International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au

The Coronal Place; Why is It Special?

Azhar Alkazwini The Public Authority For Applied Education And Training (Paaet), Kuwait Corresponding Author: Azhar Alkazwini, E-mail: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history To prove the existence of arguments about the exact place that can bear the term ‘coronal’, Received: May 11, 2017 it would be enough to check the explanatory dictionary’s entry. There are different arguments Accepted: July 14, 2017 regarding the exact place of coronal. In this paper, some of the linguistic evidence regarding the Published: December 01, 2017 coronal place shall be mentioned. Then, I shall discuss the classes of coronal that lend support Volume: 6 Issue: 7 to the fact that coronal place is believed to be special, and that is by discussing the different Special Issue on & Literature typologies of coronal and giving their description. Advance access: September 2017 Key words: English Language, The Coronal Place, Coronal Consonants, Organs of Articulation, Classes of Coronals, , Linguistics Conflicts of interest: Non Funding: None

INTRODUCTION Scholarly Evidence A number of phoneticians consider the Coronal Place to be According to Hall (1997), “Coronal sounds are articulat- special. In this paper, I summarize some of the linguistic evi- ed with the front part of the and therefore include dence regarding the coronal place. Then, I discuss the classes not only segments produced in the denti-alveolar region. of coronal that lend support to the fact that coronal place ...but also sounds articulated just behind the alveolar ridge” is believed to be special, and that is by discussing the dif- (p.04). According to C. Paradis and J. F. Prunet (1992), ferent typologies of coronal consonants and by giving their “Coronal consonants are phonologically special” (p.363). description in detail. When P. Ladefoged (2007) discusses places of articulation and terminology, he states that phonetically speaking, the DISPUTES ABOUT THE CORONAL PLACE articulation of ‘apical’ happens with the tip of the tongue, and the ‘coronal’ refers to the articulation that happens by Dictionary Entries the tongue blade. ‘Coronal’ also refers to both of these plac- To prove the existence of arguments about the exact place es of articulation unless the language that is being discussed that can bear the term ‘coronal’, it would be enough to has more characteristics. When considering the place of ar- check the explanatory dictionary’s entry. One of the most ticulation of coronal, there are some points that are vague, detailed explanations would give such lexico-semantic especially with regard to the relationship between the tip variants: of the tongue, the tongue blade and the front of the tongue. • Frontal; articulated with the tip of the tongue, especially These phrases may mean different things to different pho- in a retroflex position neticians. • (in analysis) articulated with the According to J. Mielke and E. Hume (2006, p.724), in blade of the tongue raised; dental, alveolar or palate-al- ‘The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics’ front or veolar; central region of the tongue is mentioned as one of the dis- • of or pertaining to the tip of the tongue (WED 1996, tinctive features of the coronals’ articulation. p. 453). According to Kohler (2007, p. 41–53), this is a problem As it can be seen, two basic parts of the tongue that are that concerns all consonants in the majority of world lan- mentioned in this aspect are: the tip of the tongue and the guages as there is no certainty about the distribution of place tongue blade. and manner of articulation. The same problem is discussed

Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.7p.6 The Coronal Place; Why is It Special? 7 by Keating (1991, p. 29–31). She mentions the blade (in- (ELL, P. Keating) if both the front and central parts are in- cluding the tip) as the coronals’ typical organ of articulation. cluded. Images in Ball and Rahilly (2013) are also proof of Keating then discusses in length the different approaches re- the differences in the length of the coronal place. According garding how long the tip may be. There are two traditions. In to P. Ladefoged (2007), one cannot be specific about these British phonetics, the blade includes the tip and 10–15 mm matters because the tongue is a ‘continuous body’ that does of the tongue. In American studies, (because of the differ- not have anatomical features, in addition to that is the fact ences in the pronunciation of the retroflex) the tip is equal that everyone’s is different in shape. to the blade in British studies, and the ‘American’ blade is According to Arbisi-Kelm and Beckman (2009, p. 109– further to the back. Thus the tip and the blade together would 136), differences can also depend on the individual anatomy approximately measure 20–25 mm long. P. Keating believes