Lecture No.9
The consonants / j / and / w /
These two sounds are called semi – vowels. They are phonetically like vowels, but phonologically like consonants. From the phonetic point of view, the articulation of / j / is similar to the front vowel / i: / but is very short .The production of / w / is similar to / u: / .
From the phonological point of view, / j / and /w / are used like consonants in that they occur before vowels as in to you / t? ju: / . Words beginning with / j / and / w / can be preceded by the indefinite article (a) as in a yard, a word.
These sounds can be described as follows:
/ j / is voiced , palatal and semi – vowel ( approximant ) .
/ w / is voiced , bilabial and semi – vowel ( approximant ) .
It should be noted that /j/ and /w/ do not occur finally.
Examples: yard, your, beauty, due, few, music, view, tune, pure, accuse, year, yellow, young, usual, useful, amuse, new, knew, excuse, huge, watch, where, wood, wool, white, sweet, swear, twice, quick, quiet, quite, queen, worse, wine, wheel, while, reward, forward, want, warm, wash, watch, what, when, word, work, between, quarter, question, quick, swim, twice, away.
Consider the following table in which all English consonant phonemes are described:
Place of articulation Manner
Of
articulation
Glottal Velar Palatal Palato-
alveolar Alveolar Dental Labiodental Bilabial
k , g t , d p , b Plosive
h , 3 ? s , z ?, ? f , v Fricative
t? , d3 Affricate
? n m Nasal
l Lateral
j r w Approximant