Formation of Semi-vowels.

If there is only an approach or a very slight contact between the page 6 organs, and the voice is slightly stopped or compressed as it reaches the point of contact, the consonants are called half-consonants or semi-vowels. They are sonant like the media, owing to the process of their formation here described ('h, l, w).

At the end of words and before a tenuis the semi-vowels are frequently pronounced as a flatus, or they become evanescent. In the Dutch 'dag,' we have the nearest approach to a guttural semivowel. If a Saxon pronounces the same word, he changes the d into t, and the guttural semi-vowel into the guttural flatus aspcr, like ch in 'loch.' In other parts of Germany, the final guttural is sounded as a media or as tenuis, while in the English 'day' the guttural semi-vowel has become evanescent. The same applies to French "sou " instead of "sol," and "vaut " instead of "valet." In Sanskrit no semi-vowel is tolerated at the end of words or before a tenuis.

Professor Wheatstone's researches prove that a distinguishing mark of the semi-vowels consists in their having no corresponding mutes. This applies not only to y, r, I, but also to w and 'h. It should be remarked, however, that, in the guttural and palatal series, the semi-vowel and flatus lenis can hardly be distinguished except in theory.