Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,916,221,900 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

spirant
(redirected from Spirants)

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
spi·rant  (sprnt)
n.
See fricative.
adj.
Fricative.

[Latin sprns, sprant-, present participle of sprre, to breathe.]

spirant [ˈspaɪrənt]
adj
(Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) Phonetics another word for fricative
n
(Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) a fricative consonant
[from Latin spīrāns breathing, from spīrāre to breathe]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.spirant - a continuant consonant produced by breath moving against a narrowing of the vocal tract
continuant, continuant consonant - consonant articulated by constricting (but not closing) the vocal tract
sibilant, sibilant consonant - a consonant characterized by a hissing sound (like s or sh)
Adj.1.spirant - of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as `f', `s', `z', or `th' in both `thin' and `then')
soft - (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward the hard palate; characterized by a hissing or hushing sound (as `s' and `sh')
Translations
spirant
n (Ling, Phon) → Spirans m, → Spirant m, → Reibelaut m


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Add definition
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Dictionary browser?   Full browser?
 
Although Luick's hypothesis concerning limitations of voicing were adopted by structurally-oriented scholars, like Moulton (1954:21: "The voicing of medial voiceless spirants affected those following a stressed vowel, but not those following an unstressed vowel.
tan be explained by the process of unvoicing of final voiced fricatives, which took place shortly after the voicing of medial spirants (Campbell 1959:180).
More importantly, however, the voiced spirants [v y] seem to be comparable to the continuant sonorant [r] in terms of complexity, as they are all governed by the voiced dental spirant [o].
 
 
 
Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Translations
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.