Approximants
The approximants have been variously referred to as "frictionless continuant", "semivowel", "oral resonant", "glide"and "liquid". In this series of lectures, approximants will refer to the sounds /w/, /r/, /j/, /l/, with /w/ and /j/ a subclass called semivowels, and /l/ and /r/ a subclass called liquids.
The approximants are those consonants which are most similar to vowels in their articulation and hence their acoustic structure. Approximant articulation involves one articulator approaching another but without the tract becoming narrowed to such an extent that turbulent airflow occurs.
Like vowels, approximants are •highly resonant •produced with a relatively open vocal tract •characterised by identifiable formant structures •continuant sounds since there is no occlusion or momentary stoppage of the airstream •non turbulent due to lack of constriction •oral sounds
In Australian English /w/, /r/, and /j/ will only occur if followed by a vowel and when they occur in consonant clusters, will always be adjacent to the vowel or syllable nucleus.
e.g. "spring", "splash", "cute", "instrument"
Occasionally the approximant /l/ will serve as a nucleus if it becomes syllabic
e.g. "table", "bottle"Source: http://clas.mq.edu.au/acoustics/consonants/approxweb.html
Additional Information from Wikipedia
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence. This class of sounds includes lateral approximants like [l](as in less), non-lateral approximants like [ɹ] (as in rest), and semivowels like [j] and [w] (as in yes and west, respectively.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximant_consonant
NB: English has two liquid phonemes, one lateral, /l/ and one rhotic, /ɹ/, exemplified in the words led and red.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_consonant
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