Postalveolar (definition)

A postalveolar sound is pronounced with the tongue positioned slightly behind the alveolar ridge. The alveolar ridge is the bony ridge located just behind the row of upper teeth. Together with alveolar consonants, they create a palatal class of consonants. For English speakers, the difference between Gaelic broad and slender consonants is most noticeable in the difference between alveolar [s] said to be broad and postalveolar [ʃ] said to be slender (or palatalized).

The postalveolar sounds of English [ʃ], [ʒ], [dʒ], [tʃ]; the postalveolar sounds of Gaelic [ʃ], [tʲ], [dʲ].

See Also

• Alveolar (definition)
• Palatal (definition)
• Broad and Slender
• Place of Articulation (definition)
• Sounds of Scottish Gaelic

External Links

• http://www.akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Consonants

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postalveolar_consonant

References

• Crystal, David. (1997) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
• Ladefoged, D. (2010) A Course in Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wadsworth Publishing.