Obstruent

An obstruent is a plosive, a fricative, or an affricate, that is, any consonant where airflow through the vocal tract is obstructed either completely or at least enough to create turbulence.

Comments

Consonants that are not obstruents are sonorants. In many versions of distinctive feature theory, obstruents are represented with the minus-value of the feature [son] or [sonorant].