Sonority

Abstract

If an interface between phonetics and phonology really exists ( pace Ohala 1990b), then one topic having a long and controversial history in that domain is sonority. Sonority can be defined as a unique type of relative, n ‐ary (non‐binary) featurelike phonological element that potentially categorizes all speech sounds into a hierarchical scale. For example, vowels are more sonorous than liquids, which are higher in sonority than nasals, with obstruents being the least sonorous of all segments. In terms of traditional phonetic systems for categorizing natural classes of sounds, then, the feature encoded by sonority most closely corresponds to the notion manner of articulation (see chapter the stricture features ). In this sense, sonority is like most other features: it demarcates groups of segments that behave similarly in cross‐linguistically common processes. At the same time, however, sonority is unlike most features in that it exhaustively encompasses all speech sounds simultaneously, i.e. every type of segment has some inherent incremental value for this feature. Sonority is also unique in that it has never been observed to spread (assimilate), in and of itself.

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