Continuant

In phonetics, a continuant is a speech sound produced without a complete closure in the oral cavity, namely fricatives, approximants and vowels.[1] Approximants and vowels are sometimes called "frictionless continuants".[2] Continuants contrast with occlusives, such as plosives, affricates and nasals.

For the mathematical term, see Continuant (mathematics).

Compare sonorant (resonant), which includes vowels, approximants and nasals but not fricatives, and contrasts with obstruent.

In phonology, continuant as a distinctive feature also includes trills. Whether lateral fricatives and approximants and taps/flaps are continuant is not conclusive.[3]

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Schwa
• Spectromorphology

References

1. "continuant" in Bussamann, Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics, 1996
2. "approximant" in Crystal, A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics, 6th ed, 2008
3. Hayes, Bruce (2009). Introductory Phonology. Blackwell. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4051-8411-3.