Re: Why Consonants?

Roger Mills wrote:
> Ray Brown wrote:
>
>> > PHONETICALLY
>> > vowel - sounds articulated without a complete closure in the vocal
>> > tract or with a degree of narrowing in the vocal tract so as produce
>> > audible friction.
>> > consonant - sound made by complete closure or a narrowing of the vocal
>> > tract so as to produce audible friction.
>>
>>OOOPS!!!!!
>>
>>The above should have read:
>>"vowel - sounds articulated without a complete closure in the vocal
>>tract or with a degree of narrowing in the vocal tract so as produce
>>audible friction.
>>consonant - sound made by complete closure or a narrowing of the vocal
>>tract so as _NOT_ to produce audible friction."
>>
>
> I'm still not clear. Surely vowels DON'T have audible friction, and surely
> some consonants DO.
 >
> Version 1, after many readings, can, at least, be interpreted that way.
> :-)))
Mea culpa!

I've made a real mess of this!    :(

Let's hope I get it right this time -

[PHONETICALLY]
vowel - sounds articulated without a complete closure in the vocal
tract and without sufficient narrowing in the vocal tract as produce
audible friction.
consonant - sound made by complete closure or a narrowing of the vocal
tract so as to produce audible friction."

Yep - I'm pretty sure I got it right this time   ;)

Vowels (_including_ approximants) do not indeed have audible friction.
But all non-stop consonants do, of course, have audible friction.


--
Ray
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http://www.carolandray.plus.com
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