Occurrence
True dental consonants are relatively uncommon. In the Romance languages, /t/ is often called dental. However, the rearmost contact (which is what gives a consonant its distinctive sound) is actually alveolar, or perhaps denti-alveolar; The difference between the /t/ sounds of the Romance languages and English is not so much where the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth as which part of the tongue makes the contact. In English, it is the tip of the tongue (such sounds are termed apical), whereas in a number of Romance languages, it is the flat of the tongue just above the tip (such sounds are called laminal). However, there are a few languages, such as Temne, with a true apical (or less commonly laminal) dental t.
Many Indian languages, such as Hindi-Urdu and Bengali, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain . In Finnish, the dental stop /t/ contrasts with the alveolar stop /d/, although the latter is typically voiced or tapped as a secondary cue; moreover, in native words, the alveolar stop appears only as a lenition of the dental stop. Pazeh contrasts a voiced alveolar stop with a voiceless interdental one. Malayalam and many Australian Aboriginal languages contrast alveolar and dental varieties of /t/.
- True dental
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pazeh | 'keep clapping' | ||||
| Temne | |||||
- Laminal (denti-)alveolar
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleut | tiistax̂ | 'dough' | |||
| Armenian | Eastern | տուն | 'house' | ||
| Basque | toki | 'place' | |||
| Bengali | তুমি | 'you' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology | ||
| Catalan | tothom | 'everyone' | See Catalan phonology | ||
| Chinese | Hakka | 他 ta3 | 'he/she' | Contrasts with an unaspirated form. | |
| Dinka | mɛth | 'child' | Contrasts with alveolar /t/ | ||
| Dutch | Belgian | taal | 'language' | ||
| English | Indian | thin | 'thin' | Corresponds to /θ/ in other dialects. See English phonology | |
| Southern Irish | |||||
| Broad SAE | talk | 'talk' | Corresponds to in other dialects. | ||
| Finnish | tutti | 'pacifier' | See Finnish phonology | ||
| Greek | Ματθαίος Matthaios | 'Matthew' | See Modern Greek phonology | ||
| Hindi-Urdu | तीन / تین | 'three' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindi-Urdu phonology | ||
| Indonesian | tabir | 'curtain' | |||
| Italian | tale | 'such' | See Italian phonology | ||
| Marathi | तबला | 'tabla' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Marathi phonology | ||
| Nunggubuyu | 'whiskers' | ||||
| Polish | tom | 'volume' | See Polish phonology | ||
| Portuguese | montanha | 'mountain' | Likely to have allophones among native speakers, as it may affricate to, and/or in certain environments. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Russian | толстый | 'fat' | See Russian phonology | ||
| Spanish | tango | 'tango' | See Spanish phonology | ||
| Swedish | tåg | 'train' | See Swedish phonology | ||
| Turkish | at | 'horse' | See Turkish phonology | ||
| Ukrainian | брат | 'brother' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| Vietnamese | tuần | 'week' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan | tant | 'so much' | ||
Read more about this topic: Voiceless Dental Stop
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