[continuant]

Counterpart

Feature System

Definition

Sounds classified as [continuant] are made with no complete closure of the mouth and the “primary constriction in the vocal tract is not narrowed to the point where the air flow past the constriction is blocked” (Chomsky & Halle 1968:317). They also notably have a gradual onset, as described by Jakobson, Fant, and Halle (1952).

Purpose

The feature [continuant] is used to separate stops, affricates, and nasals from all other segments. Jakobson, Fant, and Halle (1952) describe the incomplete closure of [continuant] phonemes as the reason for their smooth onset and continuous nature.

History

Jakobson and Lotz (1949) introduced the opposition [continuous] vs. [intercepted]. They characterized [continuous] phonemes by a “non-intermitted airstream” and phonemes that “possess no vocalic feature” (Jakobson & Lotz 1949:430).

The feature [continuant] was introduced by Jakobson, Fant, and Halle (1952) in opposition to [interrupted]. It was used synonymously with the term “constrictive,” and they note that “the onset of constrictives is gradual,” as opposed to the abrupt onset of stops. They also make note of the “continuant r” as being a “non-syllabic vowel.”

Clements and Halle proposed the idea in 1983 that laterals not be viewed as [continuant] and that there are nasal stops, with oral contact being indicative of a [-continuant] sound (Clements & Halle 1983:7). However, the status of [continuant] in laterals is still controversial and perhaps language-specific (Yip 2011).

References

Chomsky, Noam; and Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.

Clements, G.N.; and Morris Halle. 1983. Problem book in phonology: A workbook for introductory courses in linguistics and modern phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Jakobson, Roman; and John Lotz. 1949. Notes on the French phonemic pattern. Word 5.151-158. Reprinted in 1962 in Selected writings: Vol. 1: Phonological studies, ed. by Roman Jakobson, 426-434. ’S-Gravenhage: Mouton.

Jakobson, Roman; Gunnar Fant; and Morris Halle. 1952. Preliminaries to speech analysis: The distinctive features and their correlates. (MIT Acoustic Laboratory Technical Report 13). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Yip, Moira. 2011. Lateral consonants. The Blackwell companion to phonology, vol. 1: General issues and segmental phonology, ed. by Marc van Oostendorp et al., 730-755. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Author

Ainsley Graf