Consonant (definition)

A consonant is a sound that involves a significant occlusion (closure or constriction) of the vocal tract. These sounds are traditionally characterized by voicing (e.g. +voice), place of articulation (e.g. bilabial), and manner of articulation features (e.g. fricative). Such features are used to distinguish between consonantal segments and help define the phonotactics of a language. Consonants contrast with vowels which are articulated with an unobstructed vocal tract. For a complete description of Gaelic consonants see the main article at consonants

See Also

• Vowel (definition)
• Sounds of Scottish Gaelic

External Links

• http://akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Consonants
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant

References

• Crystal, D. (2008) Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Ladefoged, D. (2010) A Course in Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wadsworth Publishing.
• Matthews, P. H. (1997) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.