semivowel

American  

[sem-ee-vou-uhl] / ˈsɛm iˌvaʊ əl /

noun

1. Phonetics. a speech sound of vowel quality used as a consonant, as (w) in wet or (y) in yet.

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semivowel British  

/ ˈsɛmɪˌvaʊəl /

noun

1. a vowel-like sound that acts like a consonant, in that it serves the same function in a syllable carrying the same amount of prominence as a consonant relative to a true vowel, the nucleus of the syllable. In English and many other languages the chief semivowels are (w) in well and (j), represented as y, in yell

2. a frictionless continuant classified as one of the liquids; (l) or (r)

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Etymology

Origin of semivowel

1520–30; semi- + vowel; replacing semivocal < Latin sēmivocālis half vowel

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

semivowel

It should be noted that the Dictionarium, which was written contemporaniously, does use y for the semivowel.

From Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language by Richard L. Spear

Nay, this grammatist makes b, not a labial mute, as Walker, Webster, Cobb, and others, have called it, but a nasal subtonic, or semivowel.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

In these words the i represents the semivowel y, into which the original g was changed.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

In roi the semivowel element precedes, in oil it follows.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

A semivowel, one having an audible sound by the addition of another Letter; e.g.

From Aristotle on the art of poetry by Ingram Bywater