Construct · 2 fields · 2 citations

Where does sonority collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

● jingle · one word, two meanings Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
sonority2 CONSTRUCTSPhonologyPARKER · SONORITY SCALEMusic theoryFULLER · POLYPHONY

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1986Music theory2008Phonology
2026

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Phonology

a speech sound's inherent loudness/openness ranking that shapes the syllable

In phonology, sonority is the inherent perceptual 'carrying power' of a speech sound, ranked on a scale (vowels > glides > liquids > nasals > obstruents) that governs how segments are ordered within a syllable. Parker (2008), in the Journal of Phonetics, showed that acoustic intensity ('sound level protrusion') is the physical correlate of this scale. This is a property of individual speech segments, distinct from the musical meaning of sonority as a vertical sound.[1]

Unit
One segment's position on the sonority scale
Recovery means
Rank a segment relative to others and check syllable-structure predictions (onset/coda ordering).
Measured by
Acoustic intensity of segments and distributional evidence from syllable phonotactics.

Music theory

a specific vertical sound: a chord or simultaneity treated as a sonorous unit

In music theory, a sonority is a particular vertical combination of pitches considered as a single sounding entity: the sound of a chord or simultaneity, apart from its functional label. Fuller (1986), in the Journal of Music Theory, treats sonority as an analytic category for fourteenth-century polyphony. This referent is a musical simultaneity, not the ranked loudness of a speech segment.[2]

Unit
One sonority (a vertical pitch combination)
Recovery means
Isolate a simultaneity in a score/recording and characterize it as a sounding whole.
Measured by
Analytic description of interval content and sonorous quality of the vertical combination.

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Nearby collisions

category4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructschord3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructscombination1 fields · 2 citationsanchor · a standalone construct

References

  1. Parker, S. (2008). Sound level protrusions as physical correlates of sonority. Journal of Phonetics, 36(1), 55–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2007.09.003
  2. Fuller, S. (1986). On sonority in fourteenth-century polyphony: Some preliminary reflections. Journal of Music Theory, 30(1), 35–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/843408

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