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| Laminal | |
|---|---|
| ◌̻ | |
| ◌ | |
| IPA number | 410 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ̻ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+033B |
Alaminal consonant is aphone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with theblade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue, in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as far back as the hard palate, although in the last contact may involve parts behind the blade as well.[1] It is distinct from anapical consonant, produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex (tongue tip) only. Laminal is sometimes used exclusively for an articulation that involves only the blade of the tongue with the tip being lowered and apicolaminal for an articulation that involves both the blade of the tongue and the raised tongue tip.[2][3] The distinction applies only tocoronal consonants, which use the front of the tongue.
Some languages contrast laminal and apical sounds:
Since 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) that covers all the front of the mouth from the hard palate to the teeth, which makes it difficult to compare the two. Alveolar laminals and apicals are two different articulations.
A very common laminal articulation is sometimes calleddenti-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 occurs inFrench.
Part of the confusion in naming laminal consonants is quite literally a matter of point of view. When one looks at a person pronouncing a laminalalveolar or denti-alveolar, the tip of the tongue can be seen touching the back of the teeth or even protruding between the teeth, which gives them the common name ofdental.
Acoustically, however, the important element is the place of the rearmost occlusion, which is the point that the resonant chamber in the mouth terminates. That determines the size, shape and acoustics of theoral cavity, which produces the harmonics of the vowels. Thus, French coronals are alveolar and differ from English alveolars primarily in being laminal rather than apical (in French, the tongue is flatter).
There are true laminal dentals in some languages with no alveolar contact, such as inHindustani, which are different from French consonants. Nevertheless, the breadth of contact has some importance; it influences the shape of the tongue further back and so 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 and shift from an alveolar to a dental pronunciation.
In theIPA, the diacritic for laminal consonants is a rectangle, normally placed under the letter:U+033B ◌̻COMBINING SQUARE BELOW.
