Vowels are sounds produced with a free passage of air. Consonants are sounds produced with an impediment at different points in the vocal tract. However, there are consonants that share some features of the vowels and thus called semi- vowels. Are there any other reasons for calling them semi- vouels?
Semi-vowels are the consonant sounds that are articulated with open approximation. It means that they are articulated in the manner in which the air stream escapes between the two organs of speech without any friction though a sort of glide is felt between two sounds. Though their articulation is like a vowel, but they are not labelled vowels simply because they cannot form a syllable. They are just non-syllabic vowel like segments.
In British R.P. , there are two semi-vowels i.e. /j/ and /w/. /w/ is bilabial and /j/ is palatal. You can feel the glide when you speak the words like quit or twenty. The glide is more obvious when semi-vowel occurs between a consonant and a vowel. You can feel the glide in these two words, twenty and quit. The glide can also be felt in the word student where /j/ occurs between a consonant /t/ and vowel /u:/
Thank you again, Marwa. This is really interesting. Best regards. Hazim.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Philosophy
- Moral Philosophy
- Free Will