coronal consonant

7.9

A speech sound you make with the front of the tongue, like t, d, s or n

noun
/kəˈroʊnəl ˈkɒnsənt/

Specialized

: consonante coronales

The English sound /t/ is a typical coronal consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue near the teeth.

Examples

Children often master coronal consonant sounds like /n/ and /s/ early in language development.
Linguists study the differences between coronal consonant sounds and those produced farther back in the mouth.
Many languages have coronal consonants in their phonetic inventory.
Can you identify a coronal consonant in this word?
Linguists study the differences between coronal consonant sounds like /t/ and /d/ and those produced farther back in the mouth.
Children often master coronal consonant sounds like /n/ and /s/ early in language development.
The English sound /t/ is a typical coronal consonant articulated with the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth.

Surface Forms

coronal consonant singular

coronal consonants plural

Morphology

coronal + consonant

The noun is compositionally built from 'coronal' (a locational adjective) + 'consonant' (a speech sound), so learners can infer it refers to consonants defined by some location. However, 'coronal' here has a specialized phonetic sense ('front part of the tongue') that is not obvious from the everyday meaning of 'coronal', so a B1 learner who only knows the general senses would only partially, not fully, predict the precise phonetic meaning.

Etymology

The name coronal consonant comes from a Latin word meaning 'crown'. coronal points to the front of the tongue, like a small 'crown' near the teeth. So, because these sounds are made with that front part, they are called coronal consonants.