featural

Featural is an adjective used in linguistics to describe systems, analyses, or scripts that encode information about sound or writing through distinctive features. In phonology, featural analysis models phonemes as bundles of binary or multi-valued features that specify properties such as [+consonantal], [+vocalic], [+sonorant], and place or manner of articulation. Rules and processes, including assimilation and phonological transformations, are described as operations on these features, rather than on isolated segments alone.

The featural approach has its roots in mid-20th-century work by Roman Jakobson, Gunnar Fant, and others, and was further developed in the Chomsky–Halle framework, notably in The Sound Pattern of English (1968). This perspective frames phonology as a system of feature interactions, offering a compact explanation for cross-language similarities and differences in sound patterns. While influential, featural theory has faced challenges, as some languages exhibit patterns that are difficult to capture with a fixed set of features, prompting refinements in feature geometry and alternative analyses.

Featural analysis is not limited to phonology. The term also appears in discussions of writing systems that encode phonetic or articulatory properties in their symbols. Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is often described as featural because certain consonant shapes reflect articulatory place and manner, and the arrangement of strokes in vowels conveys tongue position. The degree and interpretation of featuralness in writing systems are debated, but Hangul remains a canonical example cited in discussions of featural writing.

Today, featural analysis remains a foundational concept in linguistic theory, providing a framework to describe and compare phonological systems and to connect phonetic properties with abstract representations.