Obstruent Consonants

Obstruent Consonants are consonants that are pronounced by obstructing the airflow. When pronouncing an obstruent consonant, the place of articulation makes the sound by itself and the vocal cords only adjust the quality of the consonant. Plosives, fricatives and affricates are obstruent consonants. In manners of articulation of obstruent consonants there is a phonemic distinction between unvoiced and voiced consonants.

Obstruent consonants are not likely to be syllabic when there is no vowel before or after them. the schwa (Ə) comes before or after them only between two consonants that have the same place and manner of articulation (for example, TD), after a plosive and before a fricative with the same or a close place of articulation that don't form an affricate (for example, TS), and to prevent voiced obstruents from being devoiced in the pronunciation when there is no other voiced sound before or after them.