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From: boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: re: vowels
Message-ID: <2930@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Jul-84 13:04:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2930
Posted: Sat Jul 28 13:04:34 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Jul-84 01:09:06 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 22

> Unless you don't count "r" phonetically as a vowel.  I mean like
> the vowel sound in words like "fern", "bird", "worm", and "urn".
> Phonetically, that's a vowel though.
>
>	On another subject, I have a housemate who claims that 'w'
> is never a vowel in non-welsh words, whereas I claim that the
> 'w' in "down" is a vowel.  Any linguistics experts willing to
> settle this one?
>
>						-Glenn

You are only half-right. The "ow" in "down" is a diphthong, which makes the "w"
a semi-vowel. A semi-vowel is a consonant that sometimes behaves like a vowel
when it is combined with a true vowel in a diphthong. The "r" in your above ex-
amples is also a semi-vowel, because like the "w" in "down", it carries on the
sound of the vowel that precedes it. "Y" is also a semi-vowel, though of course
it is occasionally used as a true vowel, as in "gypsy" or "yclept".

--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)

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