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Continuants don't block air from moving through the mouth, meaning that they can be sustained for an entire breath. The category of continuants is useful in linguistics, especially in the fields of phonetics, phonology, and computational linguistics.
The Meaning of Continuant
A continuant is a sound that allows air to flow out of the mouth, meaning that it can be sustained for a long time.
A continuant is a sound produced without closing off the oral cavity, e.g., [s].
Continuants include:
Vowels
Approximants
Trills
You can think of continuants as sounds that let air continue to flow out of the mouth.
All sound classes that are not continuants are called occlusive or simply non-continuants.
An occlusive, or a non-continuant, is a sound produced by closing off the oral cavity, e.g., [t].
You might notice a root word similar to the word close in occlusive. The term occlusive comes from the Latin occludere, which means "to close up." Occlusives include:
Plosives
Nasals
They won't be discussed here, but the consonant classes of clicks, implosives, and ejectives are also occlusives. These consonants are categorized differently because their primary sources of airflow are not from the lungs. They all require a closure of the oral cavity, though, so they are all occlusives.
Continuants in Linguistics
Grouping continuants into a single category can be useful in the field of linguistics. These are some of the uses for the continuant category in linguistics.
Phonology: Some language patterns apply only to certain sound classes. The continuant category allows phonologists to develop theories about these patterns.
In a phonological alternation called lenition, sounds categorically become "weaker" or less constricted. This can take the form of replacing non-continuants, like stops, with continuants, like fricatives.
Phonetics: The continuant category helps phoneticians theorize about the human articulation and perception of different sound classes.
Continuants are often longer in duration than non-continuants. Categorizing sounds as continuants and non-continuants can help phoneticians test hypotheses related to sound duration.
Computational Linguistics: Computational linguists work in Natural Language Processing and other fields to train AI in recognizing and producing continuant sounds.
In linguistics, continuant sounds are often marked as [+continuant], and non-continuant sounds are marked as [-continuant].
Let's now look at continuants in phonetics.
Continuants in Phonetics
Continuants include four sound classes in phonetics: vowels, fricatives, approximants, and trills.
Vowels
Vowels are the most common continuants. They are usually the longest sounds and the building blocks of syllables.
Vowels are sounds that are produced with high-amplitude noise and a relatively unobstructed vocal tract. Vowels are able to form the nucleus (or primary part) of a syllable.
To simplify this definition, vowels are loud speech sounds that you produce while keeping your mouth mostly open. They can also exist as the main part of a syllable. This is important for distinguishing vowels from approximants: more on that later.
The most important point for the discussion of continuants is that you can't close your mouth when producing a vowel. By definition, then, all vowels are continuants.
Fricatives
Unlike vowels, fricatives place obstacles in the way of the airflow through the vocal tract.
A fricative is a turbulent stream of air forced through a narrow constriction of the vocal tract.
Fricatives include sounds like [f], as in fluff, and [s], as in stuff. When you produce a fricative, you constrict the airflow through the mouth, but you never completely close it off. Like a tire with a hole in its wall, your mouth allows air to quickly pass through a small gap. This creates a static-like sound.
Fig. 1 - When producing a fricative, the mouth lets a constant stream of airflow out of a small constriction—kind of like a leaky tire.
By definition, a fricative requires some amount of air to flow through the mouth. This means that all fricatives are continuants.
Approximants
Approximants are similar to vowels but often shorter. They are classified using vocabulary like laterals, rhotics, liquids, and glides (we'll define these shortly).
An approximant is a sound that results from air passing through a constriction in the vocal tract. The constriction is narrow enough to change the quality of the sound but not narrow enough to create turbulent airflow.
When you produce an approximant, you bring the articulators in your vocal tract (like your lips, tongue, and teeth) close together to change the airflow, but not so close that you produce a fricative. Now for the categories of approximants:
Lateral approximants allow air to flow around the sides of the tongue. Examples include [l] as in line.
Rhotic approximants are r-like sounds that result from bunching the tongue backward or curling it upward. Examples include the alveolar approximant [ɹ] in the General American English pronunciation of bird.
Liquid approximants are a category consisting of lateral and rhotic approximants.
Glides, also called semivowels, are approximants that resemble vowels but cannot form the nucleus of a syllable. Examples include [w] as in want and [j] as in yogurt.
Trills
Trills involve a vibration between two articulators in the vocal tract.
Trills are sounds that result from a vibration of air past two articulators, such as the lips, tongue, and teeth.
The [r] in the Spanish word perro ('dog') is an alveolar trill. Just like with any other continuant, you can hold out a trill as long as you want.
Continuants and Non-Continuants
Every sound category is either continuant [+continuant] or non-continuant [-continuant]. The non-continuant sound categories are plosives, nasals, and affricates.
Plosives
Plosives are also generally called stops: they briefly stop air from flowing out of the mouth. Plosives include sounds like [p] as in potato and [d] as in duck.
Plosives are sounds that result from a complete blockage of airflow in the vocal tract.
This definition is the exact opposite of the definition of a continuant. Plosives are always non-continuants.
Nasals
One class of sounds that trips people up is the nasal category. Nasals resemble continuants because they involve an uninterrupted stream of air, but they are actually stops.
