | voiceless dental sibilant fricative | Polish | kosa | pronounced as /[kɔ'''s̪'''a]/ | 'scythe' | |
| pronounced as /z̪/ | voiced dental sibilant fricative | Polish | koza | pronounced as /[kɔ'''z̪'''a]/ | 'goat' | |
| pronounced as /θ/ | voiceless dental nonsibilant fricative (also often called "interdental") | English | thing | pronounced as /['''θ'''ɪŋ]/ | ||
| pronounced as /ð/ | voiced dental nonsibilant fricative (also often called "interdental") | English | this | pronounced as /['''ð'''ɪs]/ | ||
| pronounced as /ð̞/ | dental approximant | Spanish | codo | pronounced as /[ko'''ð̞'''o]/ | 'elbow' | |
| pronounced as /l̪/ | dental lateral approximant | Spanish | alto | pronounced as /[a'''l̪'''t̪o]/ | 'tall' | |
| pronounced as /t̪ʼ/ | dental ejective | Dahalo | pronounced as /['''t̪ʼ'''at̪t̪a]/ | 'hair' | ||
| pronounced as /ɗ̪/ | voiced dental implosive | Sindhi | ڏسڻي | pronounced as /['''ɗ̪'''əsɪɳiː]/ | 'forefinger' | |
| pronounced as /k͡ǀ q͡ǀ ɡ͡ǀ ɢ͡ǀ ŋ͡ǀ ɴ͡ǀ/ | dental clicks (many different consonants) | Xhosa | ukúcola | pronounced as /[ukʼúk'''ǀ'''ola]/ | 'to grind fine' | |
pronounced as /navigation/