From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p] and [b], pronounced with the lips; [t] and [d], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k] and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f], [v], and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.
Since the number of speech sounds in the world’s languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. The English alphabet has fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant sounds, so digraphs like ⟨ch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨th⟩, and ⟨ng⟩ are used to extend the alphabet, though some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled ⟨th⟩ in «this» is a different consonant from the ⟨th⟩ sound in «thin». (In the IPA, these are [ð] and [θ], respectively.)
Etymology[edit]
The word consonant comes from Latin oblique stem cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns ‘sounding-together’, a calque of Greek σύμφωνον sýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna, σύμφωνα).[1][2]
Dionysius Thrax calls consonants sýmphōna (σύμφωνα ‘sounded with’) because in Greek they can only be pronounced with a vowel.[a] He divides them into two subcategories: hēmíphōna (ἡμίφωνα ‘half-sounded’),[4] which are the continuants,[b] and áphōna (ἄφωνος ‘unsounded’),[5] which correspond to plosives.[c]
This description does not apply to some languages, such as the Salishan languages, in which plosives may occur without vowels (see Nuxalk), and the modern concept of ‘consonant’ does not require co-occurrence with a vowel.
Consonant sounds and consonant letters[edit]
The word consonant may be used ambiguously for both speech sounds and the letters of the alphabet used to write them. In English, these letters are B, C, D, F, G, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, S, T, V, X, Z and often H, R, W, Y.
In English orthography, the letters H, R, W, Y and the digraph GH are used for both consonants and vowels. For instance, the letter Y stands for the consonant/semi-vowel /j/ in yoke, the vowel /ɪ/ in myth, the vowel /i/ in funny, the diphthong /aɪ/ in sky, and forms several digraphs for other diphthongs, such as say, boy, key. Similarly, R commonly indicates or modifies a vowel in non-rhotic accents.
This article is concerned with consonant sounds, however they are written.
Consonants versus vowels[edit]
Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of a syllable: The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that’s easiest to sing), called the syllabic peak or nucleus, is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called the onset and coda) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world’s languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world’s languages.
One blurry area is in segments variously called semivowels, semiconsonants, or glides. On one side, there are vowel-like segments that are not in themselves syllabic, but form diphthongs as part of the syllable nucleus, as the i in English boil [ˈbɔɪ̯l]. On the other, there are approximants that behave like consonants in forming onsets, but are articulated very much like vowels, as the y in English yes [ˈjɛs]. Some phonologists model these as both being the underlying vowel /i/, so that the English word bit would phonemically be /bit/, beet would be /bii̯t/, and yield would be phonemically /i̯ii̯ld/. Likewise, foot would be /fut/, food would be /fuu̯d/, wood would be /u̯ud/, and wooed would be /u̯uu̯d/. However, there is a (perhaps allophonic) difference in articulation between these segments, with the [j] in [ˈjɛs] yes and [ˈjiʲld] yield and the [w] of [ˈwuʷd] wooed having more constriction and a more definite place of articulation than the [ɪ] in [ˈbɔɪ̯l] boil or [ˈbɪt] bit or the [ʊ] of [ˈfʊt] foot.
The other problematic area is that of syllabic consonants, segments articulated as consonants but occupying the nucleus of a syllable. This may be the case for words such as church in rhotic dialects of English, although phoneticians differ in whether they consider this to be a syllabic consonant, /ˈtʃɹ̩tʃ/, or a rhotic vowel, /ˈtʃɝtʃ/: Some distinguish an approximant /ɹ/ that corresponds to a vowel /ɝ/, for rural as /ˈɹɝl/ or [ˈɹʷɝːl̩]; others see these as a single phoneme, /ˈɹɹ̩l/.
Other languages use fricative and often trilled segments as syllabic nuclei, as in Czech and several languages in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China, including Mandarin Chinese. In Mandarin, they are historically allophones of /i/, and spelled that way in Pinyin. Ladefoged and Maddieson[6][page needed] call these «fricative vowels» and say that «they can usually be thought of as syllabic fricatives that are allophones of vowels». That is, phonetically they are consonants, but phonemically they behave as vowels.
