Distinctive Features - Speech Resource Pages - Macquarie University

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In different languages vowel systems can vary in terms two to four vowel height contrasts. Vowel systems with only two levels of height simply use [+high] or [-high] to represent high and low vowels respectively. High vowels high + Low vowels - Vowels systems with three levels of height contrast use the features [high] and [low]. High vowels like [i u y ɯ] are [+high, -low]. Mid vowels like [e o] are neither high, nor low, i.e. [-high, -low]. And open vowels like [a ɑ] are [-high, +low]. high low High vowels + - Mid vowels - - Low vowels - + Vowel systems with four levels of height contrast require a third feature [mid]. (This feature is additional to the set of features defined in Halle & Clements, but will be used in this course). high mid low Close vowels + - - Half-close vowels + + - Half-open vowels - + + Open vowels - - + The question of vowel tensity is more controversial. In English there is a class of vowels which are more central in the vowel space (i.e. further away from the four vowel space corners) and that cannot end monosyllabic words: in Australian English, these include the short vowels [æ e ɪ ʊ ɔ ɐ] in 'had', 'head', 'hid', 'hood', 'hod', 'hud'. While that is perhaps not so controversial, the issue of whether they can be defined by an articulatory [-ATR] (minus advance tongue root), indicating that the tongue root is not drawn forward to the same degree as [+ATR] vowels (all the 'long' vowels that can end words in English) is a good deal more problematic. It definitely doesn't make sense to apply [+ATR] to lax back vowels. As Halle and Clements note, [ATR] appears to "... never co-occur distinctly in any language ..." with another feature pair "tense/lax" [+- tense]. Whilst the tense/lax distinction is also defined by Halle & Clements in articulatory terms similar to those used for [ATR], the use of the term "tense" versus "lax" to describe respectively the "long" and "short" vowels of English is very familiar to phoneticians. The use of an alternative feature pair "long/short" is avoided because some languages have a distinction between tense and lax vowels which do not appear to be realised acoustically in terms vowel duration (ie. long versus short). In this course the feature [tense] will be used rather than the feature [ATR].
iv. Place of articulation The [ant] 'anterior' and [cor] 'coronal' features, in combination with [high] and [back] (see 3. above) and [sibilant] (see 2. above) do most of the job of consonantal place classification. These features will be defined in the next section. For example, for fricatives: ɸ f θ s ʂ ʃ ç x χ h ʍ ant + + + + - - - - - - - cor - - + + + + + - - - - labial + + - - - - - - - - + high - - - - - + + + - - + back - - - - - - - + + - + sibilant - - - + - + - - - - - distr + - +/- - - + + + + + + ([ʍ] is a labial-velar fricative: the fricative equivalent of [w]). Note that, by having abandoned [strident] (or replaced it with [sibilant]), we leave ourselves the problem of how to differentiate [ɸ] from [f]. Halle & Clements also define a feature [distr] (distributed) that they say can be used, amongst other things, to distinguish bilabial [+distr] and labiodental [-distr] sounds (nb. [θ] is [+distr] if it is lamino-dental, or [-distr] if it is apico-dental). [+distr] sounds have a greater area of contact than similar [-distr] sounds. For example, [+distr] bilabials have two lips in contact so there is a greater area of articulator contact than for [-distr] labiodentals (as the lower lip is in contact with the smaller area of the tips of the upper teeth). Also, apicals use the smaller area of the tongue tip whilst laminals use the greater area of the tongue blade. 5. <strong>Distinctive</strong> <strong>Features</strong> used in this topic The following set of distinctive features follows the set defined by Halle and Clements (1983), but with the following exceptions:- • The feature [ATR] (advanced tongue root) has been omitted, in favour of [tense]. • The feature [strident] has been replaced by Ladefoged's feature [sibilant]. • The feature [rounded] has been omitted as it seems to be mostly redundant given the presence of the feature [labial]. • The feature [mid] has been added to deal with vowel systems with four contrastive levels of height. • The feature [-cont] does not automatically include all laterals. In this course laterals are [+cont] if approximants or fricatives and [-cont] if lateral clicks or laterally released stops. • The feature [front] has been added. It is used here exclusively as a vowel feature and is used for languages or dialects, such as Australian English, which exhibit three levels of vowel fronting. The original set only had [back] as American English vowels could be described as [+back] or [-back] (for front) and the central vowel in the word "heard" was disambiguated by a [+rhotic] feature. When quoted text occurs in the following descriptions, it is taken from Halle and Clements (1983, pp 6-8) and this is indicated by (HC) following the quote.
Page 1 and 2: Topics Distinctive Features © Robe
Page 3 and 4: d) Gradual Oppositions The members
Page 5 and 6: We could refer to all these phoneme
Page 7: stops are already defined uniquely
Page 11 and 12: produced without such a gesture." [
Page 13 and 14: as lax. Instead we use the [tense]
Page 15 and 16: distinct tense vowel. All other cen
Page 17 and 18: Australian English diphthongs can b
Page 19 and 20: 7. English Consonant Features (an o
Page 21 and 22: 9. Articulatory Features In more re
Page 23: 20. Jakobson, R., Fant, C.G.M. and

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