Jatkuvuusääni

Jatkuvuusääni, or continuous sound, is a phonological category referring to segments that can be sustained or prolonged during articulation without a complete closure of the vocal tract. It contrasts with plosives (stops), which require an audible release of the closure. The term is used in phonetics and phonology to describe a particular property of articulation rather than classifying a fixed set of sounds.

Continuants are produced with a constriction that does not fully block the airflow, allowing the sound to continue. In practice this includes fricatives and approximants, and, in some analyses, also vowels, nasals, and liquids. They can be voiced or voiceless and often are capable of longer phonetic duration than stops.

In linguistic analysis, the continuant property interacts with phonotactics, syllable structure, and historical sound change. For example, many languages show lenition processes in which a stop becomes a continuant (or approximant) over time, affecting neighboring vowels and consonants. Distinguishing continuants from non-continuants helps account for patterns of duration, rounding, and assimilation.

In Finnish linguistics, jatkuvuusääni is used as a feature to indicate whether a segment can be prolonged. While many descriptions focus on the conventional set of fricatives and approximants, some frameworks broaden the category to include liquids and nasals as continuants. The exact membership depends on the theoretical view being used.

Common examples of continuants across languages include f, s, ʃ, x, v, l, r, j, and h. The specific inventory depends on phonological analysis and language.