Many Slavic languages allow the trill [r̩] and the lateral [l̩] as syllabic nuclei (see Words without vowels). In languages like Nuxalk, it is difficult to know what the nucleus of a syllable is, or if all syllables even have nuclei. If the concept of ‘syllable’ applies in Nuxalk, there are syllabic consonants in words like /sx̩s/ (/s̩xs̩/?) ‘seal fat’. Miyako in Japan is similar, with /f̩ks̩/ ‘to build’ and /ps̩ks̩/ ‘to pull’.
Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features:
- The manner of articulation is how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant or approximant (vowel-like) sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, and nasals.
- The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial (both lips), alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), and velar (tongue against soft palate). In addition, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such as palatalisation or pharyngealisation. Consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation are said to be coarticulated.
- The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not vibrate at all, it is voiceless.
- The voice onset time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a feature of VOT.
- The airstream mechanism is how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered. Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants, which use the lungs and diaphragm, but ejectives, clicks, and implosives use different mechanisms.
- The length is how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in «wholly» [hoʊlli] vs. «holy» [hoʊli], but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries. Unrelated roots are differentiated in various languages such as Italian, Japanese, and Finnish, with two length levels, «single» and «geminate». Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic lengths: short, geminate, and long geminate, although the distinction between the geminate and overlong geminate includes suprasegmental features.
- The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated.
All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as «voiceless alveolar stop» [t]. In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted.
Some pairs of consonants like p::b, t::d are sometimes called fortis and lenis, but this is a phonological rather than phonetic distinction.
Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts:
Examples[edit]
The recently extinct Ubykh language had only 2 or 3 vowels but 84 consonants;[7] the Taa language has 87 consonants under one analysis, 164 under another, plus some 30 vowels and tone.[8] The types of consonants used in various languages are by no means universal. For instance, nearly all Australian languages lack fricatives; a large percentage of the world’s languages lack voiced stops such as /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ as phonemes, though they may appear phonetically. Most languages, however, do include one or more fricatives, with /s/ being the most common, and a liquid consonant or two, with /l/ the most common. The approximant /w/ is also widespread, and virtually all languages have one or more nasals, though a very few, such as the Central dialect of Rotokas, lack even these. This last language has the smallest number of consonants in the world, with just six.
Most common[edit]
The most frequent consonants in rhotic American English (that is, the ones appearing most frequently during speech) are /n, ɹ, t/. (/ɹ/ is less common in non-rhotic accents.)[9]
The most frequent consonant in many other languages is /p/.[10]
The most universal consonants around the world (that is, the ones appearing in nearly all languages) are the three voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/, and the two nasals /m/, /n/. However, even these common five are not completely universal. Several languages in the vicinity of the Sahara Desert, including Arabic, lack /p/. Several languages of North America, such as Mohawk, lack both of the labials /p/ and /m/. The Wichita language of Oklahoma and some West African languages, such as Ijo, lack the consonant /n/ on a phonemic level, but do use it phonetically, as an allophone of another consonant (of /l/ in the case of Ijo, and of /ɾ/ in Wichita). A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack both of the nasals [m] and [n] altogether, except in special speech registers such as baby-talk. The ‘click language’ Nǁng lacks /t/,[d] and colloquial Samoan lacks both alveolars, /t/ and /n/.[e] Despite the 80-odd consonants of Ubykh, it lacks the plain velar /k/ in native words, as do the related Adyghe and Kabardian languages. But with a few striking exceptions, such as Xavante and Tahitian—which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever—nearly all other languages have at least one velar consonant: most of the few languages that do not have a simple /k/ (that is, a sound that is generally pronounced [k]) have a consonant that is very similar.[f] For instance, an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest coast is that historical *k has become palatalized in many languages, so that Saanich for example has /tʃ/ and /kʷ/ but no plain /k/;[11][12] similarly, historical *k in the Northwest Caucasian languages became palatalized to /kʲ/ in extinct Ubykh and to /tʃ/ in most Circassian dialects.[13]
Audio samples[edit]
The following pages include consonant charts with links to audio samples.
