Obstruent

An obstruent (/ˈɒbstruənt/ OB-stroo-ənt) is a speech sound such as [k], [d͡ʒ], or [f] that is formed by obstructing airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate.^[1] All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as consonants.

Subclasses

Obstruents are subdivided into:

• plosives (oral stops), such as [p, t, k, b, d, ɡ], with complete occlusion of the vocal tract, often followed by a release burst;
• fricatives, such as [f, ɸ, θ, s, ʃ, x, v, β, z, ʒ, ɣ], 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 [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ].^[2]

Voicing

Obstruents are often prototypically voiceless, but voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are prototypically voiced and only rarely phonemically voiceless.^[3]

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

1. Gussenhoven, Carlos; Haike, Jacobs. Understanding Phonology, Fourth Edition, Routledge, 2017
2. Zsiga, Elizabeth. The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
3. Blevins, Juliette (2018). "Evolutionary phonology and the life cycle of voiceless sonorants". Typological Studies in Language. 121: 31–58. doi:10.1075/tsl.121.01ble.

• Ian Maddieson (1984). Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26536-3.
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.