of speech organs. It can also depend on the gender and age that the blade alone is about 15–20 mm. P. Ladefoged (2007) variations. Examples of the gender and age differences in ad- gives the length of a centimeter making the coronal place dition to the prosodic dependence of coronals can be found rather short. in Livijn and Engstrand (2001, p. 108–111). According to J. Keating (1991) also gives a descriptive analysis of this Blevins (2007, p. 144–154), the ‘assimilation’ and ‘dissimi- part naming it “the most mobile”, “the part not attached to lation’ process along with ‘mishearing’ results in the differ- the floor of the mouth, roughly corresponding to the part be- ent age and gender groups can also be taken as evidence for low the alveolar ridge” (p.31). She also attributes the special the existence of various typologies. status and length of the coronal place to the function of the tongue (Idem) which is a strong decision considering the nu- CLASSES OF CORONALS merous classes of coronals. According to Ladefoged (2007), from a linguistic and The Problem of Division phonetic perspective, one of the most beneficial definitions The problem of classes is a result of the problem of non-sta- for the ‘blade of the tongue’ is based on its association with bility as far as the is concerned. Accord- the roof of the mouth. The ‘blade’ is the part of the tongue ing to P. Keating (1991, p. 29), both the place and manner of that is located under the middle part of the alveolar ridge articulation of coronal being convenient are an explanation when the tongue is resting. for the reason as to why there are so many of the them in all In many works, the term ‘coronal’ is not even introduced. of the world. At the same time, this type of conso- When Crystal (2003, p. 236) describes the organs of speech, nants gives more contrasts than any other type. he names the parts of the tongue as: the tip, the blade ‘which According to Keating (1991, p. 29–31), relying on is the tapering part opposite the alveolar ridge’, the front J. Maddieson’s survey, there are five primary places of ar- part ‘which is opposite the hard palate’, the center of the ticulation that are given the term ‘coronal’: dental, alveolar, tongue ‘where the hard and soft palate meet’, and the back palatoalveolar, retrofle and palatal. Another two positions of the tongue ‘opposite the soft palate’. The use of the term are also mentioned: linguolabial and interdental. The inter- ‘coronal’ is avoided by both Davenport and Hannahs (2005) dental is due to the status of /θ/ and /ð/ phonemes. At the ‘Introducing Phonetics and Phonology’, and Balland Rahilly same time, there are five other primary places of articulation (2013) ‘Phonetics: the Science of Speech’. that exist that account for the formation of all the other con- sonants. Therefore, coronals form a very large group. Recasens (2013, p. 02) classifies coronal consonants into: anterior, palatoalveolar, alveolopalatal and palatal. Schwartz, Boe and Abry (2007, p. 109) describe four posi- tions for coronal articulation groups: dental, alveodental, al- veolar, and postalveolar. They also mention the convenience of the articulation and the variety of combinations. “In fact, systems with the three places of articulation (labial, coronal, velar) constitute 33 percent of the languages, while systems with the four places of articulation (labial, coronal, palatal, velar) constitute 7.5 percent of the systems” (Schwartz et al., 2007, p.104–124). Engstrand, Frid and Lindblom (2007, p. 179–180) describe dental, prealveolar, postalveolar, ret- rofle , and strongly retrofle coronal types. For this, these characteristics are used: 1) The position parameter (the location where the main Judging by this diagram in Crystal (2003, p. 238(, which tongue hump is). illustrates the anatomic location, the length of the coro- 2) Displacement parameter (how far the tongue is dis- nal place can vary. It may measure from 10 mm (includes placed from its neutral structure). only the tip, corresponding to Ladefoged) to 15–20 mm if 3) The and the tongue contour. the blade is included (British tradition). It can also measure These typologies of consonants: apico- (tongue tip), 25–30 mm (American studies, Keating) or even 35–40 mm lamino- (blade), dorso- (tongue body), and radico- (tongue 8 IJALEL 6(7):6-10 root) are given by Ball and Rahilly (2013, p. 53). According given about the perceptual and articulatory bridge between to the place of articulation there are subtypes. coronal and dorsal ‘r’ allophones in the Swedish dialects. As I previously mentioned that those scholars avoid the The fact that the Anglo-Saxon dialects were under the Scan- term ‘coronal’, yet the analysis of this diagram leads to the dinavian influence and the general typology about the lan- inclusion of all dentoalveolar types, postalveolar and pal- guages of the world that English and Swedish belong to the atal from the domal type into