What are distinctive features?
Distinctive features are a small set of phonetically based properties which serve as the basis for the formulation of possible phonemes and phonological rules in human language. These features are grouped into (four) different categories according to the aspect of speech production that they describe, as shown to the left.
Traditionally, features are specificied by binary values to indicate the presence or absence of that property in a speech sound of interest (i.e. the voiced stop /b/ has the feature [+voice] whereas the voiceless stop /p/ has [-voice]), although sometimes a phoneme may be unmarked with respect to a feature.
About this site
When I took an introductory linguistics course as a student at college, I was assigned the typical task of finding an optimal set of distinctive features that can pick out certain sounds from the sound inventory of a language. As I was doing the assignments, I kept thinking that it'd be really nice to have some kind of tool that would visualize the sorting process for me – which eventually led to this project. I hope this little tool would be of some help to linguistics students in their studies.
For bug report or any comments/suggestions, please feel free to email me.
References & Special Thanks
- Introducing Phonology by David Odden, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
- Introductory Phonology by Bruce Hayes, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
- Ohio State University's Interactive IPA Charts.
- Professor Peter Jenks, as well as his lectures and slides for Linguistics 100: Introduction to Linguistic Science (Fall 2018).
- Professor Adam Albright's guide to features.
- The Wikipedia page on distinctive features.
- Bev's blog entry about filter implementation on Focus on Function Web Design.
- The Web Design Decal at UC Berkeley.
Gloss
Brief explanations of each distinctive feature available on this sorter.
Adapted from David Odden's Introducing Phonology and Adam Albright's guide to features (which was based on a guide by Bruce Hayes).
Major Class Features
- distinguish vowels vs. consonants- syllabic forms a syllable peak (aka can be stressed).
- sonorant oral constriction too small to cause a pressure buildup, so voicing is unimpeded. acoustically at least as sonorant as a nasal.
- consonantal oral constriction greater than a glide. acoustically less sonorant than a glide.
Place Features
- based on place of articulation- dorsal articulation involing the tongue body.
- high the body of the tongue raised above neutral position.
- low the body of the tongue lowered below neutral position.
- front the body of the tongue fronted from neutral position.
- back the body of the tongue retracted from neutral position.
- tense the body of the tongue more stiffly/extremely positioned.
- labial articulation involving the lips.
- round lips are protruded.
- coronal produced with the tip of the tongue raised from neutral position.
- anterior major constriction located at or in front of the alveolar ridge.
- distributed articulation with the tongue blade (as opposed to tongue tip).
Manner Features
- properties related to the manner of production apart from place of constriction- continuant the primary constriction is not so narrow that airflow is blocked.
- nasal the velum is lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose.
- lateral the mid section of the tongue is lowered at the side.
- strident frication produced with a narrow channel, which creates loud frication noise acoustically.
- delayed release release of a total constriction is slowed so that a fricative is formed after the stop part (aka affricates).
Laryngeal Features
- characterize the state of the glottis- voice the vocal folds vibrate.
- spread glottis the vocal folds are spread far apart; aspiration.
- constricted glottis the vocal folds are tightly constricted.
English Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio dental |
Inter dental |
Alveolar | Post alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | b | t | d | k | g | ʔ | |||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | h | |||||||
| Affricate | tʃ | dʒ | ||||||||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | w | ɹ | j | |||||||||||||
| Lat. Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
When symbols appear in a pair, the one to the right represents the voiced consonant. Areas in dark gray represent articulations judged impossible.
English Vowels
When symbols appear in a pair, the one to the right represents
the rounded vowel.
Updates
08/06/19
- Added a page for French sounds.
08/29/23
- Now supports sorting in both directions, i.e. 1) select a set of features to see the sounds with the selected features; 2) select a set of sounds to see the features they have in common.
- Removed the French page (temporarily).
- Some changes in About.
09/17/23
- Added a few features; updated/revised feature data.