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Amedian consonant, also known as acentral consonant (not to be confused with the articulation of acentral vowel),[1] is aconsonant sound that is produced when air flows along the midline of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts withlateral consonants, in which air flows over one or both sides of the tongue.
Examples of median consonants are thevoiced alveolar fricative (the "z" in the English word "zoo") and thepalatal approximant (the "y" in the English word "yes"). Others are the median fricatives[θðszʃʒʂʐɕʑçʝxɣχʁ], the median approximants[ɹɻjɥɰwʍ], the trills[rʀ], and the median flaps[ɾɽ].
The term is most relevant for approximants and fricatives (for which there are contrasting lateral and median consonants - e.g.[l] versus[ɹ] and[ɮ] versus[z]). Stops that have "lateral release" can be written in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet using a superscript symbol, e.g.[tˡ], or can be implied by a following lateral consonant, e.g.[tɬ]. The labial fricatives[fv] often—perhaps usually—have lateral airflow, as occlusion between the teeth and lips blocks the airflow in the center, but nonetheless they are not considered lateral consonants because no language makes a distinction between the two.
In some languages, the laterality of a phoneme may be indeterminate. In Japanese, for example, there is aliquid phoneme/r/, which may be either median or lateral, resulting in /ro/ produced as[ɾo] or[ɺo].