# Slovak: semivowel



## monalisa!

What do you call an English semivowel [w], [j] ?
KSSJ  http://slovniky.korpus.sk/?w=polosa...n&d=locutio&d=pskcs&d=psken&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
says that_ polosamohláska and semivokál _are [l, r , ŕ, ĺ]


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## Azori

monalisa! said:


> What do you call an English semivowel [w], [j] ?
> KSSJ  http://slovniky.korpus.sk/?w=polosa...n&d=locutio&d=pskcs&d=psken&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
> says that_ polosamohláska and semivokál _are [l, r , ŕ, ĺ]


What you linked to is not "KSSJ". But _polosamohláska_ and _semivokál_ seem to be the right terms.


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## monalisa!

http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoluhl%C3%A1ska

here j is considered a consonant, there is  no trace of w


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## Azori

monalisa! said:


> http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoluhláska
> 
> here j is considered a consonant, there is  no trace of w


That article is about Slovak consonants. You asked about English:





monalisa! said:


> What do you call an *English* semivowel [w], [j] ?


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## monalisa!

Azori said:


> That article is about Slovak consonants. You asked about English:



Sounds are the same in all languages, I suppose 'je' is the same sound as in 'yes'
if that is right, then we cannot translate semivowel with "polosamohlaska"


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## Azori

monalisa! said:


> Sounds are the same in all languages, I suppose 'je' is the same sound as in 'yes'


Surely you're kidding...


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## slavic_one

monalisa! said:


> What do you call an English semivowel [w], [j] ?
> KSSJ  http://slovniky.korpus.sk/?w=polosa...n&d=locutio&d=pskcs&d=psken&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
> says that_ polosamohláska and semivokál _are [l, r , ŕ, ĺ]



No. It says that _polosamohláska_ (or _semivokál_) is "hláska majúca čiastočne ráz samohlásky, čiastočne ráz spoluhlásky". - Sound having characteristics of both vowel and consonant (for example syllabic _l_, _r_, _ĺ_, _ŕ_).



monalisa! said:


> http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoluhláska
> 
> here j is considered a consonant, there is  no trace of w



_J _is a consonant. What's the problem with that? _W _is not in the Slovak native alphabet (anymore).



monalisa! said:


> Sounds are the same in all languages, I suppose 'je' is the same sound as in 'yes'
> if that is right, then we cannot translate semivowel with "polosamohlaska"



I didn't get that. Why not?

I suggest you to take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA#Consonants .


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## slavic_one

And brackets *[* and *]* are used for sounds, not letters, so don't put letters in them. For example, Slovak sound *[**ɲ]* is represented by the letter *ň*.


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## monalisa!

slavic_one said:


> I didn't get that*. Why not?*
> 
> I suggest you to take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA#Consonants .


(phonology does not apply here)
In your link you may see that all the sounds in the world have been codified in the IPA so [j] it is *the same sound* and has the same description in all languages
therefore* j*e [_je]_ has the same sound as *y*es _[jes], I suppose you realize that

Semivowels are a _restricted group ( [j], [w] )  of approximants_ (kĺzavé spoluhkásky)
_they are vowels that cannot be classified as such as they lack their main feature : the are* not* the nucleus of a syllable
In* SSJ * l, r... [l, r . ĺ, ŕ] are called semivowels for the opposite reason: they are consonants, yet the can be syllabic.

As to [w], you do not list it among Slovak sounds, but I am sure you have it in your language : domov = [domow] and not [domou], and you have it also before a vowel : pôvod = [pwovod], even if,  in general,  you tend to pronounce ue, uo as diphtongs and kvi  as /kvi/ rather than /kwi/, but probably you can find some word in which you do not

P.S. I put sounds in brackets


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## Azori

http://www.unipo.sk/public/media/11339/fonetikaIIIa.pdf (PDF) - has a classification of Slovak vowels and consonants (in Slovak)

However, it seems that Slovak linguistics doesn't use the terms _polosamohláska_ and _semivokál_.


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## monalisa!

Thanks for the link Azori, I suppose the best translation would be* neslabičná samohláska.*


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## francisgranada

I don't know if it helps, but in Slovak _nie _and _ni je_ (e.g. v ba_ni je_) are pronounced differently. To me, in the first case there is a semivowel (as if it were spelt _ňje_) and in the second example there is a clear  vowel "i" and a clear "j" (as if it were spelt _ňije_). 

As far as I know, the sound represented by the letter "j" is considered consonant in Slovak, but also e.g. in Hungarian.


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## francisgranada

monalisa! said:


> ... I suppose the best translation would be* neslabičná samohláska.*


I don't know ...  I'd say _polosamohláska _in Slovak always, when we speak about the _semivowel _as "sound" (phoneme, not the letter "j", of course). So in _nie_, _rieka_, _piaty _... we have diphthongs, where the letter "i" represents a _polosamholáska_ or _semivokál_. But this is only my personal opinion.

The sounds (phonemes) represented by the letters _l_, _r_, _ĺ_, _ŕ_ are _spoluhlásky _(consonants), but they may be also _slabičné _(or _slabikotvorné_). So from a stricktly "grammatical" point of view they behave sometimes as _samo_hláska, because they can form syllables "_alone_" (_samo_, without a vowel). That's why they are called sometimes also _polosamohlásky_, but I think in this case this term does not correspond to the English _semivowel_. I personally don't like this usage, because they are clearly _consonants _(from the phonetical point of view), regardless if they can or cannot form a syllable.


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