| 释义 |
sonant, a. and n.|ˈsəʊnənt|
[ad. L. sonant-, sonans, pres. pple. of sonāre to sound.]
A. adj.
a. Uttered with voice or vocal sound; voiced.
1846M. Williams Sanscr. Gram. 14 Final a is changed to o before all sonant consonants. 1875Whitney Life Lang. iv. 57 The conversion of a surd into its corresponding sonant sound. 1894Nation LIX. 180/3 Surd explosive sounds are largely in excess of sonant expletives.
b. Syllabic; capable of forming a syllable, or constituting the essential element of a syllable.
1876[see diphthong n. a]. 1932W. L. Graff Language & Languages 56 The sound that possesses the highest degree of sonority in a syllable is called syllabic or sonant. 1957C. L. Wrenn in Wiener Beitrage zur Englischen Philologie LXV. 255 The metrical value of a sonant or vocalic n in words like forbidd'n..and heav'n.
B. n.
1. A sonant articulation or letter.
1849J. R. Logan in Jrnl. Ind. Archipel. III. 229 (heading) Surds into sonants differing both in their organic and aspirate classes. 1875Whitney Life Lang. iv. 46 We have changed the first p into a different but closely kindred sound, its corresponding sonant b. 1880Athenæum 2 Oct. 431/2 Why he should find it necessary to turn initial surd consonants wholesale into sonants, it is impossible to say.
2. A syllabic sound; now usu., a syllabic consonant.
1893N.E.D. s.v. Consonant sb., The use of the liquids and nasals as vowels or sonants. 1942K. Malone in Mod. Lang. Q. Mar. 5 Traces of sonant-consonant opposition may be found in English liquids and nasals: thus Gardner/Gardiner. 1949Trans. Philol. Soc. 1948 146 Nasals such as m, n, ŋ are often sonants—that is to say, have syllabic function.
3. A consonant that can be either syllabic or non-syllabic, i.e. a liquid, nasal, or semivowel.
1933L. Bloomfield Language vii. 121 In most languages there is a third, intermediate group of sonants, phonemes which occur in both syllabic and non-syllabic positions. 1976Archivum Linguisticum VII. 93 It [sc. stød]..can fall on sonants as well as vowels (for example, [hwal'b], [sdor'g]; hvalpe, storke).
Hence soˈnantic a., of a sonant character; ˈsonantizing ppl. a., converting into a sonant.
1879Whitney Sanskr. Gram. 37 Vowels and semivowels and nasals exercise a sonantizing influence. 1892Classical Rev. May 189/2 The sonantic function of the..nasals. |