Mixing
Semivowel
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In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel or glide, also known as a non-syllabic voiced, 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 the consonants 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. The term glide may alternatively refer to any type of transitional sound, not necessarily a semivowel.[2]
Contents
1 Classification
2 Contrast with vowels
3 Contrast with fricatives/spirant approximants
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
Classification
Semivowels form a subclass of approximants.[3][4] Although "semivowel" and "approximant" are sometimes treated as synonymous,[5] most authors agree that not all approximants are semivowels although the exact details may vary from author to author. For example, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) do not consider the labiodental approximant [ʋ] to be a semivowel[6] while Martínez Celdrán (2004) proposes that it should be considered one.[7]
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the diacritic attached to non-syllabic vowel letters is .mw-parser-output .monospaced{font-family:monospace,monospace}
U+032F ̯ .mw-parser-output .smallcaps{font-variant:small-caps}COMBINING INVERTED BREVE BELOW. When there is no room for the tack under a letter, it may be written above, using
U+0311 ̑ COMBINING INVERTED BREVE. Before 1989, non-syllabicity was represented by (
U+0306 ̆ COMBINING BREVE), which now stands for extra-shortness.
Additionally, there are dedicated symbols for four semivowels that correspond to the four close cardinal vowel sounds:[4]
| Semivowel (non-syllabic) | Vowel (syllabic) |
|---|---|
[j] (palatal approximant) | [i] (close front unrounded vowel) |
[ɥ] (labio-palatal approximant) | [y] (close front rounded vowel) |
[ɰ] (velar approximant) | [ɯ] (close back unrounded vowel) |
[w] (labiovelar approximant) | [u] (close back rounded vowel) |
The pharyngeal approximant [ʕ̞] is also equivalent to the semivowel articulation of the open back unrounded vowel [ɑ̯].[6]
In addition, some authors[6][7] consider the rhotic approximants [ɹ], [ɻ ] to be semivowels corresponding to R-colored vowels such as [ɚ]. As mentioned above, the labiodental approximant [ʋ] is considered a semivowel in some treatments. An unrounded central semivowel, [ ȷ̈ ], equivalent to [ɨ], is uncommon, though rounded [ẅ] (or [w̟]), equivalent to [ʉ], 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.[3] In languages as diverse as Amharic, Yoruba, and Zuni, semivowels are produced with a narrower constriction in the vocal tract than their corresponding vowels.[6] Nevertheless, semivowels may be phonemically equivalent with vowels. For example, the English word fly can be considered either as an open syllable ending in a diphthong [flaɪ̯] or as a closed syllable ending in a consonant [flaj].[8]
It is unusual for a language to contrast a semivowel and a diphthong containing an equivalent vowel,[citation needed] but Romanian contrasts the diphthong /e̯a/ with /ja/, 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 /e/ in singular-plural pairs), there are phonetic differences between the pair:[9]
/ja/ has a greater duration than /e̯a/
- The transition between the two elements is longer and faster for /ja/ than /e̯a/ with the former having a higher F2 onset (greater constriction of the articulators).
Although a phonological parallel exists between /o̯a/ and /wa/, the production and perception of phonetic contrasts between the two is much weaker, likely because of lower lexical load for /wa/, which is limited largely to loanwords from French, and a difficulty in maintaining contrasts between two back rounded semivowels in comparison to front ones.[10]
Contrast with fricatives/spirant approximants
According to the standard definitions, semivowels (such as [j]) contrast with fricatives (such as [ʝ]) 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.[11] Though the spirant approximant is more constricted (having a lower F2 amplitude), longer, and unspecified for rounding (viuda [ˈbjuða] 'widow' vs. ayuda [aˈʝʷuða] 'help'),[12] 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 /l/ and /n/: enyesar [ẽɲɟʝeˈsaɾ] ('to plaster') aniego [ãˈnjeɣo] ('flood')[13] and although there is dialectal and ideolectal variation, speakers may also exhibit other near-minimal pairs like abyecto ('abject') vs abierto ('opened').[14] One potential minimal pair (depending on dialect) is ya visto [(ɟ)ʝaˈβisto] ('already seen') vs y ha visto [jaˈβisto] ('and he has seen').[15]
Again, it is not present in all dialects. Other dialects differ in either merging the two or in enhancing the contrast by moving the former to another place of articulation ([ʒ]).
See also
- Diphthong
- Hiatus (linguistics)
- List of phonetics topics
- Mater lectionis
- Syllabic consonant
- Voiced labio-velar approximant
Notes
^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 322.
^ Crystal (2008), p. 211.
^ ab Crystal (2008), pp. 431–2.
^ ab Martínez Celdrán (2004), p. 9.
^ Meyer (2005), p. 101.
^ abcd Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 323.
^ ab Martínez Celdrán (2004), p. 8.
^ Cohen (1971), p. 51.
^ Chitoran (2002), pp. 212–214.
^ Chitoran (2002), p. 221.
^ Martínez Celdrán (2004), p. 6.
^ Martínez Celdrán (2004), p. 208.
^ Trager (1942), p. 222.
^ Saporta (1956), p. 288.
^ Bowen & Stockwell (1955), p. 236.
References
.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{list-style-type:none;margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>dl>dd{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-100{font-size:100%}
Bowen, J. Donald; Stockwell, Robert P. (1955), "The Phonemic Interpretation of Semivowels in Spanish", Language, 31 (2): 236–240, doi:10.2307/411039, JSTOR 411039.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
Chitoran, Ioana (2002), "A perception-production study of Romanian diphthongs and glide-vowel sequences" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 32 (2): 203–222, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.116.1413, doi:10.1017/S0025100302001044
Crystal, David (2008), A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.), Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-4051-5297-6
Cohen, Antonie (1971), The phonemes of English: a phonemic study of the vowels and consonants of standard English (third ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-90-247-0639-6
Martínez Celdrán, Eugenio (2004), "Problems in the Classification of Approximants" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 201–210, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001732, archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-11, retrieved 2015-02-14
Meyer, Paul Georg (2005), Synchronic English Linguistics: An Introduction (third ed.), Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8233-6191-6
Saporta, Sol (1956), "A Note on Spanish Semivowels", Language, 32 (2): 287–290, doi:10.2307/411006, JSTOR 411006
Trager, George (1942), "The Phonemic Treatment of Semivowels", Language, 18 (3): 220–223, doi:10.2307/409556, JSTOR 409556
Further reading
Ohala, John; Lorentz, James, "The story of [w]: An exercise in the phonetic explanation for sound patterns", in Whistler, Kenneth; Chiarelloet, Chris; van Vahn, Robert Jr., Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistic Society, pp. 577–599
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