Abstract
The present study attempts to shed light on a phonetic phenomenon in both English and Arabic related to what is called semi-vowels. The English semi-vowel /j/ and /w/ and the Arabic (و) and (ي) are either considered consonants or vowels depending on certain bases. Hence, this study tries to investigate these bases. The study aims at giving a description of the English and Arabic semi-vowels and showing whether both languages are similar or different with reference to their production and function. The study hypothesises that considering the English Semi-vowels as either consonants or vowels is determined phonetically or phonologically, whereas in Arabic such a case is determined by the phonological environment in which they occur. To realize the aims of the study and to prove its hypotheses, a description of semi-vowels in both languages is presented and a contrastive analysis is carried out. The study concludes that the semi-vowels in both languages are considered vowels in their production and like consonants in their function. Also, the study finds that there is no much difference as regards the production of the semi-vowels in both languages.
Highlights
The semi-vowels /j/ and /w/ are considered as approximants in English
The most important thing to remember about these two phonemes is that they are phonetically like vowels, but phonologically like consonant, i.e. they are usually included in the consonantal category on the functional ground, but from the point of view of phonetic description, they are more properly as vowel glides (Gimson,1980:35, Roach,2009:80)
A semi-vowel has its properties of a vowel, which means that vocal cords are vibrating when pronouncing it
Summary
1.1 The Problem Phonetics and phonology, as is known, deal with the production and function of sounds in a language respectively. Differences among sounds of language with regard to their description and classification are related to whether they are described from a phonetic or phonological point of view, as is the case with the two English semi-vowel /j/ and /w/ and their counterparts((ي /ja/ and () و/wa/ in Arabic. These semi-vowels in both English and Arabic are either considered consonants or vowels depending on certain bases. To have a full understanding of the semi-vowels in English and their counterparts in standard Arabic, an attempt is to be carried out to investigate the bases that determine their classification and description in both languages
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