continuant
/kənˈtɪnjuənt/
noun
- A speech sound that can be prolonged without changing its quality, such as a vowel, fricative, or nasal consonant.
- In phonetics class, we learned that /s/ is a continuant because you can hold the sound.
- The teacher explained that vowels are all continuants since the airflow is not blocked.
- Unlike a stop consonant like /p/, a continuant like /f/ can be sustained.
Antonyms
adjective
- Relating to or being a speech sound that can be prolonged.
- The continuant nature of the sound /z/ makes it easy to hum.
- Linguists classify fricatives as continuant consonants.
- In the word 'sing,' the /ŋ/ is a continuant nasal sound.