The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants. Rather, the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that are not palatalized like English palato-alveolarsh, or retroflex. To disambiguate, the bridge ([s̪,t̪,n̪,l̪], etc.) may be used for a dental consonant, or the under-bar ([s̠,t̠,n̠,l̠], etc.) may be used for the postalveolars. [s̪] differs from dental [θ] in that the former is a sibilant and the latter is not. [s̠] differs from postalveolar [ʃ] in being unpalatalized.
The bare letters [s,t,n,l], etc. cannot be assumed to specifically represent alveolars. The language may not make such distinctions, such that two or more coronal places of articulation are found allophonically, or the transcription may simply be too broad to distinguish dental from alveolar. If it is necessary to specify a consonant as alveolar, a diacritic from the Extended IPA may be used: [s͇,t͇,n͇,l͇], etc., though that could also mean extra-retracted.[3] The letters ⟨s, t, n, l⟩ are frequently called 'alveolar,' and the examples from the languages below are all alveolar sounds.
(The Extended IPA diacritic was devised for speech pathology and is frequently used to mean "alveolarized", as in the labioalveolar sounds [p͇,b͇,m͇,f͇,v͇], where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.)
In IPA
Alveolar consonants are transcribed in the IPA as follows:
Northwest Mekeo lacks coronal consonants entirely.[6] A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack nasals and therefore [n] but have [t]. Colloquial Samoan, however, lacks both [t] and [n] but has a lateral alveolar approximant/l/. (Samoan words written with t and n are pronounced with [k] and [ŋ] in colloquial speech.) In Standard Hawaiian, [t] is an allophone of /k/, but /l/ and /n/ exist.
