[net.nlang] What is a vowel, anyway?

emrath@uiuccsb.UUCP (10/27/83)

#N:uiuccsb:10500008:000:118
uiuccsb!emrath    Oct 25 21:01:00 1983

	SCHISM

Here is a word that seems to have two syllables but only one vowel.
Anybody care to try explaining this one?

grass@uiuccsb.UUCP (10/27/83)

#R:uiuccsb:10500008:uiuccsb:10500010:000:583
uiuccsb!grass    Oct 26 10:33:00 1983


Easy, 'm' and other nasals ('n', 'ng') are called 'vocalics' eg. there
is only partial stoppage of air flow, and so they can be pronounced and held,
and even have harmonic structures just like vowels.  Consider these 
voweless English words: "Mmmm!" and "hmm".  So, yes there are two
syllables in "schism", no problem.

By the by.. The linguistic definition of vowel is 1) any sound produced
with an open vocal chamber, 2) voiced and 3) showing harmonic structure
on a sonograph.
              -- Judy
p.s. I may have forgotten a technical detail or two, but that's the gist
of it.

dinitz@uicsl.UUCP (10/28/83)

#R:uiuccsb:10500008:uicsl:8600024:000:247
uicsl!dinitz    Oct 27 12:25:00 1983

It is interesting to note that words like schism, rhythm and spasm lose the
non-orthographic syllable when suffixes are added to produce schismatic,
rhythmic and spasmodic.  I forget hte technical name for this -- does anyone
out there remember?