A nasal stop is a sound produced by blocking air from the oral cavity and allowing it to flow through the nasal cavity.
Nasals include sounds like [m] as in merry, and [n] as in nose. A nasal sounds like a continuant because it can be sustained for an entire breath. However, a nasal still requires blocking air from flowing out of the mouth. This excludes the nasal from the continuant category.
Fig. 2 - Nasal consonants close off airflow through the mouth but not through the nose. This diagram shows a retroflex nasal.
It's easy to confuse the [+continuant] category with the [+sonorant] category. Sonorants are sounds that allow for continuous vocal fold vibration. You can think of sonorants as sounds that you can "sing." This category includes vowels, liquids, semivowels, and nasals. If the categorization of nasals is confusing, just remember that nasals are [+sonorant] because you can "sing" them, but they are [-continuant] because they require you to close off airflow through your mouth.
Affricates
Affricates are hybrid consonants that consist of both a stop and a fricative.
An affricate is a stop immediately followed by a fricative.
Affricates include sounds like [tʃ] as in child. Since affricates begin with a stop, they require a complete obstruction of airflow through the mouth. This means that affricates are not continuants.
Examples of Continuants
Examples of continuants are present in every human language. These are the continuant categories that appear in English. As a reminder, all vowels, fricatives, approximants, and trills are continuants in any language. You won't find any trills in English, but you will find the other three continuant categories easily.
Vowels in English
Of course, the five letters representing vowels in English are a, e, i, o, u, but the English vocabulary includes many more vowel sounds. Linguists use the symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to distinguish these vowel sounds in writing. Here are the vowel sounds specifically found in English.
| IPA Symbol | Articulatory Description | Examples |
| i, ɪ | high front unrounded (tense and lax) | bead [bid], bin [bɪn] |
| e, ɛ | mid front unrounded (upper and lower) | bane [beɪn], bed [bɛd] |
| ə | mid central unrounded (schwa) | believe [bəliv] |
| æ | lower mid front | bad [bæd] |
| a, ɑ | low front, low back | cot [kat], caught [kɑt]* |
| ʌ | lower mid back unrounded | bud [bʌd] |
| o | upper mid back rounded | boat [boʊt] |
| u, ʊ | high back rounded (tense and lax) | boot [but], book [bʊk] |
* the vowels in cot and caught may both have the [a] vowel in some American English dialects. This is called a cot-caught merger.
Fricatives in English
Fricatives are sounds like [f] as in fall and [s] as in sand. Here's a list of the fricatives in English, including their IPA symbols, articulatory descriptions, and some example words.
| IPA Symbol | Articulatory Description | Examples |
| f, v | labiodental fricatives (voiceless and voiced) | fall [fal], virus [vaɪɹəs] |
| θ, ð | interdental fricatives (voiceless and voiced) | thrash [θɹæʃ], that [ðæt] |
| s, z | alveolar fricatives (voiceless and voiced) | south [saʊθ], zoo [zu] |
| ʃ, ʒ | postalveolar fricatives (voiceless and voiced) | shine [ʃaɪn], garage [ɡəɹaʒ] |
| h | glottal fricative (voiceless) | have [hæv] |
Approximants in English
The English approximant category consists of a lateral, a rhotic, and two glides.
| IPA Symbol | Articulatory Description | Examples |
| l | voiced alveolar lateral approximant | loan [loʊn] |
| ɹ | voiced alveolar approximant | run [ɹʌn] |
| w | voiced labial-velar approximant | wall [wal] |
| j | voiced palatal approximant | yak [jæk] |
These examples summarize all of the [+continuant] sounds in English. Try listening for continuants and non-continuants in your own dialect: speak normally and pay attention to the number of times that you completely close off airflow from your mouth. You'll start thinking like a phonetician, noticing and observing the mechanics of everyday speech.
Continuant - Key takeaways
- A continuant is a sound produced without closing off the oral cavity.
- Continuants include vowels, fricatives, approximants, and trills.
- Non-continuants, also called occlusives, include plosives, nasals, and affricates.
- In linguistics, continuant sounds are often marked as [+continuant], and non-continuant sounds are marked as [-continuant].
- It's easy to confuse the [+continuant] category with the [+sonorant] category. Sonorants are sounds that allow for continuous vocal fold vibration, whereas continuants are sounds that don't block airflow through the mouth.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Continuant
What are continuants?
A continuant is a sound produced without closing off the oral cavity. You can think of continuants as sounds that let air continue to flow out of the mouth.
What sounds are continuant?
Continuants include three sound classes in phonetics: vowels, approximants, fricatives, and trills.
Which letters are continuants?
Continuants include vowels (like [i] and [a]), fricatives (like [f] and [z]), approximants (like [w] and [l]), and trills (like the [r] in the Spanish word perro).
What are continuants in English?
Some examples of continuants in English include vowels like [i] as in bead and [a] as in cot, fricatives like [f] as in fall and [z] as in zoo, and approximants like [w] as in wall and [l] as in ladle.
What is the difference between sonorants and continuants?
It's easy to confuse the [+continuant] category with the [+sonorant] category. Sonorants are sounds that allow for continuous vocal fold vibration, and continuants are sounds that don't block airflow through the mouth.
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