Peripheral consonant
Non-coronal (lip and nasal) consonants
title: "Peripheral consonant" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["place-of-articulation", "peripheral-consonants", "australian-aboriginal-languages"] description: "Non-coronal (lip and nasal) consonants" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_consonant" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Non-coronal (lip and nasal) consonants ::
In Australian linguistics, the peripheral consonants are a natural class encompassing consonants articulated at the extremes of the mouth: labials (lip) and velars (soft palate). That is, they are the non-coronal consonants (palatal, dental, alveolar, and postalveolar). In Australian languages, these consonants pattern together both phonotactically and acoustically. In Arabic and Maltese philology, the moon letters transcribe non-coronal consonants, but they do not form a natural class.
Phonology
::data[format=table title="Australian peripheral consonants{{cite book|first=R. M. W. |last=Dixon | author-link=Robert M. W. Dixon |title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2002|url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780|page=63|isbn=0521473780 }}"]
| Bilabial | Velar | Stop | Nasal | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Australian languages typically favour peripheral consonants word- and syllable-initially, and they are not allowed or common word- and syllable-finally, unlike the apicals.
In the extinct Martuthunira, the peripheral stops and shared similar allophony. Whereas the other stops could be voiced between vowels or following a nasal, the peripherals were usually voiceless.
References
References
- Dixon, R. M. W.. (2002). "Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development". [[Cambridge University Press]].
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::