coronals. According to the same group of Germanic languages may be a reason for some diagram, it would be a problem to include retroflex sounds similarities. Relying on Ladefoged and Maddieson (Their into coronals although they do discuss the term ‘retroflex’. studies are based on English sound systems), they state that “[Retroflex] is a term that describes the tongue’s shape rather “the rhotics (r sounds) are known for having a particularly than its place of articulation. It may well be more precise wide range of phonetic variation” (Engstrand, 2007, p.175). therefore to use the term ‘sublaminal (pre)palatal’ suggested They describe some types found in Swedish dialects: ‘front’ by Catford (1988)” (Ball and Rahilly, 2013, p.56). (coronal) and ‘back’ (dorsal), , trills, taps and flaps, Davenport and Hannahs (2005, p. 18–37) also avoid the and vocoids. Also ‘bunched’ /r/s where front and back dif- term ‘coronal’. They describe these classes of consonants: ference does not work because this type is a combination of bilabial, alveolar, velar, palatoalveolar, labiodental, dental, allophones. There is much similarity with /r/ allophones as glottal, labiovelar, palatal, alveolar-lateral or rhotics or liq- mentioned above between the British, Scottish and Ameri- uids. As it can be seen, this description is based on place, can variants. It is believed that “dorsal and coronal rhotics manner and organ of articulation all at the same time. What do not contrast phonologically in any known living language is interesting is how they describe the allophones ‘r’ that and should not be subject to strong perceptual categoriza- may belong to different types including coronals. They ana- tion” (Engstrand, Frid and Lindblom, 2007, p.183). “These lyze five allophones as observations suggest that perception affects place of articu- 1) “The alveolar ‘trill’ is when the tongue blade vibrates lation in rhotics”. (p.176) repeatedly against the alveolar ridge. This allophone is The reasons for front rhotics changing into back rhotics, frequent in Scottish dialects; and evidence for the existence of a perceptual motivation 2) The alveolar tap is produced with a single tap of the is then discussed. “This suggests that changes in place of tongue back against the alveolar ridge. This allophone articulation for rhotics may be phonetically motivated and, is also found in Scottish dialects; thus, likely to take place from time to time in the world’s lan- 3) The alveolar continuant /r/ is produced when the tongue guages. In particular, the polygenetic scenario regarding the blade is raised towards the alveolar ridge and the sides origin of back rhotics in Europe would stand out as reason- of the tongue are in contact with the molars and it forms able» (Engstrand, Frid and Lindblom, 2007, p.191). Front a narrow channel down the middle of the tongue. This allophones may come as a result of developments that hap- allophone is found in British English dialect; pen later. This includes labialization and reduction of gesture 4) The retroflex /r/, is very similar to the alveolar contin- formation. uant /r/, but with the tongue blade curled back to the According to J. Mielke and E. Hume (2006, p. 724) in position of the post-alveolar. This is found in North (ELL, Distinctive Features), the category of coronals gener- American and South West English dialects; alizes more specific phonetic types: interdental (pronounced 5) The uvula roll /r/, or /r /are produced with the with the tip of the tongue between the teeth), alveolar back of the tongue that vibrates against the velum or is (pronounced with the front part of the tongue raised up in close to it. This is found in rural Northumberland, parts direction of the alveolar ridge), and palatal (-alveolar) (pro- of Scotland, French and High German”, (M. Davenport nounced with the central part of the tongue raised towards and J. Hannahs, 2005, p.32). the roof of the mouth). The coronals include: /r/,/l/,/t/,/d/,/θ/, This typology crosses and intersects with a detailed anal- /ð/,/n/,/s/,/z/,/ts/,/tʃ/,/dʒ/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/. As it can be seen, the term ‘in- ysis in Engstrand (2007, p. 175–191). A long discussion is terdental’ is used instead of the term ‘dental’, but the sounds