- IPA pulmonic consonant chart with audio
- IPA non-pulmonic consonant chart with audio
- Ejective consonant
- Click consonant
- Implosive consonant
See also[edit]
- Articulatory phonetics
- List of consonants
- List of phonetics topics
- Words without vowels
Notes[edit]
- ^ Dionysius Thrax:
- σύμφωνα δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἑπτακαίδεκα· β γ δ ζ θ κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ τ φ χ ψ. σύμφωνα δὲ +λέγονται+, ὅτι αὐτὰ μὲν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὰ φωνὴν οὐκ ἔχει, συντασσόμενα δὲ μετὰ τῶν φωνηέντων φωνὴν ἀποτελεῖ.
- The remaining seventeen are consonants: b, g, d, z, th, k, l, m, n, x, p, r, s, t, ph, ch, ps. They are called ‘sounded with’ because they do not have a sound on their own, but, when arranged with vowels, they produce a sound.[3]
- ^ Dionysius Thrax:
- τούτων ἡμίφωνα μέν ἐστιν ὀκτώ· ζ ξ ψ λ μ ν ρ σ. ἡμίφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι παρ᾽ ὅσον ἧττον τῶν φωνηέντων εὔφωνα καθέστηκεν ἔν τε τοῖς μυγμοῖς καὶ σιγμοῖς.
- Of these, eight are half-sounded: z, x, ps, l, m, n, r, s. They are called ‘half-sounded’ because, though a little weaker than the vowels, they are still harmonious [well-sounding] in their moaning and hissing.[3]
- ^ Dionysius Thrax:
- ἄφωνα δέ ἐστιν ἐννέα· β γ δ κ π τ θ φ χ. ἄφωνα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν κακόφωνα, ὥσπερ ἄφωνον λέγομεν τὸν τραγωιδὸν τὸν κακόφωνον.
- Nine are unsounded: b, g, d, k, p, t, th, ph, ch. They are called ‘unsounded’ because, more than the others, they are discordant [ill-sounding], just as we call the ill-sounding tragedist ‘unsounded’.[3]
- ^ Nǀu has /ts/ instead. Hawaiian is often said to lack /t/, but it actually has a consonant that varies between [t] and [k].
- ^ Samoan words written with the letters t and n pronounce them as [k] and [ŋ] except in formal speech. However, Samoan does have another alveolar consonant, /l/.
- ^ The Niʻihau–Kauaʻi dialect of Hawaiian is often said to have no [k], but as in other dialects of Hawaiian it has a consonant that varies between [t] and [k].
References[edit]
- ^ σύμφωνος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
- ^ Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, Previously published as The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, originally ©1988 The H.W. Wilson Company; Edinburgh, reprinted 2001: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., p. 210.
- ^ a b c Dionysius Thrax. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar), ς´ περὶ στοιχείου (6. On the Sound)
- ^ ἡμίφωνος in Liddell and Scott
- ^ ἄφωνος in Liddell and Scott
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- ^ Georges Dumézil and Tevfik Esenç, 1975, Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives. Adrien Maisonneuve: Paris.
- ^ Naumann, Christfied (2008). «The Consonantal System of West !Xoon». 3rd International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics. Riezlern.
- ^ The most common sounds in spoken English The Language Nerds.
- ^ «World Language Statistics and Facts». www.vistawide.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-14. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
- ^ Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press
- ^ «The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: Absence of Common Consonants». Archived from the original on 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ Viacheslav A. Chirikba, 1996, Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology, p. 192. Research School CNWS: Leiden.
- Sources
- Ian Maddieson, Patterns of Sounds, Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-521-26536-3
External links[edit]
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 20 July 2005, and does not reflect subsequent edits.
Media related to Consonants at Wikimedia Commons- Interactive manner and place of articulation
- Consonants (Journal of West African Languages)
Media related to Consonants at Wikimedia CommonsOther forms: consonants; consonantly
A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants.
Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their corresponding letters: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y are not consonants. In hat, H and T are consonants. Consonant can also be an adjective that describes things that seem like they should go together, things that are «agreeable.» You could say a nation’s offer of aid is consonant with their treaties. When you hear consonant sounds in music, they are pleasing, the opposite of «dissonant» sounds which are harsh.
Definitions of consonant
-
noun
a speech sound that is not a vowel
see moresee less-
Antonyms:
-
vowel, vowel sound
a speech sound made with the vocal tract open
-
types:
- show 17 types…
- hide 17 types…
-
alveolar, alveolar consonant, dental, dental consonant
a consonant articulated with the tip of the tongue near the gum ridge
-
obstruent
a consonant that is produced with a partial or complete blockage of the airflow from the lungs through the nose or mouth
-
aspirate
a consonant pronounced with aspiration
-
labial, labial consonant
a consonant whose articulation involves movement of the lips
-
labiodental, labiodental consonant
a consonant whose articulation involves the lips and teeth
-
nasal, nasal consonant
a consonant produced through the nose with the mouth closed
-
lingual
a consonant that is produced with the tongue and other speech organs
-
liquid
a frictionless continuant that is not a nasal consonant (especially `l’ and `r’)
-
geminate
a doubled or long consonant
-
surd, voiceless consonant
a consonant produced without sound from the vocal cords
-
velar, velar consonant
a consonant produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate
-
guttural, guttural consonant, pharyngeal, pharyngeal consonant
a consonant articulated in the back of the mouth or throat
-
occlusive, plosive, plosive consonant, plosive speech sound, stop, stop consonant
a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it
-
bilabial
a consonant that is articulated using both lips; /p/ or /b/ or /w/
-
labial stop
a stop consonant that is produced with the lips
-
continuant, continuant consonant
consonant articulated by constricting (but not closing) the vocal tract
-
affricate, affricate consonant, affricative
a composite speech sound consisting of a stop and a fricative articulated at the same point (as `ch’ in `chair’ and `j’ in `joy’)
-
type of:
-
phone, sound, speech sound
(phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language
-
vowel, vowel sound
-
noun
a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken consonant
-
adjective
involving or characterized by harmony
-
-
synonyms:
accordant, agreeable, concordant, conformable
-
consistent
(sometimes followed by `with’) in agreement or consistent or reliable
-
consistent
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I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for a moment, breathing softly down. Growing up, the ‘Our Father’ was lovely, made for me, the ‘Hail Mary’ was gorgeous, and ‘Glory Be to the Father’ was an absolute nightmare.
Colm Toibin
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD CONSONANT
From Latin consonāns, from consonāre to sound at the same time, be in harmony, from sonāre to sound.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.
PRONUNCIATION OF CONSONANT
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF CONSONANT
Consonant can act as a noun and an adjective.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.
The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.
WHAT DOES CONSONANT MEAN IN ENGLISH?
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are, pronounced with the lips;, pronounced with the front of the tongue;, pronounced with the back of the tongue;, pronounced in the throat; and, pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel; and and, which have air flowing through the nose. Contrasting with consonants are vowels. Since the number of possible sounds in all of the world’s languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. In fact, the English alphabet has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so digraphs like «ch», «sh», «th», and «zh» are used to extend the alphabet, and some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled «th» in «this» is a different consonant than the «th» sound in «thin».
Definition of consonant in the English dictionary
The first definition of consonant in the dictionary is a speech sound or letter of the alphabet other than a vowel; a stop, fricative, or continuant. Other definition of consonant is consistent; in agreement. Consonant is also harmonious in tone or sound.
WORDS THAT RHYME WITH CONSONANT
Synonyms and antonyms of consonant in the English dictionary of synonyms
Translation of «consonant» into 25 languages
TRANSLATION OF CONSONANT
Find out the translation of consonant to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of consonant from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «consonant» in English.
