Dorsal consonants are articulated with the back of the tongue against either the hard palate, or the flexible velum just behind it, or even against the uvula. So the term covers a wide range of pronunciations, including palatal, velar, and uvular consonants.

The English pronunciation of the letter G – either before the vowels a, o and u, or before the letters l and r – is a dorsal consonant. Examples: the garden or to grab. Thus it is a voiced dorsal plosive.

The English pronunciation of the letter C – either before the vowels a, o and u, or before the letters l and r – is a dorsal consonant. Examples: the cake or to crawl. Thus it is a voiceless dorsal plosive. This consonant is also the pronunciation of the English letters k and q.

Both English approximants "y", e.g. in yellow and "w" e.g. in white are also dorsal consonants, palatal and velar labialised respectively.

The voiceless German /x/-sound (german: ach) is also a dorsal consonant. It is either a voiceless fricative palatal after the vowels i and e (german: ich) or a voiceless fricative velar after the vowels o and u (german: huch).

Other languages know also uvular consonants. They belongs to the dorsal consonants as well.

See also

• place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics