Alveopalatal

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to a place of articulation in speech sounds that involves both the alveolar ridge and the hard palate; describing consonants produced by raising the tongue to this combined area; pertaining to phonetic sounds formed between these two oral structures
2. Concerning a type of articulation where the tongue contacts the alveolar ridge and adjacent palate simultaneously; characterizing speech sounds made at this intermediate region between alveolar and palatal zones; denoting phonemes generated by this dual-contact place in the mouth
3. Indicative of a phonetic place involving the alveolar ridge and hard palate in speech production; referring to consonantal sounds articulated with the tongue near the boundary of these two areas; relating to sounds formed at the junction of alveolar and palatal regions of the mouth

Etymology: Phonetics borrowed its building blocks from anatomy. "Alveolus" is Latin for a small cavity or hollow, the diminutive of "alveus," meaning a trough or hollow vessel, and in English it names the bony ridge behind the upper front teeth where the tooth sockets sit. "Palatal" comes from "palatum," the Latin word for the roof of the mouth, which entered English through Old French "palat" and Middle English "palate." The prefix "alveo-" is simply a clipped form of "alveolar," so "alveopalatal" is a plain English compound: a sound made where the tongue touches both the ridge behind the teeth and the hard palate just beyond it. The word is a modern technical coinage, built deliberately from these two parts rather than inherited from classical texts. Phoneticians needed a label for articulations that fall between the alveolar and palatal zones, and combining the two existing terms gave one that describes the place of articulation directly.

Synonyms: postalveolar, palato-alveolar