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A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , . In some languages, dentals are distinguished from other groups, such as alveolar consonants, in which the tongue contacts the Gingiva ridge. Dental consonants share acoustic similarity and in the Latin script are generally written with consistent symbols (e.g. t, d, n).
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic for dental consonant is . When there is no room under the letter, it may be placed above, using the character , such as in . However, this has a different meaning in the Extensions to the IPA.
Sanskrit, Hindustani and all other Indo-Aryan languages have an entire set of dental stops that occur phonemically as voiced and voiceless and with or without aspiration. The nasal also exists but is quite alveolar and Apical consonant in articulation. To native speakers, the English language alveolar and sound more like the corresponding retroflex consonants of their languages than like dentals.
Spanish language and are denti-alveolar, while and are prototypically alveolar but assimilate to the place of articulation of a following consonant. Likewise, Italian language , , , are denti-alveolar (, , , and respectively) and and become denti-alveolar before a following dental consonant.
Although denti-alveolar consonants are often described as dental, it is the point of contact farthest to the back that is most relevant, defines the maximum acoustic space of resonance and gives a characteristic sound to a consonant. In French language, the contact that is farthest back is alveolar or sometimes slightly pre-alveolar.
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