{"id":601,"date":"2026-06-16T15:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/?p=601"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:52:17","slug":"distributed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/?p=601","title":{"rendered":"distributed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

[nondistributed]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

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

SPE Features<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

The feature [distributed], or [dist], describes phones produced with a \u201cconstriction that extends for a considerable distance along the direction\u201d of airflow (SPE <\/em>p. 312). Laminal sounds are [+distributed], covering dental [t\u032a, d\u032a, \u03b8, \u00f0, n\u032a] and palatoalveolar (postalveolar) [t\u0361\u0283, d\u0361\u0292, \u0283, \u0292] and palatal sounds [c, \u025f, \u00e7, \u029d, \u0272]. Apical sounds are [-distributed], applied to alveolar ([t, d, s, z, n]) and retroflex sounds ([\u0288, \u0256, \u0282, \u0290 , \u0273].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This feature distinguishes sounds whose constriction extends for longer distances at time of production from those which have shorter lengths of restriction of airflow in the vocal tract during articulation.  English does not use this as a distinctive feature, so it has no minimal pairs in which this is the sole distinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenme and Isoko account for contrast between [+dist] and [-dist] anterior consonants distinctly.  While, in Tenme,  [+dist] consonants are articulated somewhat further back than their [-dist] counterparts, Isoko presents contrastively, with [-dist] presenting further back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polish soft dentals are [+dist] while the hard dentals are [-dist] due to extension of contact between the tongue and mouth roof.SPE<\/em> proposes a rule for Sanskrit in which a [-distributed] dental alternates with a [-distr] retroflex consonant after nonlow, nonanterior sounds: [-dist, +cor] \u27f6 [-ant]\/ [-ant,-low]___ (p. 314). Presumably, this refers to the ruki<\/em> rule, e.g. the locative plural –su<\/em> alternating with –\u1e63u<\/em> after r, u, K, i <\/em>(Zwicky 1970).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Several researchers noticed and described [distributed] as an important feature in phonologies of languages (see Echeverr\u00eda and Aranta (1965) on Araucanian or Stevens (1965) on Madurese).\u00a0 Several of these languages include minimal pairs with [+dist] and [-dist] consonants.\u00a0 As far as here noted, The sound patterns of English<\/em> was the first work to report all considered distinctive features while including [dist].\u00a0 Jakobson did not note [dist] as a distinctive feature in any of his works prior to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Ladefoged, Peter. 1964. A phonetic study of West African languages. (West<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African Language Monographs, 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press. Zwicky, Arnold M. 1970. Greek-letter variables and the Sanskrit ruki<\/em> class. Linguistic Inquiry <\/em>1(4).549-555.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Rice, Keren. 2011. Consonantal place of articulation. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, vol. 1: General issues and segmental phonology<\/em>, ed. by Marc van Oostendorp; Colin J. Ewen; Elizabeth Hume; and Keren Rice, 519-549. Malden, MA: Blackwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Allon Boettcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

[distributed] Counterpart [nondistributed] Feature System SPE Features Definition The feature [distributed], or [dist], describes phones produced with a \u201cconstriction that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"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-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomsofsound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}