What is an ambiguous segment?

Definition
	An ambiguous segment is a phone that may or may not function as the nucleus of a syllable.

Discussion
	An ambiguous segment may also be described as functioning as either a vowel or a consonant, depending on its position in a syllable.

Examples

Here is a table that gives a description of some kinds of ambiguous segments with examples of each:

Ambiguous segment	Examples
Intervocalic glides and close vowels	[i], [u], [j], [w]
Mid vowels (if there are no corresponding close vowels found in the same context)	[e], [o]
Voiceless segments	[h], [Q8], [E8]
Nasals/nasalized segments	[n], [n`], [®â]
Liquids	[l], [l`]
Velar and bilabial voiced fricatives	[Ä] (which may correspond to [&u0268;]); [B] (which may correspond to [u])
Retroflexed vowels and approximates	[eÕ], [&u0279;]

Nonexamples (Close vowels in certain environments)
	Close vowels (for example, [i] and [w]) are not usually considered ambiguous in the following environments: Between two consonants Between a consonant and a word boundary When they are stressed When they bear tone

Concept module: ambiguous segment
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): A
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004