I’m having a bit of trouble differentiating continuants (sounds where there’s continuous airflow through the mouth) and stops. I’ve been looking at a couple websites and they throw in the nasals with the continuants (m, n, and ‘ing’)… but I’m pretty sure these are all nasal “stops”. The ones I’m not sure about are [j], [h], [tS], [dz]. (The last two are ‘ch’ and ‘j’… while the [j] is ‘y’) Does anyone know? o_o;
Unfortunately, the term ‘stop’ is not very clear in this case.
Stops, or plosives, release much more powerful burst of air when sounded. In English, stops include [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g] and [question mark symbol without the dot]. Nasals are not stops.
Constituants include all sounds which are not stops and affricates, since constituants produced by a continuous flow of air which is not completely interrupted at any time during production of the sound. Because affricates ([t+elongated s] and [d+yogh] are really two sounds, the first of which is a stop/plosive, they are not constituants, either. Nasals thus are constituants, as well as fricatives, liquids, glides and vowels.
Thus, applying this rule to the sounds in question:
[j] is a glide or semi-vowel, so it is a constituant.
[h] is a fricative, so it is a constituant.
[t+elongated S] is an affricate, so it is not a constituant.
[d+yogh] is an affricate, so it is not a constituant.
If you do not have a chart upon which all sounds are listed, I suggest finding one. If you cannot find one, I can scan one of mine and send it to you.
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There are two kinds of stops, nasals and orals. (at least according to my teacher) Regardless, thanks for the help… I did find a chart with all the features on it, so I’m ok now. Let’s hope everything goes well for my final. 