5 ms·
This is somewhat tautological, since consonants and vowels are already speech sounds.
by doesntmeananyth 6y ago
This is somewhat tautological, since consonants and vowels are already speech sounds.
- tremon 6y agoNo, not really. The word "user" starts with a consonant sound, for example, even though "u" is a written vowel.
- asveikau 6y agoFrom what I have seen, people writing about linguistics do not usually bother specifying this distinction in this context. It is usually implied that an expression like "following a vowel" or "following a consonant" has nothing to do with orthography, but the actual phonetics. The orthography is not really considered a source of truth.
- noja 6y agoThey are sounds as well as groups of letters, but the OP didn't specify, hence my clarification. Some examples: * "He has an MBA" because "M" sounds like it starts with a vowel (here: "em"). * "a university" ("you-ni...")