Translator English — Chinese
辅音
1,325 millions of speakers
Translator English — Spanish
consonante
570 millions of speakers
Translator English — Hindi
व्यंजन
380 millions of speakers
Translator English — Arabic
حَرْف سَاكِن
280 millions of speakers
Translator English — Russian
согласный
278 millions of speakers
Translator English — Portuguese
consoante
270 millions of speakers
Translator English — Bengali
ব্যঁজনবর্ণ
260 millions of speakers
Translator English — French
consonne
220 millions of speakers
Translator English — Malay
Konsonan
190 millions of speakers
Translator English — German
Konsonant
180 millions of speakers
Translator English — Japanese
子音
130 millions of speakers
Translator English — Korean
자음
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Javanese
Konsonan
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Vietnamese
phụ âm
80 millions of speakers
Translator English — Tamil
மெய்
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Marathi
व्यंजन
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Turkish
ünsüz
70 millions of speakers
Translator English — Italian
consonante
65 millions of speakers
Translator English — Polish
spółgłoska
50 millions of speakers
Translator English — Ukrainian
приголосний
40 millions of speakers
Translator English — Romanian
consoană
30 millions of speakers
Translator English — Greek
σύμφωνο
15 millions of speakers
Translator English — Afrikaans
konsonant
14 millions of speakers
Translator English — Swedish
konsonant
10 millions of speakers
Translator English — Norwegian
konsonant
5 millions of speakers
Trends of use of consonant
TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «CONSONANT»
The term «consonant» is quite widely used and occupies the 43.104 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «consonant» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of consonant
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «consonant».
FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «CONSONANT» OVER TIME
The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «consonant» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «consonant» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.
Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about consonant
3 QUOTES WITH «CONSONANT»
Famous quotes and sentences with the word consonant.
We remain at peace with all nations, and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so consonant to our institutions.
The challenge to America is to extend to Asia the defensive shield of American power in forms consonant with Asian freedom and self-respect.
I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for a moment, breathing softly down. Growing up, the ‘Our Father’ was lovely, made for me, the ‘Hail Mary’ was gorgeous, and ‘Glory Be to the Father’ was an absolute nightmare.
10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «CONSONANT»
Discover the use of consonant in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to consonant and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Consonant Strength: Phonological Patterns and Phonetic …
This book is a detailed examination of the phonetics and phonology of consonant strength, drawing data from parallel acoustic and articulatory studies of English and Spanish, as well as a cross-linguistic survey of lenition and fortition.
2
Consonant Clusters and Structural Complexity
This book uses a very specific topic (consonant clusters) to sharpen the focus on general issues in spoken language structure, particularly syllable structure and phonotactics, as currently investigated by phonetics, phonology and …
Philip Hoole, Lasse Bombien, Marianne Pouplier, 2012
3
Consonant Structure and Prevocalization
Preface & acknowledgments — Part I. The theory: 1.
4
An Effort Based Approach to Consonant Lenition
First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
5
Consonant Lenition in Korean and the Macro-Altaic Question
This study describes a diachronic change of the obstruent consonants in the central area of Korea, with attention to ONSET and CODA lenitions. It is intended for students of Korean language and linguistics.
6
Consonant Quantity and Phonological Units in Estonian
First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
7
African American English: A Linguistic Introduction
It has been noted that in different varieties of American English (including
registers of standard American English), word final consonant groups such as ml
and st are reduced to single consonants n and s, respectively. That is, some
speakers …
8
Handbook of Normative Data for Neuropsychological Assessment
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TEST The Auditory Consonant Trigram Test (ACT), also
referred to as the Brown-Peterson Consonant Trigram Memory Task or CCC (
Stuss, 1987), which is a variant of the Peterson and Peterson technique (Milner, …
9
The German Consonant Shift: The Basis for the Development of …
For instance, although the German language was also affected by Grimm’s Law as it is the most famous sound law in the history of linguistics, they reason why the German language, especially High German, differs so much from Low German and …
10
Spanish/English Contrasts: A Course in Spanish Linguistics
This chapter first compares the consonant and vowel systems of Spanish with
those of English. Next, it discusses the different ways in which the two languages
join phonemes to form syllables and words. Finally, since pedagogy usually
takes …
Melvin Stanley Whitley, 2002
10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «CONSONANT»
Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term consonant is used in the context of the following news items.
