Distinctive feature

Categories: Linguistics stubs | Phonology

In linguistics, distinctive features are the descriptive quality by which sounds are distinguished from one another. Distinctive features can be phonetic correlations of the sound in question or may be an auditory or even an acoustic quality of a vocal sound. Distinctive features are descriptive tools through which individual sounds can be described. The use of distinctive features is common in theories of generative phonology and it have been adjudged as adequate in its function of differentiating speech sounds. Some example of distinctive features are coronal(sounds produced while the front or blade of the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth), anterior (sounds produced outside the palato-aveolar region e.g labials, aveolars, labio-dentals).