| Places of articulation |
|---|
|
• Labial |
| Bilabial |
| Labial-velar |
| Labial-alveolar |
| Labiodental |
|
• Bidental |
|
• Coronal |
| Linguolabial |
| Interdental |
| Dental |
| Denti-alveolar |
| Alveolar |
| Apical |
| Laminal |
| Postalveolar |
| Alveolo-palatal |
| Retroflex |
|
• Dorsal |
| Palatal |
| Labial-palatal |
| Velar |
| Uvular |
| Uvular-epiglottal |
|
• Radical |
| Pharyngeal |
| Epiglotto-pharyngeal |
| Epiglottal |
|
• Glottal |
|
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Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants).
Among the fricatives and affricates, a subtype called palato-alveolar consonants (see below) are shown with examples in the table. The alveolo-palatal and retroflex consonants are also postalveolar in their point of articulation, but they are given separate columns in the IPA chart, and illustrated with examples in their own articles.
The palato-alveolar sibilants and postalveolar clicks identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
 |
Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative | Template:Ll | ship | [ʃɪp] | ship |
 |
Voiced palato-alveolar fricative | Template:Ll | vision | [vɪʒən] | vision |
 |
Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate | Template:Ll | chip | [tʃɪp] | chip |
 |
Voiced palato-alveolar affricate | Template:Ll | jug | [dʒʌg] | jug |
 |
(Post)alveolar click release | Template:Ll | !oas | [k͡!oas] | hollow |
 |
palato-alveolar click release | ||||
Note: In IPA tradition, the affricates may also be written with the symbols for the palatal plosives, <c, ɟ>.
Types of postalveolar fricatives and affricates
The difference between palato-alveolar, alveolo-palatal, retroflex, and several other articulations is in the shape of the tongue rather than the location of the contact with the roof of the mouth. All are postalveolar in that sense.
One variable in tongue shape is whether the contact occurs with the very tip of the tongue (an "apical" articulation [ʃ̺]); with the surface just above the tip, called the blade of the tongue (a "laminal" articulation [ʃ̻]); or with the underside of the tip (a "sub-apical" articulation). The latter articulation is more commonly palatal, but may have postalveolar allophones.
A second variable is the amount of raising of the tongue behind this point of contact, which amounts to a degree of palatalization. From least to most palatalized, the attested possibilities are flat [s̠], bunched-up or domed palato-alveolar [ʃ], and alveolo-palatal [ɕ]. Of course, these possibilities may all be voiced as well: [z̠, ʒ, ʑ].
There is an additional postalveolar articulation found in Circassian languages such as Ubyx: the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth so that there is no sublingual cavity. Ladefoged has called this a "closed laminal postalveolar" articulation; Catford describes the fricatives as "hissing-hushing" sounds, and transcribes them as [ŝ, ẑ] (note: this is not IPA notation). Presumably this "closed" articulation may be combined with the other two as a third variable, but this is not attested.
The attested possibilities, with exemplar languages, are as follows. Note that the IPA diacritics are simplified; some articulations would require two diacritics to be fully specified, but only one is used in order to keep the results legible without the need for OpenType IPA fonts. Also, Ladefoged has resurrected an obsolete IPA symbol, the under dot, to indicate apical postalveolar (normally included in the category of retroflex consonants), and that notation is used here. (Note that the notation s̠, ṣ is sometimes reversed.)
| IPA | Place of articulation | Exemplifying languages |
|---|---|---|
| [s̠ z̠] | laminal flat postalveolar (laminal retroflex) | Mandarin sh, zh, ch, Template:Ll sz, rz, cz, ż |
| [ṣ ẓ] | apical postalveolar (apical retroflex) | Ubyx, Template:Ll |
| [ʃ ʒ] | domed postalveolar (palato-alveolar) | Template:Ll sh, zh (may be either laminal or apical) |
| [ʃ̻ ʒ̻] | laminal domed postalveolar | Toda |
| [ɕ ʑ] | laminal palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) | Mandarin q, j, x, Polish ć, ś, ź, Ubyx |
| [ŝ ẑ] | laminal closed postalveolar | Ubyx |
| [ʂ ʐ] | sub-apical postalveolar or palatal (sub-apical retroflex) | Toda |