Editing Sonority hierarchy (section)

==Sonority hierarchy==
Sonority hierarchies vary somewhat in which sounds are grouped together.  The one below is fairly typical:

{| class="wikitable"
! !! width=15%|[[vowel]]s !!  width=15%|approximants<br />([[semivowel|glides]] and [[liquid consonant|liquids]]) !!  width=15%|[[nasal consonant|nasal]]s !!  width=15%|[[fricative consonant|fricatives]] !!  width=15%|[[affricate consonant|affricates]] !!  width=15%|[[stop consonant|stop]]s
|-
| syllabic: || colspan=1 align=center style="background:#99FF99"|+ || colspan=5 align=center style="background:#FDD"|&minus;
|-
| [[approximant]]: || colspan=2 align=center style="background:#99FF99"|+ || colspan=4 align=center style="background:#FDD"|&minus;
|-
| [[sonorant]]: || colspan=3 align=center style="background:#99FF99"|+ || colspan=3 align=center style="background:#FDD"|&minus;
|-
| [[continuant]]: || colspan=4 align=center style="background:#99FF99"|+ || colspan=2 align=center style="background:#FDD"|&minus;
|-
| delayed release: || colspan=5 align=center style="background:#99FF99"|+ || colspan=1 align=center style="background:#FDD"|&minus;
|-
|}
Sound types are the most sonorous on the left side of the scale, and become progressively less sonorous towards the right (e.g., fricatives are less sonorous than nasals).

The labels on the left refer to [[distinctive feature]]s, and categories of sounds can be grouped together according to whether they share a feature. For instance, as shown in the sonority hierarchy above, vowels are considered [+syllabic], whereas all consonants (including glides, liquids, nasals, etc.) are considered [&minus;syllabic]. All sound categories falling under [+sonorant] are [[sonorant]]s, whereas those falling under [&minus;sonorant] are [[obstruent]]s. In this way, any contiguous set of sound types may be grouped together on the basis of no more than two features (for instance, affricates and fricatives are [&minus;sonorant, +delayed release]).