dentaatteiksi

Dentaatteiksi is a term used in Finnish phonology to refer to the group of dental consonants—sounds articulated with the tongue against the teeth. In descriptions of phoneme inventories, the singular form dentaatti denotes a dental consonant, while the plural translative form dentaatteiksi is used to speak of the category “as dental sounds” or “into dental sounds” when describing how a set of sounds is classified in a given language or analysis.

Etymology and morphology: The form derives from the base dentaatti, with the ordinary Finnish translative plural mechanism applied. This usage is limited to linguistic contexts; it does not represent a distinct phonetic category by itself, but rather a grammaticalized label for discussion of dental consonants across languages.

Usage: It often appears in typological studies, inventories, and analyses comparing consonantal systems. For example, a chart might list dentaatteiksi to indicate the group of sounds treated as dental in a cross-language survey, helping to distinguish dental consonants from other places of articulation such as alveolar or labial sounds.

See also: Dentaatti, dental consonant, Finnish phonology, translative case.