Editing Postalveolar consonant (section)

{{Short description|Consonants articulated with the tongue behind the alveolar ridge}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2020}}
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'''Postalveolar''' ('''post-alveolar''') consonants are [[consonant]]s [[place of articulation|articulated]] with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the [[alveolar ridge]]. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the [[alveolar consonant]]s, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard [[palate]], the place of articulation for [[palatal consonant]]s. Examples of postalveolar consonants are the [[English language|English]] palato-alveolar consonants {{IPA|[ʃ] [tʃ] [ʒ] [dʒ]}}, as in the words "'''sh'''ip", "''''ch'''ill", "vi'''s'''ion", and "'''j'''ump", respectively.

There are many types of postalveolar sounds—especially among the [[sibilant]]s. The three primary types are ''palato-alveolar'' (such as {{IPA|[ʃ ʒ]}}, weakly palatalized; also ''alveopalatal''{{efn|The term ''alveopalatal'' or ''alveo-palatal'' was traditionally synonymous with ''palato-alveolar'', but may also be synonymous with ''alveolo-palatal''.<ref>{{cite book|last=MacKay|first=Ian R. A.|year=2023|title=Phonetics and Speech Science|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-42786-9|page=125}}</ref>}}), ''[[alveolo-palatal consonant|alveolo-palatal]]'' (such as {{IPA|[ɕ ʑ]}}, strongly palatalized), and ''[[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]'' (such as {{IPA|[ʂ ʐ]}}, unpalatalized). The palato-alveolar and alveolo-palatal subtypes are commonly counted as "palatals" in [[phonology]] since they rarely contrast with true [[palatal consonant]]s.