Dorsal consonants areconsonantsarticulated with the back of thetongue (the dorsum). They include theuvular,velar and, in some cases,alveolo-palatal andpalatal consonants. They contrast withcoronal consonants, articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, andlaryngeal consonants, articulated in thepharyngeal cavity.
The dorsum of the tongue can contact a broad region of the roof of the mouth, from thehard palate (palatal consonants), the flexiblevelum behind that (velar consonants), to theuvula at the back of the mouth cavity (uvular consonants). These distinctions are not clear cut, and sometimes finer gradations such aspre-palatal, pre-velar, andpost-velar will be noted.
Because the tip of the tongue can curl back to also contact the hard palate forretroflex consonants (subapical-palatal), consonants produced by contact between the dorsum and the palate are sometimes calleddorso-palatal.
| IPA symbol | Name of the consonant | Language | Example | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨ɲ⟩ | Voiced palatal nasal | Albanian | një | [ɲə] |
| ⟨ʝ⟩ | Voiced palatal fricative | Modern Greek | για | [ʝa] |
| ⟨ç⟩ | Voiceless palatal fricative | German | Reich | [ʁaɪ̯ç] |
| ⟨j⟩ | Voiced palatal approximant | English | yellow | [ˈjɛloʊ] |
| ⟨ŋ⟩ | Voiced velar nasal | sing | [ˈsɪŋ] | |
| ⟨ɡ⟩ | Voiced velar plosive | garden | [ˈɡɑː(ɹ)dn̩] | |
| ⟨k⟩ | Voiceless velar plosive | cake | [ˈkeɪk] | |
| ⟨ɣ⟩ | Voiced velar fricative | Modern Greek | góma (γόμα) | [ˈɣoma] |
| ⟨x⟩ | Voiceless velar fricative | Scottish English | loch | [ˈlox] |
| ⟨ʍ⟩ | Voiceless labio-velar approximant | whine | [ˈʍaɪn] | |
| ⟨w⟩ | Voiced labio-velar approximant | RP English | water | [ˈwɔːʔə] |
| ⟨q⟩ | Voiceless uvular plosive | Arabic | Qurʾān (قرآن) | [qurʔaːn] |
| ⟨ɢ⟩ | Voiced uvular plosive | Persian | Qom (قم) | [ɢom] |
| ⟨ʁ⟩ | Voiced uvular fricative or approximant | French | Paris | [paʁi] |
| ⟨χ⟩ | Voiceless uvular fricative | German | Bach | [baχ] |
