spirantn.adj.
/ˈspʌɪərənt/ A. n.
A consonant which admits of a continued emission of some amount of breath, so that the sound is capable of being prolonged.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > speech sound by manner > [noun] > obstruent > spirant or continuant
continuous consonants1850
continuant1861
spirant1862
egressive1902
1862 W. D. Whitney in Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. (1863) 7 319 The labial series has no sibilants; for its pair of fricatives, surd and sonant..so lack the hissing quality which distinguishes the..sibilants, that it seems preferable to put them in another class; which..we will call the spirants.
1866 W. D. Whitney in Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 8 348 If..any one of them..has passed over into a spirant, it can never recover an explosive character.
1894 W. M. Lindsay Lat. Lang. 51 The change from the bilabial to the labiodental spirant.
B. adj.
Pronounced with an accompanying emission of breath.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > speech sound by manner > [adjective] > spirant or continuant
spirant1884
spirantal1893
spirantic1896
spirantizing1896
egressive1902
static1926
1884 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. III. 2155 The Semitic alphabet is..characterized by fulness of guttural, uvular, and spirant consonants.
Derivatives
spiˈrantic adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > speech sound by manner > [adjective] > spirant or continuant
spirant1884
spirantal1893
spirantic1896
spirantizing1896
egressive1902
static1926
1896 Classical Rev. 10 59 In support of the spirantic theory, we have the difference of phonetic law in Sanskrit and Greek.
1896 Academy 21 Mar. 243/1 The author might safely have claimed the spirantic pronunciation as existent in Athens in the fourth century b.c.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online December 2018).
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n.adj.1862