Consonants and Vowel Sounds

you forgot L "ell" :)

I agree that L and R are semivowels, but I'm not sure why you think and I can see stretching to argue that M and N are a stretch, and I have no clue why you think F, H, M, N, S, and X are, or why you think U isn't.

I agree that L and R are semivowels, but I'm not sure why you think F, H, M, N, S, and X are vowels, or why you think U isn't.

Ay Bee Cee Dee Ee Ehf Jee Aych I Jay Kay Ell Em En O Pee Quoo Aar Ess Tee Yoo Vee Yoo-Yoo Ecks Wye and Zee

ctg: Right, L!

X: It's how the letters' names are pronounced, not how they sound when used in words.

True, all letters names contain vowel sounds, but I don't think that was Mike's point - was it? Their names would be unpronounceable if they didn't.

Mike had a point? If he did, it wasn't very clearly stated. Perhaps this example illustrates the random association he speaks of;

English:
G = Jee
J = Jay

French
G = Jay
J = Jee

In American english we say "Tee" and not "Tay". Yeah, sure that's random, but so is everything else about language. Adam sees an animal, and says "cow". Why not "duck"? Or "apple"? All of language is established upon the agreed to use of random sounds to represent certain ideas.

(By the way, toe-MAH-toe is so wrong on so many levels. The proper pronounciation is toe-MAY-toe.)

Hey, this is "interesting":
of the consonants in your list, L, M, N and R are "liquid consonants", and F, S and H are fricative. "liquid" means that instead of a good solid percussive contact of two organs of speech, they kind of gently cross-fade from one syllable to another. The fricatives aren't caused by a contact of speech organs at all, a pair of organs come close and disrupt the air-flow of a whisper, eg the lips for F and the toungue and hard pallette for S. (H is simply a whisper). These are the softer consonants. Compare with the percussive B or T.

That leaves X which, like Y, is a bit of a wild card.

So I looked it up, and X is fricative too. My scheme works! Who wants to touch me?