Peripheral consonant

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.