continuant n
a consonantthat is produced when the primary constriction in the vocal
tract is not narrowed to the point where the air flow through the mouth is
blocked. These sounds can be maintained as long as there is air in the lungs.
Continuants include fricatives(e.g. /s, z, f, v/), liquids(/l, r/, and glides
(/w, y/). nasalsare usually considered non-continuants, because although
they can be maintained, the vocal tract is stopped.
continuing educationn
in the US, educational programs provided for adults, apart from the K-12
school system, which often include basic skills, recreational, advanced and
technical studies.
continuousn
another term for progressive
continuous assessmentn
an approach to assessment in which students are assessed regularly
throughout the programme rather than being given a single assessment
at the end. This is thought to give a more accurate picture of student
achievement.
continuumn
see speech continuum
contour tonen
tones that are specified as gliding movements within a pitch range. Lan-
guages that have contour tones, such as Chinese, are contour tone languages.
see tone^1
contractionn
the reduction of a linguistic form and often its combination with another
form. For example:
I shall into I’ll
they are into they’re
did not into didn’t
contrastive analysisn
also CA
the comparison of the linguistic systems of two languages, for example
the sound system or the grammatical system. Contrastive analysis was
developed and practised in the 1950s and 1960s, as an application of
contrastive analysis