Consonant

A consonant (from the Latin consŏnans, -antis, active participle of consonāre, to be in harmony) is a sound of oral languages caused by the closure or narrowing of the vocal tract by approaching or contact of the organs of articulation in such a way as to cause audible turbulence. It is one of the two basic types of speech sounds, along with vowels.

Etymology

The word consonant comes from the oblique root of the Latin cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns 'sounding together', a calque of Greek σύμφωνον sýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna, σύμφωνα).

Dionysius of Thrace calls consonants sýmphōna ( σύμφωνα 'sounded with') because in Greek they can only be pronounced with a vowel. He divides them into two subcategories: hēmíphōna (ἡμίφωνα 'half-sounding'), which are the continuants, and áphōna (ἄφωνος ' no sound'), which correspond to plosives.

This description does not apply to some languages, such as the Salishan languages, where stops can occur without vowels (see Nuxalk), and the modern concept of 'consonant' means 'consonant'. does not require co-occurrence with a vowel.

Consonants and vowels

The term consonant comes from Latin and referred to "sounding together with" or "sounding with", the traditional idea being that consonants themselves had no sound, since they could only appear next to a vowel. However, there are languages where there are syllables and even entire words that are completely devoid of vowels. However, this result seems to be due to linguistic development over time. Several studies and even etymological dictionaries corroborate this, providing the forms of words prior to this development. That is, the fact that certain contemporary words, for example in Slavic languages, seem to lack vowels, does not mean that they are not intrinsic to them. In modern linguistics consonants are defined in terms of constriction of the vocal tract, without necessarily having to accompany a vowel.

Consonantal signs of the alphabet

Although each language has its own consonants, many of these coincide due to the influence of ancient Greek, from which emerged the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets and their variants for each language (Spanish alphabet):

Β Γ Δ Ζ Θ Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Π Ρ Σ Τ Φ Χ Ψ

B C D F G K L M N Ñ P Q R S T V W X Y Z

Б В Г Д Ж З К Л М Н П Р С Т Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ

Since the number of consonants in the world's languages is far greater than the number of consonant letters available in any alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet to designate a unique sign for each consonant identified in the languages. languages of the world.

Phonetic classification of consonants

Every consonant is phonetically characterized by a set of distinctive features. All these distinctive features have been found in the languages of the world (although not in all languages all these features are always relevant):

• The articulation mode, according to how the air current is obstructed; according to this feature the consonants are divided into nasal, obstructive (fricative, African and occlusive) and approximate.
• The articulation point according to the place of the oral tract where the obstruction of the air current occurs. According to this feature they are divided into lips, crowns, dorsals, radicals and glotales.
• The Fonation mode which has to do with how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation of the sound, according to this feature the consonants can be sound or deaf.
• The VOT (“voice onset time») which has to do with the time of delay of the fonation, according to this feature we have aspirated and not aspirated.
• The air current mechanism, which classifies consonants in egressive lungs, eyelids, clicks and implosives.
• La length or Geminationwhich especially affects the duration of the same.
• La joint force that divides them into tense or lax.