Vocoid

元音

A term invented by the American phonetician Kenneth Pike (1912-2000) to help distinguish between the phonetic and the phonological notions of vowel. Phonetically, a vowel is defined as a sound lacking any closure or narrowing sufficient to produce audible friction. Phonologically, it is a unit which functions at the centre of syllable. In cases such as [l], [r], [w] and [j], however, these criteria do not coincide: these sounds are phonetically vowel-like, but their function is consonantal. To avoid possible confusion, Pike proposed the term ‘vocoid’ for sounds which are characterized by a phonetic definition such as the above; the term ‘vowel’ is the reserved for the phonological sense. Its opposite is contoid. Since the 1980s, the term has become fashionable in feature geometry models of phonology, where it is often used to designate one of the two chief classes of segments (the other being consonants).

美国语音学家肯尼思·派克（生于1912）发明的一个术语，用来区分语音学和音系学意义上的元音。语音学上元音定义为没有闭塞或收窄程度不足以产生可闻摩擦的音。音系学上元音的功能是充当音节的中心。但是遇到[l]，[r]，[w]，[j]这些音，上述两个标准有抵触：这些音语音上类似元音，而功能上类似辅音。为避免可能引起的混淆，派克建议用vocoid指按上述语音学标准定义的元音，而原来的vowel则指音系学意义上的元音。与元音（vocoid）对立的是辅音。自80年代以来，这个术语流行于音系学的各种特征构架模型，常用来指两大类音段中的一类（另一类是辅音（consonant））。