Apical consonant

Apical
◌̺
IPA number	409
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	̺
Unicode (hex)	U+033A

Places of articulation
Labial     Bilabial         Labial–velar         Labial–coronal     Labiodental Bidental Coronal     Linguolabial     Interdental     Dental     Denti-alveolar     Alveolar     Coronal–velar     Postalveolar         Palato-alveolar         Retroflex Dorsal     Postalveolar         Alveolo-palatal     Palatal         Labial–palatal     Velar     Uvular         Uvular–epiglottal Laryngeal (Guttural)     Pharyngeal/Epiglottal     Glottal Peripheral
Tongue shape
Apical Subapical Laminal Sulcal Domed
Secondary articulation
Labialization (Rounding) Palatalization     Labio-palatalization Velarization Uvularization Pharyngealization
See also
Articulatory phonetics Coarticulation Double articulation Glottalization Manner of articulation

An apical consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue. It contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue, just behind the tip.

It is not a very common distinction and is typically applied only to fricatives and affricates. Thus, many varieties of English have either apical or laminal pairs of [t]/[d]. However, some varieties of Arabic, including Hadhrami Arabic in Yemen, realize [t] as laminal but [d] as apical.

Basque uses the distinction for alveolar fricatives, as does Serbo-Croatian. Mandarin Chinese uses it for postalveolar fricatives (the "alveolo-palatal" and "retroflex" series). Lillooet uses it as a secondary feature in contrasting velarized and non-velarized affricates. A distinction between apical and laminal is common in Australian Aboriginal languages for nasals plosives, and, usually, lateral approximants.

Most dialects in the Bengali–Assamese continuum distinguish between dental–laminal alveolar stops and apical alveolar stops. In Upper Assamese, they have merged and leave only the apical alveolar stops. In Western Bengali apical alveolars are replaced by apical post-alveolars.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic for apical consonants is U+033A ◌̺ COMBINING INVERTED BRIDGE BELOW (HTML ̺).

See also

• Coronal consonant
• Laminal consonant
• List of phonetic topics
• Voiceless apicoalveolar fricative
• Voiced apicoalveolar fricative

References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.