• DOI:10.1017/S0025100304001732
• Corpus ID: 144568679

Problems in the classification of approximants

@article{MartnezCeldrn2004ProblemsIT,
  title={Problems in the classification of approximants},
  author={Eugenio Mart{\'i}nez-Celdr{\'a}n},
  journal={Journal of the International Phonetic Association},
  year={2004},
  volume={34},
  pages={201 - 210}
}

• E. Martínez-Celdrán
• Published 1 December 2004
• Linguistics
• Journal of the International Phonetic Association

The aim of this paper is to show that the approximant feature refers to a phonetic class which includes other subcategories of sounds, such as semi-vowels, rhotics, laterals and a subset of consonants. The consonants – due to the lack of articulatory precision – keep neither the obligatory closure for stops nor the aerodynamic characteristics required to produce a turbulent airstream, as is characteristic of fricatives. I am referring to these sounds as [[Voiced bilabial fricative] [Voiced dental fricative] [Voiced palatal fricative] [Voiced velar fricative]]. Moreover, I suggest a new definition of the approximant feature, which points out that the outflow of non-turbulent airstream is caused by either the opening of the organs or the lack of articulatory precision, or even both phenomena together.