Grocon’s east end apartment tower clears the final hurdle
«We need to build more apartments across the city but they have to be consonant with the fact that we’re the world’s most liveable city, and [with] … «The Australian Financial Review, Jul 15»
The private lives of child rioters
… of the case in order to decide whether, consonant with that purpose, the applicant had a legitimate expectation of protection […]. «UK Human Rights Blog, Jul 15»
Hyundai i30 N Series spy photos
An ‘N’ consonant suffix just doesn’t seem as evocative as ‘RS’ ‘SR’ ‘GT’ ‘GTI’ or similar which all largely derive from a combination of ‘Rally’ … «CarAdvice, Jul 15»
Microspore culture reveals complex meiotic behaviour in a …
Three pairs of individuals had identical molecular marker results, consonant with their production from twinned embryos during the microspore … «BMC Blogs Network, Jul 15»
Chief Seattle’s Tribe Denied US Recognition
… sentence-words. It is known for its consonant clusters — as many as a dozen or more successive consonants without a vowel between them. «Courthouse News Service, Jul 15»
The Raiders of Ruta 7
In the final consonant-averse local dialect, it sounds like “Rye-EE”. Upon arriving in Uruguay, I already knew that people like their meat, yerba mate, and soccer, … «Roads and Kingdoms, Jul 15»
SA opera singer wins international competition
Sometimes it is as simple as reminding someone of a «forbidden liaison» in French, or not doubling a single consonant— just keeping focused on … «Artslink.co.za News, Jul 15»
Bye-bye to another bit of Baltimore’s “swank, luxe, James Bond-y …
“Handmade brick was used to keep the building consonant with its surroundings,” they added. “The construction is steel-frame with exterior … «Baltimore Brew, Jul 15»
Medicare’s Victims
Hogberg, a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, explodes the myth that Medicare coverage is consonant with cost … «American Spectator, Jul 15»
Funds and Change of Name for Analytics Firm Twtrland
Twtrland gets more vowels but now has the wrong consonant Initially focused on Twitter, the rebranded company has broadened its view to … «Daily Research News Online, Jul 15»
REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Consonant [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/consonant>. Apr 2023 ».
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Definition of consonant: A consonant is a letter (sound) of the English alphabet that is not a vowel.
What does consonant mean? A consonant is most often identified as a letter that is not a vowel.
More specifically, a consonant is a sound that when paired with a vowel makes a syllable.
A consonant is any sound that a letter makes that is not a vowel sound.
What Letters are Consonants?
English consonant letters: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y (sometimes), Z
Consonant Examples in Words:
- car
- “c” and “r” are consonants in this word
- storm
- “s” “t” “r” “m” are consonants in this word
- day
- “d” is a consonant in this word
Consonants vs. Vowels
Consonants are not vowels. Vowels in the English language are A, E, I, O, U, (and sometimes Y).
Vowels, just like consonants, do not make syllables on their own. A vowel paired with a consonant makes a syllable.
Example of vowel in word:
- sit
- “i” is the vowel in this word
Forming Syllables
A syllable is a unit of sound that creates meaning in language. Consonants pair with vowels to create syllables.
Syllables can have more than one letter, more than on consonant, and more than one vowel, but they cannot have more than one sound.
Examples:
- maker
- two syllables
- “mak”: two consonants “m” “k” plus one vowel “a”
- “er”: one vowel “e” plus one consonant “r”
- slow
- one syllable
- three consonants “s” “l” “w” and one vowel “o”
- banana
- three syllables
- “ba”: one consonant “b” plus one vowel “a”
- “na”: one consonant “n” plus one vowel “a”
- “na : one consonant “n” plus one vowel “a”
- lean
- one syllable
- two consonants “l” “n” plus one vowel “n”
Literary Devices That Use Consonants
The sound specifically created from consonants is used in the literary device called consonance.
