VowelSound in spoken language, articulated with an open vocal tractIPA: Vowels audiofull chartLegend: unrounded • roundedA vowel is a speech sound pronounced with minimal to no 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, loudness, and length. They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress.
ConsonantSpeech sound articulated by closing the vocal tract fully or partially In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract.
RoundednessLip formation during the articulation of a vowel , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the rounding of the lips, or lack thereof, during the articulation of a vowel. It is the degree and kind of labialization of a vowel.
Vowel diagramSchematic arrangement of vowels A representation of Daniel Jones's original cardinal vowel trapezium, which served as a basis for later vowel diagrams (though not the first of its kind; the original 1900 IPA chart had a somewhat similar form). A vowel diagram or vowel chart is a schematic arrangement of vowels within a phonetic system (though also often used in phonemic descriptions). Vowels do not differ in place, manner, or voicing in the same way that consonants do.DiphthongCombination of two adjacent vowel soundsAmerican English pronunciation of "no highway cowboys" /noʊˈhaɪweɪˈkaʊbɔɪz/, showing five diphthongs: A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel.
International Phonetic AlphabetSystem of phonetic notationThe 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, starting in the late 19th century, as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech.
French languageFrench (français or langue française) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, French and its closest relatives—the langues d'oïl, historically spoken in northern France and southern Belgium—descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. It was influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the GermanicFrankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.
SemivowelConsonants with similar features to vowels 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. Examples of semivowels in English are y and w in yes and west, respectively. Written /j w/ in IPA, y and w are near to the vowels ee and oo in seen and moon, written /iː uː/ in IPA.
LanguageStructured system of communicationA mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speechA Cuneiform tabletChildren of deaf adults using American Sign LanguageBraille, a tactile writing systemLanguage is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.
Voiced labial–velar approximantA voiced labial–velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spokenlanguages. It is the sound denoted by the letter ⟨w⟩ in the English alphabet; likewise, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨w⟩, or occasionally broken down as ⟨ɰʷ⟩. In most languages it is the semivocalic counterpart of a close back rounded vowel[u].
Alternation (linguistics)Alternate phonetic realization of a morpheme In linguistics, an alternation is the phenomenon of a morpheme exhibiting variation in its phonological realization. Each of the various realizations is called an alternant. The variation may be conditioned by the phonological, morphological, and/or syntactic environment in which the morpheme finds itself.Phonetic transcriptionPhonetic transcription or phonetic notation is the written representation of speech sounds (phonetics). The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.