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A dental consonant is a speech sound produced with the tongue tip or blade against the upper front teeth. These sounds are a subset of consonants, which are characterized by a blockage or narrowing in the vocal tract that obstructs airflow.123

In phonetics, consonants are classified by their place and manner of articulation, as well as whether they are voiced or voiceless. Dental consonants involve the interaction between the tongue and the teeth. For example, the sounds represented by 'th' in English words like "think" and "this" are dental continuants. Other places of articulation include alveolar (tongue near the ridge behind the teeth) and velar (back of the tongue near the soft palate).2456

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