Dorsal consonant

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

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.

Function

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.

Examples

Familiar dorsal consonants

IPA symbol	Name of the consonant	Language	Example	IPA
⟨j⟩	Palatal approximant	English	yellow	/ˈjɛloʊ/
⟨ɡ⟩	Voiced velar stop		garden	/ˈgɑrdən/
⟨k⟩	Voiceless velar stop		cake	/ˈkeɪk/
⟨ɣ⟩	Voiced velar fricative	Modern Greek	góma (γόμα)	/ˈɣoma/
⟨x⟩	Voiceless velar fricative	Malay	akhir	/a:ˈxir/
⟨w⟩	Labio-velar approximant	English	water	/ˈwɔːtər/
⟨q⟩	Voiceless uvular stop	Arabic	Qurʾān (قرآن)	/qurʔaːn/
⟨ʁ⟩	Voiced uvular fricative or approximant	French	Paris	/paʁi/
⟨χ⟩	Voiceless uvular fricative	German	Bach	[baχ]

See also

• Place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

References

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