In featural phonology, anterior consonants [+ant] refer to consonants with their place of articulation at or in front of the alveolar ridge.
Historically, linguists had considered the class to include labial, dental, and alveolar consonants, but modern terminology excludes labials, making [± ant] a distinctive feature solely within coronal consonants. By contrast, the remaining coronals, those being postalveolar and retroflex, are nonanterior consonants [−ant] (as well as palatals, if considered to be coronal).
Nonanteriors may also be called posterior consonants, though the latter term is also used more specifically to refer to consonants produced at or behind the hard palate (therefore [+post]), thus including dorsal and laryngeal consonants. Occasionally, retroflex consonants may be excluded from both the anterior and posterior classes ([−ant, −post]).
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