[continuant]
The phones that are [+continuant] involve a partial occlusion of airway, meaning your mouth might
be mostly closed or your tongue may be blocking the airway.
All vowels, glides, liquids, and fricatives are [+continuant].
Stops, affricates, nasals are [-continuant].
[syllabic]
By default, only vowels are [+syllabic], and all consonants are [-syllabic].
[coronal]
[+coronal] sounds require articulation of the front part of the tongue. Interdental, alveolar, palato-
alveolar, retroflex, and palatal consonants (sans glides) are all [+coronal], and other phones are [-
coronal].
[coronal] has two dependent features: [anterior] and [distributed].
[anterior]
[+anterior] phones are those made by using the tip of the tongue at the front of the mouth.
Interdentals and alveolars are [+anterior], whereas the other [+coronal] phones are [-
anterior].
[dorsal]
The [+dorsal] sounds are those made by articulating the back half of the tongue.
Palato-alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and pharyngeal consonants and all vowels and glides are
[+dorsal].
[dorsal] has 3 dependent features high, low, back, and each referring to the physical positioning of
the tongue.
[+nasal]
These sounds allow air to escape through the nasal cavity (nose).
[labial]
The [+labial] phones are those which require use of the lips to produce, which corresponds
to the labial and labiodental places of articulation detailed in the previous post. Additionally,
glides and vowels are considered to be [+labial] since they can have a [round] specification.
[labial] has one dependent feature: [round].
[strident]
Sounds which are [+strident] are characterized by high-frequency noise. All affricates are [+strident],
and fricatives at the following places of articulation are also [+strident]: labiodental, alveolar, palato-
alveolar, retroflex, and uvular. All other sounds are [-strident].
[pharyngeal]
The pharyngeal consonants are (of course) [+pharyngeal], and vowels can have a [pharyngeal]
specification in languages where there is a tenseness contrast of vowels.
[pharyngeal] has one dependent feature: [ATR].
[ATR]
ATR stands for “advanced tongue root”. This feature indicates whether the root of the tongue has
been moved forward, but what it really provides is a contrast between tensed and un-tensed vowels.
[+ATR] vowels are tense, and [-ATR] sounds are lax.
Laryngeal features
Last, we come to the laryngeal features. “Laryngeal” means these features have to do with how the
larynx is utilized during sound production. There are three laryngeal features:
voiced
aspirated
glottalized
[voice]
The [+voice] phones are those which involve the vibration of the vocal folds, whereas [-voice]
phones do not induce vibration.
[aspirated]
Phones which are [+aspirated] have a stronger outward airflow. All voiceless fricatives (plus the
voiced glottal fricative) are [+aspirated], and other sounds are [-aspirated] by default.
[glottalized]
By default, the implosive consonants (third row in this IPA chart) and the glottal stop are
[+glottalized], and all other sounds are [-glottalized]. (The implosive consonants are produced using
both pulmonic ingressive and pulmonic aggressive airflows at the same time.)
