Dentaal

Dentaal is a term used in phonetics and phonology to describe the place of articulation known as the dental position. A dental sound is produced when the tongue or tongue blade makes contact with the upper teeth. This contrasts with other places of articulation such as alveolar (tongue against the alveolar ridge) or labiodental (lip against the teeth).

In practice, dental consonants can include stops, fricatives, nasals, and liquids varieties. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, dental symbols can be represented with a diacritic indicating dental articulation, such as t̪ or d̪ for dental stops. Some languages have true dental sounds; others use alveolar sounds with dentalization or may have interdental sounds, where the tongue contacts the teeth rather than pressing them directly. English, for example, has interdental fricatives rather than strictly dental stops, while other languages maintain a robust dental series.

The distinction between dental, interdental, and alveolar is a common point of variation among languages. Some languages lack a distinct dental consonant series and rely on alveolar sounds, while others maintain clear dental articulations. The term dentaal is primarily used in linguistic descriptions and Dutch-language texts, where it functions as the equivalent of the English “dental.”

Outside of phonetics, the word dentaal also appears as a general descriptor meaning dental or tooth-related in medical or dental contexts, though this is a broader sense not tied to place of articulation.