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How are dental consonants different from alveolar consonants?

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Diagram of a human head in profile showing the location of vocal organs and possible places of articulation for speech sounds, with labels for lips, teeth, tongue, palate, uvula, pharynx, and vocal cords, and numbered regions corresponding to types of articulation such as bilabial, alveolar, and velar.
phonetics Diagram depicting the location of human vocal organs and possible places of articulation used for speech.

In articulatory phonetics, consonants are classified by their place of articulation, which describes the specific structures of the vocal tract involved in obstructing the airstream. The primary difference between dental and alveolar consonants lies in the upper articulatory structure used to create this obstruction:12

  • Dental consonants are produced by the tongue tip or blade interacting with the upper front teeth.1
  • Alveolar consonants are produced by the tongue tip or blade interacting with the alveolar ridge, which is the ridge of bone located just behind the upper front teeth.134

While both categories typically involve the tip or blade of the tongue as the lower articulator, the specific point of contact on the roof of the mouth distinguishes them. These classifications are fundamental to describing how speech sounds are formed through the precise positioning of the vocal organs.154