💨 A flowing sound 💨 Letting air flow

continuant

8.8

A consonant sound made by narrowing the mouth so air keeps flowing, for example f, v, and l

noun
/kənˈtɪn.jənt/

Specialized

: continuante

Examples

Objects include entities that exist continually (continuants) or activities that occur in time (occurrents) in an enterprise's reality (Sowa 1997).

Academic text (1999)
In phonetics, a continuant is a sound like 's' that can be prolonged without interruption.
The teacher explained that sounds like 'f' and 'v' are classified as continuants in speech.
When pronouncing the letter 'l', it is considered a continuant because the airflow is not completely stopped.

Synonyms

continuant consonant

vscontinuant

Specialized

7.4

A speech sound made by narrowing the mouth so air keeps flowing

is the one-word technical label for the same consonant type

Compounds

continuant consonant

Specialized

7.4

A speech sound made by narrowing the mouth so air keeps flowing

How Continuous

fricative

Specialized

1 8.0

continuant

Specialized

8.8

approximant

Specialized

8.4

affricate

Specialized

9.9

stop

Specialized

4 6.0

Surface Forms

continuant singular

continuants plural

Morphology

continuant = continue (semi-transparent) = continu + ant

Formed by a regular suffixation of '-ant' onto the verb 'continue' producing an adjectival/noun meaning 'continuing', but the usage is specialized in phonetics and orthographic change (drop of final 'e') may reduce transparency for learners.

Etymology

The word continuant comes from the same root as continue and continuous, which mean 'keep going' or 'without stopping'. So a continuant is a consonant sound where the air keeps flowing and is not completely stopped, like the sounds 'f', 'v', or 'l'.