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In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. [1] Examples of semivowels in English are y and w in yes and west, respectively.
A diphthong (/ ˈ d ɪ f θ ɒ ŋ, ˈ d ɪ p-/ DIF-thong, DIP-; [1] from Ancient Greek δίφθογγος (díphthongos) 'two sounds', from δίς (dís) 'twice' and φθόγγος (phthóngos) 'sound'), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. [2]
One use of the word semivowel, sometimes called a glide, is a type of approximant, pronounced like a vowel but with the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth, so that there is slight turbulence. [ citation needed ] In English, /w/ is the semivowel equivalent of the vowel /u/ , and /j/ (spelled "y") is the semivowel equivalent of the vowel /i ...
A sonority hierarchy or sonority scale is a hierarchical ranking of speech sounds (or phones).Sonority is loosely defined as the loudness of speech sounds relative to other sounds of the same pitch, length and stress, [1] therefore sonority is often related to rankings for phones to their amplitude. [2]
Ladefoged, at least, defines semivowels as approximants that correspond to vowels. He treats them separately from diphthongs, which he says are simply vowels with a moving target, but otherwise identical to other vowels. That is, [ai̯] (or perhaps [a͡i]) is a vowel, [aj] a VC sequence. Phonemic analysis is, of course, another matter, as L ...
The vowel nuclei may be preceded by a glide /j, w, ɥ/, and may be followed by a coda /i, u, n, ŋ/. The various combinations of glide, vowel, and coda have different surface manifestations, as shown in the tables below. Any of the three positions may be empty, i.e. occupied by a null meta-phoneme ∅.
The correlation between semivowels and vowels is strong enough that cross-language differences between semivowels correspond with the differences between their related vowels. [ 7 ] Vowels and their corresponding semivowels alternate in many languages depending on the phonological environment, or for grammatical reasons, as is the case with ...
In addition to these, the semivowels /w/ and /j/ can be combined (either before, after, or both) with most vowels. One view considers that only /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ can follow an obstruent-liquid cluster such as in broască ('frog') and dreagă ('to mend') [5] and form real diphthongs, whereas the rest are merely vowel–glide sequences. [6]