Phonemes can be thought of as a bundle of features.   Any sound you know, can be described by a list of distinctive features they bear such that if one feature is altered, the sound is altered.  For instance, /s/ is a voiceless, alveolar fricative.  By changing the voicing feature to ‘voiced’ we change the sound to /z/. Distinctive features enable us to: -classify phonemes into … [Read more...]

A syllable (σ) is a phonological unit of sonority. Sonority can be described by the degree of airflow obstruction and voicing that occurs during phonation. Sonority is inversely correlated with constriction of the articulators in the oral cavity. Sonorous sounds have a more ‘sing-able’ quality, that is they are more prominent in amplitude and length than less sonorous sounds. Sonority shows the … [Read more...]