Talk:Consonant

Rural

In which dialects of English does rural /ˈɹɝl/ or /ˈɹɹ̩l/ rhyme with girl /ˈgɝl/ or /ˈgɹ̩l/? I have always pronounced rural as two distinct syllables. There are better examples. — Solo Owl (talk) 21:18, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Replaced lead img

This is not a good illustration for the lead of our 'bird' article

The img in the lead presented 'consonants' as having casing and serifs. It also claimed that ⟨t⟩ is the most common consonant in English, with a ref to letter frequency, additional evidence that the person who added it didn't know the difference between a sound and a glyph. I replaced it with a chart of the consonants of English, closer to what we have in the lead of vowel. Because the img has been here for 8 yrs (!!), I was advised I should explain myself here. — kwami (talk) 04:38, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

I said that after your removal was undone you should have discussed it here per WP:BRD before removing it a second time. I don't object to the new image. Meters (talk) 04:53, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

And the article does refer to letters as consonants: "The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that denotes a consonant sound." Meters (talk) 04:57, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

That's to clarify the ambiguity to readers who might be confused, to prevent them from making that very mistake. We certainly shouldn't illustrate the lead with a mistake! A "bird" is a synonym for shuttlecock in badminton, but that doesn't mean we should illustrate the lead of bird (biology) with a shuttlecock. — kwami (talk) 05:56, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

Is there a diphthong in "key"?

Maybe I am misunderstanding this and/or being pedantic, but:

The Consonant sounds and consonant letters section lists say, boy, key as having diphthongs. Is key's nucleus really a diphthong? It consists of a single (long) vowel, even though it is represented in English as a digraph. The orthography doesn't distinguish mono- from diphthongs, does it? Arachnosuchus (talk) 17:40, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Isn't say the same as key in this way? Cyanman00ffff (talk) 17:52, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

I think whether say has a monophthong or a diphthong depends on the dialect. But in Standard English it is a diphthong.

But then again, apparently Old English seċġan is read /ˈsej.jɑn/, [ˈsed.d͡ʒɑn]; which seems to phonetically have a monophthong on the first syllable but phonologically that would be a diphthong? Unless /sej/ is analyzed as a CVC sequence. Depends on what /ej/ is.

key, in its Middle English form keye, is pronounced /ˈkæi̯(ə)/, so it's a di- or triphthong. But there are also the Northern pronunciations, /ˈkeːj(ə)/ or /ˈkeː(ə)/. In Modern English it's monophthongized to /kiː/; but maybe there are dialectal variants that have a diphthong.

Not sure if this clarifies anything for you? It doesn't offer me much help in reaching a conclusion. Arachnosuchus (talk) 18:28, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

I don't have an answer to your original question, but if you want to clear up the article, replace the key example with something else. Cyanman00ffff (talk) 20:10, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

It is certainly much more variable/debatable than say. A confusing example indeed. Removed it. Nardog (talk) 03:42, 15 June 2025 (UTC)