Obstruent
Speech sound formed by obstructing airflow
In phonetics, an obstruent (/ˈɒb.stru.ənt/, OB-stroo-ənt) is a speech sound that is formed by obstructing airflow, such as [d] (plosives/oral stops), [ʒ] (fricatives), or [d͡ʒ] (affricates). Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and therefore "resonate". All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as consonants. As a distinctive feature, obstruents are denoted as [−son].
Compare occlusives, a class of speech sounds which includes both oral and nasal stops as well as affricates, but excludes fricatives, and contrasts with continuants.
01Subclasses
Obstruents are subdivided into:
- plosives (oral stops), such as [p, b], with complete occlusion of the vocal tract, often followed by a release burst;
- fricatives, such as [s, z], with limited closure, not stopping airflow but making it turbulent;
- affricates, which begin with complete occlusion but then release into a fricative-like release, such as [t͡s] and [d͡z].
02Voicing
Obstruents are often prototypically voiceless, but voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are prototypically voiced and only rarely phonemically voiceless.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Obstruent”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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