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resonance in the oral passage, the peculiar resonance in each case giving to each several vowel its distinctive character or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind of obstructive action…

Furnished with vowels. [Written also vowelled.] Dryden.

Of the nature of a vowel. [R.] "The power [of w] is always vowelish." B. Jonson.

The use of vowels. [R.]

To give the quality, sound, or office of a vowel to.

A sound intermediate between a vowel and a consonant, or partaking of the nature of both, as in the English w and y.

Having no vowel sounds or signs. [Written also unvowelled.] Skinner.

that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phoenician alphabet having no vowel symbols. This letter, in English, is used for several different vowel sounds. See Guide to pronunciation, §§ 43-74. The regular long a, as in fate, etc., is a c…

The substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation; as, get, gat, got; sing, song; hang, hung. Earle.

nature and place of the spoken accent; (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents.

d with the first letter of the word to which ad- is prefixed. It remains unchanged before vowels, and before d, h, j, m, v. Examples: adduce, adhere, adjacent, admit, advent, accord, affect, aggregate, allude, annex, appear, etc. It becomes ac- before qu, as in acquiesce.

One who maintains that points of the Hebrew word translated "Jehovah" are really the vowel points of the word "Adonai." See Jehovist.

The loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word; -- the result of a phonetic process; as, squire for esquire. New Eng. Dict.

The rough breathing; a mark placed over an initial vowel sound or over h before it; thus hws, pronounced h, hrj'twr, pronounced hra\'b6t.

ing, an aspirate, or an h sound; as, we aspirate the words horse and house; to aspirate a vowel or a liquid consonant.

A peculiar species of rhyme, in which the last accented vowel and those which follow it in one word correspond in sound with the vowels of another word, while the consonants of the two words are unlike in sound; as, calamo and platano, baby and chary. The assonance is peculiar to the Spaniard. Hallam.…

A vowel prefixed, or a lengthening of the initial vowel, to mark past time, as in Greek and Sanskrit verbs.

A form of Bi-, sometimes used before s, c, or a vowel.

A curved mark [ ] used commonly to indicate the short quantity of a vowel.

or opposed to, wholly, completely; as in cataclysm, catarrh. It sometimes drops the final vowel, as in catoptric; and is sometimes changed to cath, as in cathartic, catholic.