Editing Sonority hierarchy (section)

==Sonority scale==
{| class="wikitable"
!Most sonorous (weakest consonantality) to<br />least sonorous (strongest consonantality)
!English examples
|-
|low vowels ([[open vowel]]s)
|/a ə/
|-
|[[mid vowel]]s
|/e o/
|-
|high vowels ([[close vowel]]s) / glides ([[semivowel]]s)
|/i u j w/ (first two are close vowels, last two are semivowels)
|-
|[[Flap consonant|flaps]]
|[ɾ]
|-
|[[Lateral consonant|laterals]]
|/l/
|-
|[[Nasal consonant|nasals]]
|/m n ŋ/
|-
|[[Fricative consonant|voiced fricatives]]
|/v ð z/
|-
|[[Fricative consonant|voiceless fricatives]]
|/f θ s/
|-
|[[Stop consonant#English|voiced plosives]]
|/b d g/
|-
|[[Stop consonant#English|voiceless plosives]]
|/p t k/
|}
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<ref name="What is the sonority scale">{{Cite web|url=http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/WhatIsTheSonorityScale.htm|title=What is the sonority scale?|website=www-01.sil.org|access-date=2016-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613191758/http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/whatisthesonorityscale.htm|archive-date=2017-06-13|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/BibliographyLinguistics/BurquestAndPayne1993.htm Burquest, Donald A., and David L. Payne. 1993. Phonological analysis: A functional approach. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pg 101]</ref>

In [[English language|English]], the sonority scale, from highest to lowest, is the following:
<!-- maybe create a chart that is not english specific? -->
{{IPA|/a/ > /e o/ > /i u j w/ > /l/ > /m n ŋ/ > /z v ð/ > /f θ s/ > /b d ɡ/ > /p t k/}}<ref>
{{cite book|title=Contemporary linguistic analysis: An introduction.|date=2012|publisher=Toronto: Pearson Longman.|page=70|author=O'Grady, W. D.|edition=7th|author2=Archibald, J. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phono/fric.htm|title=Consonants: Fricatives|website=facweb.furman.edu|access-date=2016-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917233609/http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phono/fric.htm|archive-date=2018-09-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In simpler terms, the scale has members of the same group hold the same sonority from the greatest to the smallest presence of vibrations in the vocal folds. Vowels have the most vibrations, but consonants are characterized as such in part by the lack of vibrations or a break in vibrations. The top of the scale, open vowels, has the most air used for vibrations, and the bottom of the scale has the least air being used for vibrations. That can be demonstrated by putting a few fingers on one's throat and pronouncing an open vowel such as the [[vowel]] [a], and then pronouncing one of the plosives (also known as [[Stop consonant|stop consonants)]] of the [p t k] class. For vowels, there is a consistent level pressure generated from the lungs and diaphragm, and the difference in pressure in one's body and outside the mouth is minimal. For plosive, the pressure generated from the lungs and diaphragm changes significantly, and the difference in pressure in one's body and outside the mouth is maximal before release (no air is flowing, and the vocal folds are not resisting the air flow).

More finely-nuanced hierarchies often exist within classes whose members cannot be said to be distinguished by relative sonority. In North American English, for example, the set /p t k/ has /t/ being by far the most subject to weakening when before an unstressed vowel (the usual American pronunciation has /t/ as a flap in ''later'' but normally no weakening of /p/ in ''caper'' or of /k/ in ''faker'').

In Portuguese, intervocalic /n/ and /l/ are typically lost historically (e.g. Lat. LUNA > /lua/ 'moon', DONARE > /doar/ 'donate', COLORE > /kor/ 'color'), but /r/ remains (CERA > /sera/ 'wax'), but Romanian has transformed the intervocalic non-[[gemination|geminate]] /l/ into /r/ (SOLEM > /so̯are/ 'sun') and reduced the geminate /ll/ to /l/ (OLLA > /o̯alə/ 'pot'). It has, however, left /n/ (LUNA > /lunə/ 'moon') and /r/ (PIRA > /parə/ 'pear') unchanged. Similarly, Romance languages often have geminate /mm/ weaker than /nn/, and geminate /rr/ is often stronger than other geminates, including /pp tt kk/. In such cases, many phonologists refer not to sonority but to a more abstract notion of relative strength. The latter was once posited as universal in its arrangement, but it is now known to be language-specific.