Ball and Rahilly (2013, p. 54) The Coronal Place; Why is It Special? 9 are the same. There is no term ‘retroflex (rhotics or liquids), (1) A primary articulator that involves two lingual articula- but instead the phoneme ‘r’ is included into the alveolar type. tors that are together such as the blade and the dorsum K. Kohler gives these types of coronal: dental, al- of the tongue. veolardental, alveolar and postalveolar (Kohler 2007, (2) A place of articulation that is being mixed up and it ex- p. 41–48). He also tries to define the status of coronal as tends over two articulation zones that are together such being either labial or dorsal. as the alveolar and palatal. Instead, the author introduces the term ‘alveolopalatal consonants’. They come as a result of a simultaneous stop- Typology by P. Ladefoged ping or narrowing at the alveolar and palatal areas. At the One of the most detailed descriptions is given by P. Lade- same time, a primary articulator surrounds the blade and foged (2007). He believes that in English there is a strong the dorsum of the tongue. “Their place of articulation may distinction between interdental (also called dental) and alve- include the postalveolar zone and the prepalate, but also a olar. The alveolar phonetically may be either apical or cor- larger contact area extending towards the front alveolar zone onal. and the back palate surface. The tongue tip is bent down- In his article, the English phonemes /θ/,/ð/,/s/,/z/,/t,//d/,/n/ wards and the tongue dorsum is raised and fronted during the are all referred to as apical. They differ from the standard us- production of these consonants. Alveolopalatals differ from age in phonetics. The phonemes /tʃ/,/dʒ/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ are referred to palatoalveolars (which are also labeled postalveolar) in that as palatal in terms of the place of articulation. The phonemes the latter are articulated at the postalveolar zone exclusively, /θ/,/ð/ are treated as a separate class of interdentals in terms may involve the tongue tip as primary articulator and exhibit of their manner of articulation. They are opposed to fricative, less tongue dorsum doming” (Recasens, 2013, p.02). stop, nasal, etc. The affricates /tʃ/, /dʒ/ are treated as palatal Based on P. Keating’s investigations, Recasens states that stops in opposition to the palatal fricatives /ʃ/, /ʒ/. Ladefoged alveolopalatals used to be considered complex segments. also discusses the phonetic affricates /ts/, /dz/, that only oc- These segments were likely to be produced with two lingual cur in the final position of a syllable, except for borrowings gestures. The gestures are independent (a primary coronal that are phonetically integrated. He also gives reasons for gesture and a secondary tongue dorsum raising and front- why [t∫] and [ts] are treated differently in the English Lan- ing gesture) and are activated almost at the same time. This guage. made them different from both coronal and dorsal. It pro- Another interesting point is that alongside the inclusion vides the particular status of alveolopalatals. He supports the of phonemes that are not really traditional, Ladefoged ex- fact that there are many cases when different allophones of cludes palatal sounds from the class of coronals. This con- the same phonemes may change their class and articulatory trasts with Keating, Ball and Rahilly. His decision is based gestures (especially in the flow of speech). They may move on the definitions of the tongue blade and on the alveolar from the palatal, postalveolar class into alveolopalatal and ridge. According to Ladefoged (2007), the palatal sounds back. This depends on the inter-linguistic and extra-linguis- are not articulated by raising the tongue blade. They are pro- tic factors. A language may show a preference for either one duced by the part of the tongue that is traditionally known as or the two places of articulation. The allophone in its turn the ‘front’ (of the body) of the tongue. The centre part of the may become coronal. alveolar ridge allows us to give meaning to the three parts of the vocal tract that are related to the articulation of coronal. The sounds that are produced with the use of the teeth are CONCLUSION ‘dental’, the sounds that are produced from behind the teeth In conclusion, coronals are a special class of consonants with the front part of the alveolar ridge are ‘alveolar’, and due to the fact that they can be made in so many ways. The lastly the sounds produced directly behind the alveolar ridge tongue blade is a very flexible part and, as a result, it pro- are ‘postalveolar’. These differences allow us to define the duces more different articulations than other speech organs two features that the coronal node dominates; ‘Apicality’ (Keating, 1991, p. 30). Another fact is that due to the differ- and ‘Anterior’. ‘Apicality’ is the feature that specifies the ent approaches along with the various phonetic processes, action of the active lower articulation, and ‘Anterior’ is the the coronal place is considered to produce a variety of con- feature that specifies the upper passive articulator that is in- sonants and their positional merges. volved. Ladefoged also repeats J. Maddieson’s criticism which is that many scholars do not show any difference between Abbreviations apical and laminal gestures, or between dental and alveolar ELL: The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. sounds. OED: Oxford English Dictionary. WED: Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. Recasens’ Opposing View P. 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