In
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
and
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
sound but functions as the
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
boundary, rather than as the
nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
* Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
*Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucl ...
of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the consonants ''y'' and ''w'', in ''yes'' and ''west'', respectively. Written in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
, ''y'' and ''w'' are near to the vowels ''ee'' and ''oo'' in ''seen'' and ''moon,'' written in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
. The term ''glide'' may alternatively refer to any type of transitional sound, not necessarily a semivowel.
Classification
Semivowels form a subclass of
approximants
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
. Although "semivowel" and "approximant" are sometimes treated as synonymous, most authors use the term "semivowel" for a more restricted set; there is no universally agreed-upon definition, and the exact details may vary from author to author. For example, do not consider the
labiodental approximant to be a semivowel, while proposes that it should be considered one.
In the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
, the diacritic attached to non-syllabic vowel letters is an
inverted breve placed below the symbol representing the vowel: . When there is no room for the tack under a symbol, it may be written above, using . Before 1989, non-syllabicity was represented by , which now stands for
extra-shortness.
Additionally, there are dedicated symbols for four semivowels that correspond to the four close
cardinal vowel sounds:
The
pharyngeal approximant is also equivalent to the semivowel articulation of the
open back unrounded vowel .
In addition, some authors consider the
rhotic approximants , to be semivowels corresponding to
R-colored vowels such as . As mentioned above, the
labiodental approximant is considered a semivowel in some treatments. An unrounded central semivowel, (or ), equivalent to , is uncommon, though rounded (or ), equivalent to , is found in
Swedish and
Norwegian.
Contrast with vowels
Semivowels, by definition, contrast with vowels by being non-syllabic. In addition, they are usually shorter than vowels. In languages as diverse as
Amharic,
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, and
Zuni, semivowels are produced with a narrower constriction in the vocal tract than their corresponding vowels. Nevertheless, semivowels may be phonemically equivalent with vowels. For example, the English word ''fly'' can be considered either as an
open syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
ending in a
diphthong or as a
closed syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
ending in a consonant .
It is unusual for a language to contrast a semivowel and a diphthong containing an equivalent vowel, but
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
** Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
contrasts the diphthong with , a perceptually similar approximant-vowel sequence. The diphthong is analyzed as a single segment, and the approximant-vowel sequence is analyzed as two separate segments.
In addition to phonological justifications for the distinction (such as the diphthong alternating with in singular-plural pairs), there are phonetic differences between the pair:
* has a greater duration than
*The transition between the two elements is longer and faster for than with the former having a higher F2 onset (greater constriction of the articulators).
Although a phonological parallel exists between and , the production and perception of phonetic contrasts between the two is much weaker, likely because of lower lexical load for , which is limited largely to loanwords from
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, and speakers' difficulty in maintaining contrasts between two back rounded semivowels in comparison to front ones.
Contrast with fricatives/spirant approximants
According to the standard definitions, semivowels (such as ) contrast with
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s (such as ) in that fricatives produce turbulence, but semivowels do not. In discussing
Spanish, Martínez Celdrán suggests setting up a third category of "spirant approximant", contrasting both with semivowel approximants and with fricatives. Though the spirant approximant is more constricted (having a lower
F2 amplitude), longer, and unspecified for rounding (''viuda'' 'widow' vs. ''ayuda'' 'help'), the distributional overlap is limited. The spirant approximant can only appear in the syllable onset (including word-initially, where the semivowel never appears). The two overlap in distribution after and : ''enyesar'' ('to plaster') ''aniego'' ('flood') and although there is dialectal and idiolectal variation, speakers may also exhibit other near-minimal pairs like ''abyecto'' ('abject') vs. ''abierto'' ('opened'). One potential minimal pair (depending on dialect) is ''ya visto'' ('already seen') vs. ''y ha visto'' ('and he has seen').
Again, it is not present in all dialects. Other dialects differ in either merging the two or enhancing the contrast by moving the former to another
place of articulation (), like in
Rioplatense Spanish.
See also
*
Diphthong
*
Hiatus (linguistics)
*
List of phonetics topics
*
Mater lectionis
*
Syllabic consonant
A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke diacrit ...
*
Voiced labio-velar approximant
References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{Articulation navbox
Manner of articulation
Vowels
Approximant consonants
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