Note that it is well established that speech sounds regularly used to distinguish concepts (for example the vowels [i] and [y] in French) are themselves easier to distinguish, whereas sound distinctions that do not serve a linguistic role in one's language may not be perceived as well and elicit reduced acoustic-phonological brain responses (Näätänen et al. 1997; Diaz et al. 2008).
Despite some fleeting unsteadiness in her highest range, Ms. Blythe deployed her huge, penetrating sound with distinction as a generous Frugola in "Il Tabarro" ("The Cloak"), an imperious Princess in "Suor Angelica" and an uproarious Zita in "Gianni Schicchi".
As for sounds, this distinction is consequent upon the distinction between two kinds of medium: the source medium (that is, the stuff the thing is composed of) and the medium proper or environment medium, surrounding the sounding thing, the one in which the hearer could be immersed as well.
This might sound like a distinction without a difference, but it's not.
The sentiment was sound, but the distinction between ideals of continental integration and pragmatic multilateralism is not easily drawn.
To those uncomfortable with the internecine workings of finance, that may sound like a distinction without a difference.
At the Philadelphia concert, in "Oblivion" and "Adios Nonino," melodies flowed in opposing keys, but Piazzolla's sequential phrases, laid out like a gracefully descending staircase, give the "easy listening" sound as much distinction as does the music of Messiaen.
Finally, entire classes of phonemes often shift because of loss or gain of a phonemic feature like voicing, or when the change of one sound or phonemic distinction in a sound system may lead to cascades of other sound changes in the system, as has been postulated with the "Great Vowel Shift" in English [ 30].
The distinction sounds slight but it has been liberating.
