ABSTRACT
Distinctive features have their origin in the theory of phonological oppositions developed by the Prague School (see Trubetzkoy, 1939). In this theory, words of a language are differentiated by oppositions between phonemes, and the phonemes themselves are kept apart by their distinctive features-phonetic properties such as ‘voice’, ‘nasality’, etc. These features are grouped phonetically into a variety of types, and the oppositions between the phonemes are also classified ‘logically’ in a number of different ways, according to the nature of the features concerned (see further FUNCTIONAL PHONOLOGY and PHONEMICS).
