Peripheral consonant

In Australian linguistics, the peripheral consonants are a natural class encompassing consonants articulated at the extremes of the mouth: labials and velars. That is, they are the non-coronal consonants. 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.

Australian peripheral consonants

	Bilabial	Velar
Stop	p	k
Nasal	m	ŋ
Approximant	w

Phonology

Australian languages typically favour peripheral consonants word- and syllable-initially, while they are not allowed or are rare word- and syllable-finally. This is diametrically opposed to the apicals.

In Martuthunira, the peripheral stops /p/ and /k/ share similar allophony. Whereas the other stops may be voiced between vowels or following a nasal, the peripherals are usually voiceless.

See also

• Coronal consonant, the opposite set