Nichtokklusive

Nichtokklusive is a term used in phonetics and phonology to describe segments that do not involve an occlusion in the oral tract during articulation. The term is primarily found in German-language literature, where occlusion is contrasted with non-occlusive articulation. In practice, nichtokklusive refers to a wide range of sounds, including fricatives, approximants, vowels, and glides, and sometimes including liquids, depending on the framework. Occlusive segments, by contrast, refer to stops (plosives) such as p, t, k, b, d, g; some analyses also categorize affricates as occlusive.

The utility of the classification lies in articulatory and acoustic descriptions: non-occlusive sounds are produced without a moment of total airstream obstruction, leading to continuous or turbulent airflow rather than a release burst. The term is rarely used in English-language phonology; in many traditions, non-occlusive sounds are described using terms like fricatives, approximants, vowels, or more general categories such as sonorants or obstruents.

In historical usage, nichtokklusive appears in discussions of German phonology and phonetics in the 20th century, sometimes as a way to group together non-stop consonants and vowels for certain comparative analyses. Critics note that the distinction between occlusive and non-occlusive can be blurred by language-specific phonotactics and by analyses that treat nasals and liquids differently.

See also: occlusion, occlusive, fricative, approximant, vowel, obstruent, sonorant.