Meaning of vocant | Babel Free

Definitions

A vowel-like sound such as uttered by a preverbal infant.

Equivalents

Examples

“At an earlier stage⟳ still, during the first few months of life, the vowel-like and consonant-like sounds are usually so far removed from normal speech that even this convention is misleading. We will label⟳ these sounds vocants and closants and their transcription will be enclosed within double⟳ square brackets e.g. bə.”

“It is extremely difficult to identify⟳ the different vocants, partly because they are probably being produced in ways which differ⟳ from an adult speaker.”

“Gradually, infants' repertoire of vocalizations incorporates speech-related features such as vowel-like sounds (vocants) and consonant-like sounds (closants); vocants and closants are then combined into syllable-like units called marginal syllables.”

“In the first year of life, the most frequent vocalizations are low front, low back, and central vowel-like vocants. Though not true vowels, these vocants resemble⟳ /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, and /ʌ/.”

CEFR level