prevocalic
- noun
- /priˈvoʊkəlɪk/
- Specialized
- In the word 'apple', the prevocalic sound is 'p'.
Examples
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The prevocalic consonant in 'tree' is 't'.
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The prevocalic consonant in the word 'play' is the 'p' sound.
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Linguists study how prevocalic sounds can change in different dialects.
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In some accents, the prevocalic 'r' is pronounced more strongly than in others.
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The prevocalic consonant in the word 'school' is the 's' sound.
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Linguists analyze how prevocalic sounds influence pronunciation in various languages.
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In the word 'orange', the prevocalic sound is 'r'.
Synonyms
The beginning of something or the first sound in a syllable
Surface Forms
Morphology
prevocalic = prevocalic (semi-transparent) = pre + vocal + ic
The noun is a technical substantivized use of the adjective 'prevocalic', with the sense understood elliptically as 'a prevocalic sound'.
Etymology
A prevocalic is a sound that comes right before a vowel; think pre- 'before' and vocal 'voice' to remember that it is the consonant you hear just before the vowel.