Contoid and Vocoid/// Vowel and Consonant

Vowel and Consonant

Phonetically, it is easy to give definitions: a vowel is any sound with no audible noise produced by
constriction in the vocal tract, and consonant is a sound with audible noise produced by a constriction.
Contoid

A contoid is a sound made with enough closure of the oral cavity to produce audible friction in the
mouth. It has the potential to be analyzed phonemically as a consonant.

Vocoid

A vocoid is a sound made with an open oral cavity such that there is little audible friction in the mouth.

It has the potential to be analyzed phonemically as a vowel.

Contoid and Vocoid

- Coined by Kenneth Pike, American linguist (1912-2000).

Terms introduced by Kenneth Pike. Contoid acts as the phonetic equivalent of the term consonant.
Contoids are sounds articulated with a complete closure in the vocal tract or with a stricture narrow
enough to cause friction.

vocoid, which is the opposite of contoid. It is a phonetic vowel, as opposed to a phonological one.

The rationale behind the introduction of these terms was to avoid confusion between the
phonological use of the term consonant and its use as a phonetic term. Certain sounds, for example,

w j are phonetically vowel-like, but are used as consonants in the phonological systems of many
languages. Using Pike’s terminology, we can say that these sounds are vocoids and not contoids, but are
consonants in a particular language (English, for example). Thus vowels and semi-vowels function as
vocoids.