Vowel, Semivowel and Consonant

Vowel, Semivowel and Consonant are phonemes, which are sound units that distinguish words.

While vowels come out freely through the mouth, the same does not happen with consonants, which encounter obstacles. Get to know the phonemes and learn to differentiate vowels from semivowels!

Vowel

The vowel is the most important of the phonemes, as there are no syllables without vowels. It is characterized by the fact that the sound is emitted without obstacles.

In Portuguese there are 5 vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u). The vowel phonemes, in turn, are in greater number. This is because vowels can be pronounced orally and nasal and also by:

• Articulation - refers to the positioning of the tongue when issuing the vowel. They can be: anterior, central and posterior;
• Timbre - refers to the opening of the speech organs. They can be: open and closed;
• Intensity and Accent: regards the vibration of the vocal cords. Can be: tonics and unstressed.

For now, it is important to look into the following classifications and remember that:

• You phonemesvowelsoral, that is, that are emitted by the mouth are: The, and, i, O, u.
• You phonemesvowelsnasal, in turn, are emitted by the mouth and nasal passages and are: ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ.
• At vowelstonics are pronounced with more intensity (vovó, sThepo), than the vowelsunstressed (vOgrandma, sapO).

Semivowel

the phonemes i and u and, in some cases, also the phonemes and and O they are classified as semivowels when they join a vowel and are pronounced with less force.

in cariand heyuthey are i of the word caries and the u of the word blackboard are semivowels.
In nodeOa and khanandonly O of the word stain and the and of the word dogs are semivowels.

After all, what is the difference between vowel and semivowel?

While the vowel is the nucleus of the syllable, the semivowel never plays this role. As with consonants (we'll see below), vowels are the support of glides.

Vowels are the nucleus of the syllable. Thus, the syllabic separation of the words caries, blackboard, stain and dogs is as follows: caries, lou-sa, node-doa, dogs.

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The consonant is characterized by the fact that the sound is emitted with obstacles, since it cannot come out freely through the mouth. They only form syllables supported by the sound of a vowel, hence the consonant name, that is, with sound (of a vowel, in this case).

Our alphabet consists of 21 consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, y, w, z .

Like vowels, consonants can be oral or nasal and still, deaf or sonorous. Consonants are also classified by:

• Articulation Mode - respects the type of obstacle that the sound encounters during its emission. They can be: occlusive and constrictive. The constrictives, in turn, can be fricatives, laterals and vibrating.
• Articulation Point - refers to the place in the oral cavity where the obstacle is located. They can be: bilabial, labiodental, linguistic, alveolar, palatal and velar.

Continuesyourresearch!Read:

• Syllables
• Vocal Encounters
• Consonant Meetings
• Phoneme and Lyrics
• Digraph
• Syllabic Separation

Exercise

In the words below there is only one where there is no semivowel. Which is? Next, identify the glides in the remaining words.

a) faithful
b) four
c) mausoleum
d) went
it's mine
f) bread
g) chest
h) milk
i) glory
j) rinse

See Answer

The word is baú, whose syllabic separation is ba-ú. It is a hiatus, as it is the meeting of two vowels.

a) faithfulis
b) whatuatro
c) mausoleu
d) fui
e) meu
f) breadO
h) readiyou
i) gloryiThe
j) rinseuair