communication

definition of consonant

A consonant is the sound of the oral language that is produced by the closure or narrowing of the vocal tract when bringing the organs linked to the articulation closer or in contact, causing audible turbulence. In other words, a consonant is a typeface of the alphabet.

The word consonant means in Latin "to sound together with", and has to do with the idea that consonants do not have a sound in themselves, but must always be accompanied by one or more vowels - the other kind of letters - to have meaning. This happens more precisely in the Spanish language, since in other languages ​​there are words that lack vowels.

The consonants of the Spanish language are: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y and Z .

Each consonant is characterized by distinctive features that define it as such and that are typical of every language in the world. They are: the mode of articulation (the criterion is according to how the air flow is obstructed), the point of articulation (according to the place in the oral tract where the air obstruction occurs), the mode of phonation ( how the vocal cords vibrate), the VOT (or "voice onset time", that is, the delay time of phonation), the mechanism of air current, the length and the articulatory force.

In the pronunciation of consonants there are different types of articulation that can be: the labial (bilabial, lip-velar, lip-alveolar or labiodental), the coronal (linguolabial, interdental, dental, alveolar, apical, laminar, postalveolar, alveolo- palatal, retroflex), the dorsal (palatal, lip-palatal, velar, uvular, uvular-epiglottal), the radical (pharyngal, epiglotto-pharyngal, epiglottal) and glottal.

The combination of consonants with vowels in Spanish results in each word from the simplest to the most complex and, thus, the construction of sentences.

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