Dentals

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or produced by the use of the teeth; describing sounds articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth; referring to a branch of phonetics that studies dental sounds in languages
2. Connected to the action or process involving the teeth; denoting speech sounds made when the tongue contacts the teeth; pertaining to the study of dental phonetics in linguistics
3. Involving the teeth in pronunciation or articulation; characterizing specific sounds formed by the interaction between the tongue and the teeth; linked to the area of linguistics that analyzes dental sounds

Etymology: Dentals is simply the plural of "dental", and the adjective's story begins with the Latin word for a tooth. Latin "dēns" (genitive "dentis") gave rise to the adjective "dentālis", meaning "of the teeth" or "pertaining to teeth", built from "dēns" plus the adjectival suffix "-ālis", which Latin used to turn nouns into descriptive adjectives. English borrowed the word from Middle French "dental", which had itself taken it from Late Latin "dentālis", so the English adjective is a straightforward borrowing rather than something inherited from older English. The noun-like uses are the newer layer. Phoneticians later needed a term for consonants articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, and "dental" supplied it, so a sound such as the "t" in "tin" in many languages could be classed as dental. Making the word plural, "dentals", gives a name for that whole category of sounds, while the linguistic sense of the adjective ties the old Latin idea of teeth directly to the physical shape of speech.

Synonyms: tooth sounds, dental consonants

Antonyms: labials, velars