Distinctive Feature

For Consonant s, the features that distinguish one from another fall into several distinct classes:

One is the Manner Of Articulation , such as whether the flow of air is stopped (a Stop Consonant ), passes through the nose (a Nasal Consonant ), is made turbulent (a Fricative ), or is barely affected at all (an Approximant ).

A second is the Place Of Articulation . This includes both the active speech organ and the place where it acts. The active organ may be the lips (for '' Labial Consonant s''), the flexible front of the tongue ('' Coronal Consonant s''), the mid body of the tongue ('' Dorsal Consonant s''), the throat or root of the tongue ('' Radical Consonant s''), or none at all in the case of the '' Laryngeal Consonant s''. Combined with the place of contact, this results in dozens of possibilities. There are in addition several Secondary Articulation s that combine with these.

Phonation and Voice Onset Time describe the activity of the Vocal Cords . Full cord vibration is called '' Voiced '', the absence of vibration is called ''voiceless'', and there are degress of vocal-cord tension on either side of ''voiced''. If voicing is delayed beyond the end of a consonant, the consonant is said to be '' Aspirated ''.

'' Gemination '', or length (single vs. double consonants).

The Airstream Mechanism , or how the air is moved through the vocal tract. For most consonants, the air is expelled by the diaphragm; these are called Pulmonic Egressive consonants. Click Consonant s are an example of a different mechanism.

For Vowel s, the features can be classified under:

The shape of the resonant cavity in the mouth, theoretically divided up into degrees of Vowel Backness , Vowel Height , Rounding Or Compression Of The Lips , and Rhoticization ;

Phonation;

Nasalization ;

Length ;

Advanced Tongue Root .

Tenseness

For Tone s, the basic elements are pitch (whether it is high or low, etc.), contour (whether it is level, rising, or falling, etc.), length, and phonation. There are overlaps with the categories of the vowels, because some features may be associated with vowels in one language, but with tone in another.

In Sign Language s, signs are distinguished by handshape, palm orientation, location, and movement. However, it is not known whether these correlate to the features or Segment s of oral languages, or whether they can be profitably described as a combination of both.

In some linguistic theories, all features are defined to be . In such conceptions, a High Vowel may be said to have a feature ''height'' but not ''low'' ("+high, −low"), a Low Vowel the feature ''low'' but not ''height'' ("−high, +low"), and a Mid Vowel neither ("−high, −low"), with the combination "+high, +low" not being considered sensible.

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Information About

Distinctive Feature