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Stops and Continuants A -- Page 12

A. Besides voicing, another fundamental distinction between English sounds is whether they are stop sounds or continuant sounds.

In some sounds, the air is stopped inside the mouth (stop sounds). In other sounds the air flows out without being stopped (continuant).
Mouth for Th Mouth for T
To feel the difference between a stop sound and a continuant make an "sssss" sound as long as you can. That is a continuant sound. Now make a "p" sound (not adding a vowel). Can you continue the "p" sound? No, because the "p" is a stop sound.

Is the "th" a stop sound or a continuant? See picture above.
Stops Continuants
Voiced boy, day, go, judge, toy, tense, take, tank, ten, ton me, then, low, vote, not, zoo, pleasure, and all vowels
Unvoiced pan, too, cake, chew, point think, fine, say, shoe, thank, thing, that, those, than, them, these, this

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