In
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
, a continuant is a
speech sound produced without a complete closure in the
oral cavity. By one definition, ''continuant'' is a
distinctive feature that refers to any sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract, thus encompassing all sounds (including
vowels) except
nasals,
plosives and
affricates.
By another definition, it refers exclusively to
consonantal sounds produced with an incomplete closure of the oral cavity, prototypically
approximants and
fricatives, but sometimes also
trills.
Compare
sonorants (resonants), a class of speech sounds which includes vowels, approximants and
nasals (but not fricatives), and contrasts with
obstruents.
See also
*
List of phonetics topics
*
Spectromorphology
References
Phonetics
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