Sonorant: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Speech sound that isPhonemes produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract}}

In [[phonetics]] and [[phonology]], a '''sonorant''' or '''resonant''' is a [[speech sound]] that is [[manner of articulation|produced]] with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the [[vocal tract]]; these are the manners of articulation that are most often [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] in the world's languages. [[Vowel]]s are sonorants, as are [[nasal consonant|nasalssemivowel]]s like {{IPA|[mj]}} and {{IPA|[nw]}}, [[liquidnasal consonant|liquids]]s like {{IPA|[lm]}} and {{IPA|[rn]}}, and [[semivowelliquid consonant]]s like {{IPA|[jl]}} and {{IPA|[wr]}}. This set of sounds contrasts with the [[obstruent consonant|obstruents]] ([[stop consonant|stops]], [[affricate]]s and [[fricative]]s).<ref>Keith Brown & Jim Miller (2013) ''The Cambridge Dictionary of Linguistics''</ref>

For some authors, only the term ''resonant'' is used with this broader meaning, while ''sonorant'' is restricted to consonants,the referringconsonantal tosubset—that is, nasals and liquids butonly, not [[vocoid]]s (vowels and semivowels).<ref>Ken Pike, ''Phonetics'' (1943:144). "The sonorants are nonvocoid resonants and comprise the lateral resonant orals and resonant nasals (e.g. [m], [n], and [l])."</ref>

Whereas [[obstruent]]s are frequently [[voiceless]], sonorants are almost always voiced. AIn typicalthe sonorant[[sonority consonanthierarchy]], inventoryall foundsounds inhigher manythan languages[[fricative]]s comprisesare thesonorants. following:They twocan nasalstherefore {{IPAform the [[syllable nucleus|/m/,nucleus]] /n/}},of twoa [[semivowelsyllable]]s {{IPA|/w/,in /j/}},languages that place that distinction at that level of andsonority; twosee [[Liquid consonant|liquidsSyllable]] {{IPA|/l/,for /r/}}details.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

Voiceless sonorants are rare; they occur as [[phoneme]]s in only about 5% of the world's languages.<ref>Ian Maddieson (with a chapter contributed by Sandra Ferrari Disner); ''Patterns of sounds''; Cambridge University Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-521-26536-3}}</ref> They tend to be extremely quiet and difficult to recognise, even for those people whose language havehas them.

In every case of a voiceless sonorant occurring, there is a contrasting voiced sonorant. In other words, whenever a language contains a phoneme such as {{IPA|/r̥ʍ/}}, it also contains a corresponding voiced phoneme such as {{IPA|/rw/}}).{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}