- Alveolar ridge
An alveolar ridge (also known as the alveolar margin) is one of the two
jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and thehard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth. The alveolar ridges contain the sockets (alveoli) of the teeth.You can touch their shapes by moving yourtongue in the area right above or beneath the teeth sockets. Its surface is covered with little ridges. You can only see these with a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth. Sounds made with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge while speaking are called alveolar.Alveolar consonant s are, for instance, [t] , [d] , [s] , [z] , [n] , [l] like in the words "time, dragon, superman, zeal, nasty" and "lollipop". When pronouncing these sounds you can feel your tongue touching ( [t] , [d] , [n] ), or nearly touching ( [s] , [z] ) the upper alveolar ridge which can also be referred to as gum ridge.In many languages
consonants are articulated with the tongue on (touching), or close to (without touching) the upper alveolar ridge. The former are called alveolarplosives , and the latter alveolarfricatives . See alsoalveolar consonant .See also:
List of phonetic topics Literature
Roach, Peter: "English Phonetics and Phonology". Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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