Postalveolar Consonant

Postalveolar Consonant

Postalveolar consonants (sometimes spelled post-alveolar) are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). Examples of postalveolar consonants are the English palato-alveolar consonants, as in the words "shill", "'chill", "vision", and "Jill", respectively.

There are a large number of types of postalveolar sounds, especially among the sibilants. The three primary types are palato-alveolar (e.g., weakly palatalized); alveolo-palatal (e.g., strongly palatalized); and retroflex (e.g., unpalatalized). The palato-alveolar and alveolo-palatal subtypes are commonly counted as "palatals" in phonology, since they rarely contrast with true palatal consonants.