Phonological feature

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List of phonological features

• [±syllabic] The feature syllabic applies to segments that form the sonority peak of a syllable. All vowels are [+syllabic], as are syllabic consonants (marked in IPA with [◌̩].)

• [±stress] The feature stress applies to syllables pronounced more prominently than others.

• [±long] The feature long applies to segments pronounced with greater duration.

• [±consonantal] The feature consonantal applies to segments with a sonority of liquid or less; it does not apply to vowels or semivowels.

• [±approximant] The feature approximant applies to segments with a sonority of liquid or greater, namely vowels, semivowels, and liquids.

• [±sonorant] The feature sonorant applies to segments with a sonority of nasal or greater, namely vowels, semivowels, liquids, and nasals.

• [±contin-artic] The feature continuous articulation applies to non-stop segments, namely vowels, semivowels, liquids, and fricatives. It does not apply to affricates, oral stops, or nasals (nasal stops).

• [±contin-acous] The feature acoustic continuity(?) applies to all segments except oral stops and affricates.

• [±delayed release] The feature delayed release applies to all segments except non-affricated oral and nasal stops.

• [±flap] The feature flap applies to [ɾ], [ɺ], and [ɽ].

• [±trill] The feature trill applies to [ʙ], [r], and [ʀ].

• [±nasal] The feature nasal applies to nasal stops and other nasalized segments.

• [±voice] The feature voice applies to all voiced segments.

• [±implosive] The feature implosive applies to implosive segments.

• [±spread gl] The feature spread glottis applies to all aspirated segments, [ʍ], [h], and [ɦ].

• [±constr gl] The feature constricted glottis applies to [ʔ] and ejectives.

• [±LABIAL] The feature labial applies to segments articulated with the lips. This includes rounded vowels and labialized consonants.

• [±round] The feature round applies to rounded vowels, labialized consonants, and [ʘ]

• [±labiodental] The feature labiodental applies to segments articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.

• [±CORONAL] The feature coronal applies to dentals, alveolars, retroflexes, palato-alveolars, alveolo-palatals, and palatals.

• [±anterior] The feature anterior applies to dentals and alveolars. This feature is undefined for [-CORONAL] segments.

• [±distributed] The feature distributed applies to segments articulated with the tongue blade. This includes all coronal sounds except alveolars and retroflexes. This feature is undefined for [-CORONAL] segments.

• [±strident] The feature strident applies to certain sibilant segments: [ʥ ʨ ʤ ʣ ʧ ʦ ʈʂ ɖʐ ɕ ɧ ʑ ʐ ʂ ʒ z ʃ s], and is undefined for [-CORONAL] segments.

• [±lateral] applies to lateral (l-like) segments.

• [±DORSAL] applies to segments articulated with the body of the tongue, including vowels, palatals, velars, uvulars, and pharyngeals.

• [±high] applies to high vowels and semivowels, palatals, and velars. It is not defined for [-DORSAL] segments.

• [±low] applies to low vowels and pharyngeals. It is not defined for [-DORSAL] segments.

• [±front] applies to front vowels and semivowels, palatals, and fronted velars, and is not defined for [-DORSAL] segments.

• [±back] applies to back vowels and semivowels, uvulars, pharyngeals, and backed velars. It is not defined for [-DORSAL] segments, nor for velars that are neither fronted nor backed.

• [±tense] applies to [ʍ w ɥ ɰ j o ø u y ɤ ɜ e ɞ ʉ ɯ ɨ i]. It is not defined for [-DORSAL] segments, [+consonantal] segments, or (sometimes) low vowels.

Resources

• Phono — A sound change modelling program that can model changes at the featural level.

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This article is part of a series on Phonetics and Phonology. Affricate * Allophone * Aspiration * Bilabial consonant * Buccal * Coronal consonant * Dental consonant * Fricative * Heng * Manner of articulation * Obligatory Contour Principle * Palatalization-split * Phoneme * Phoneme hole * Phonological feature * Rhotacism * Spirant * Stop * Syllable structure * Velar consonant * * Phonetic alphabets * Phonetic Segments