noun
- Plural of laminal; consonant sounds produced with the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge or teeth.
Usage: linguistics; phonetics
Examples
- In phonetics, laminals are distinguished from apicals by the part of the tongue used in articulation.
- Many languages use laminals as primary consonant sounds.
- The linguist studied how laminals are produced across different languages.
- English speakers may not consciously distinguish between laminals and apicals in their native speech.