Major and Manner Class Features

Definition

Major features allow linguists to group sounds into broad categories of sounds and differentiate sounds between each other, such as:

  • consonants vs. vowels
  • sonorants vs obstruents
  • stops vs fricatives
  • nasal consonants
  • approximants
  • lateral consonants

The manner class features allow linguists to group sounds together based on the manner (or how) they are produced.

The major and manner class features are as follows (Zsiga, 2013, p. 258):

  • [+/- syllabic]
  • [+/- consonantal]
  • [+/- sonorant]
  • [+/- continuant]
  • [+/- nasal]
  • [+/- lateral]

Examples