Consonance is the repetition of similar consonant sounds within nearby words. It is, in a sense, the opposite literary device to alliteration.
Consonance, as with alliteration, is often used in poetry when writers use sound to create meaning.
Example of Consonance:
- the children seemed adorable and endearing
- the repetition of the “d” sound in these examples creates the consonance
The following is an example of consonance from American poet Emily Dickinson’s “’T was later when the summer went”:
‘T was later when the summer went
Than when the cricket came,
And yet we knew that gentle clock
Meant nought but going home.
The “t” sound in this example creates the consonance. Dickinson purposefully incorporates consonance into this poem to reflect her intention.
She wants to mimic the sound of the cricket and the sound of the clock. She does so, subtly, by including consonance.
Summary: What are Consonants?
Define consonant: the definition of consonant is one of a class of speech sounds that are enunciated by constricting or closing one or more points of the breath channel. Examples include, c, d, n, p, etc.
In summary, a consonant is a unit of sound (a letter) in English.
- Consonants are not vowels.
- When consonants combine with vowels, they create syllables.
Contents
- 1 What is a Consonant?
- 2 What Letters are Consonants?
- 3 Consonants vs. Vowels
- 4 Forming Syllables
- 5 Literary Devices That Use Consonants
- 6 Summary: What are Consonants?
Adjective
the temples and palaces of ancient Greece are among the most consonant buildings in architectural history
his gentle behavior is consonant with his expressed belief in pacifism
Recent Examples on the Web
That’s not really consonant with a sustainable civilization.
—
Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 27 Aug. 2013
They were consonant with the goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a bipartisan piece of federal legislation supported by both Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and Democratic stalwart Sen. Ted Kennedy.
—Gary Marvin Davison, Star Tribune, 17 Feb. 2021
The left hand oscillates bare, somber chords, while the right hand interrupts above with the twittering of birdsong, an eerie effect which ultimately resolves with right and left hands together in full consonant harmonies.
—Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Jan. 2023
These would then subside into subdued textures marked by consonant harmonies.
—Dallas News, 23 Feb. 2022
In other words, perhaps advanced economies necessarily need and foster a level of gender equality which formal polygamy is simply not consonant with?
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 15 Dec. 2010
The Hebrew word for the festival of lights, Hanukkah/Chanukah, consists of five Hebrew characters opening with the consonant het (chet), the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2022
New words were introduced and new vowel and consonant sounds began to appear between roughly 500 to 700.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 30 June 2021
Only a few situations produced fast and strong air jets capable of traveling up to a few feet or so: singing consonant sounds with an almost closed mouth, and exhaling between bouts of playing, particularly for oboe players.
—Calli Mcmurray, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Nov. 2022
Aaron also reviewed the sounds that specific blends of letters make —the oooh or uhh that oo can make, whether in cool or in book, for example, or the inexplicable silence of some consonants, like the gh in high.
—oregonlive, 26 Mar. 2023
The Clue: This Wordle has more vowels than consonants.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023
Whereas Markov analyzed a string of 20,000 letters to create a rudimentary model that could predict the likelihood of the next letter of a text being a consonant or a vowel, GPT-2 used 8 million articles scraped from Reddit to predict what the next word might be within that entire dataset.
—IEEE Spectrum, 2 Dec. 2019
In English, producing one consonant instead of another usually results in saying a completely different word—try, for instance: pan, ban, can, man, tan, and Dan.
—Julie Sedivy, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012
The Clue: This word starts with a consonant and ends with a vowel.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 4 Feb. 2023
This educational toy set comes with five spelling boards—one for each vowel—plus 58 removable consonant blocks to build words that correspond with images on cards.
—Kathleen Willcox, Popular Mechanics, 11 Jan. 2023
In fact, a paper published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review states the similarity of swear words in an assortment of languages is thanks to their lack of the soft consonant sounds associated with the letters L, R, W and Y.
—Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 31 Dec. 2022
The Clue: This word ends in a letter that can function as either a vowel or a consonant.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2022
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘consonant.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.