semivowel

American  

[sem-ee-vau-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.

---

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)

---

Etymology

Origin of semivowel

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

semivowel

U and V are now, however, differentiated, U being used only as a vowel or semivowel, and V only as a consonant.

From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section T, U, V, and W by Project Gutenberg

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

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

The Germans, who used it as the semivowel y, have perverted it from its original power less than the English have done, who sound it dzh.

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

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