{"id":511,"date":"2025-06-18T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/?p=511"},"modified":"2025-06-18T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:15:08","slug":"oral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/?p=511","title":{"rendered":"Oral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[oral]<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Counterpart<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[nasal]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Feature System<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Jakobsonian Feature<\/a>s<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Definition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The features [oral] or [non-nasalized] phonemes are formed when the air escapes from the larynx via the oral cavity only. During the production of [oral] sounds, the velum is raised to prevent air exiting through the nose (oral consonants and oral vowels versus nasal stops, nasalized glides, other nasal consonants, and nasalized vowels).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To distinguish sounds based on if air passes through the nasal cavity or the oral cavity during articulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The feature [oral] evolved significantly across theoretical frameworks. In Jakobson\u2019s 1949 work, [oral] is treated as one of six primary oppositions. However, it is not explicitly defined instead, it is understood as the absence of nasality. Jakobson, Halle, and Fant further note that the [oral\/nasal] opposition is nearly universal for consonants, though many languages do not contrast nasal and oral vowels. In their view, oral is not a positively defined feature, but rather the unmarked or default value in a binary [\u00b1nasal] system. This treatment is echoed in Chomsky and Halle\u2019s The sound pattern of English (SPE)<\/em> (1968), where oral is not recognized as a separate feature, but simply as [\u2013nasal]. They describe anterior nasal consonants like \/n\/ and \/m\/ as the most common and note that in languages like Yoruba and Nupe, nasality can be superimposed on glides, producing nasal variants of non-nasal phonemes such as \/j\/, \/w\/, and \/\u027e\/. In later models, such as those proposed by Clements and Hume (1995), [oral] begins to take on more defined structure within feature geometry, and in Anderson\u2019s Phonology in the twentieth century<\/em> (1985), [oral] is used descriptively for classifying sounds (e.g., oral stops) rather than as an independent distinctive feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldsmith (1995) discusses oral tract place features like labial, coronal, and dorsal, and references McCarthy\u2019s idea that these form an independent constituent called “orals,” which stands as a sister to pharyngeal. Clements & Hume (1995) elaborate that if nasal is treated as a privative feature, then oral segments are inherently unspecified for nasality; they do not need to be marked as [\u2013nasal], as their lack of [+nasal] is sufficient. This reflects a broader theoretical shift toward viewing oral not as an active, contrastive feature, but as the phonological default in the absence of nasality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anderson, Stephen R. 1985. Phonology in the twentieth century: Theories of rules and theories of representations<\/em>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English<\/em>. New York: Harper & Row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clements, G. N. & Elizabeth V. Hume. 1995. The internal organization of speech sounds. In John A. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory<\/em>, 245\u2013306. Oxford: Blackwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldsmith, John. 1995. Features. In John A. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory<\/em>, 1\u201323, 107\u2013147, 273. Oxford: Blackwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jakobson, Roman. 1949. On the identification of phonemic entities. In Selected writings I: Phonological studies<\/em>, 213\u2013218. The Hague: Mouton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jakobson, Roman, Gunnar Fant & Morris Halle. 1952. Preliminaries to speech analysis: The distinctive features and their correlates<\/em>. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bex Colley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[oral] Counterpart [nasal] Feature System Jakobsonian Features Definition The features [oral] or [non-nasalized] phonemes are formed when the air escapes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"disabled","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}