[a. 13–14th c. F. consonant (pl. -ans), ad. L. consonānt-em, sb. use (sc. consonans littera) of pr. pple.: see prec. Lat. had also in same sense consona (sc. littera), whence mod.F. consonne.]
1. An alphabetic or phonetic element other than a vowel; an elementary sound of speech which in the formation of a syllable is combined with a vowel. Applied both to the sounds and to the letters (the latter being the historically prior use).
While a vowel sound is formed in the larynx, and only receives its special quality by the conformation of the oral cavity through which it is sounded, a consonant sound is wholly or mainly produced in the mouth, or the mouth and nose. Vowels thus consist of pure voice or musical sound; consonants are either simple noises or noises combined in various degrees with voice. But a noise may itself be of a continuous and rhythmical character, as a friction, trill, hiss, or buzz, and those consonants in which this is markedly the case approach closely to vowels, and may perform the function of a vowel in a syllable. Hence ‘the boundary between vowel and consonant, like that between the different kingdoms of nature, cannot be drawn with absolute definiteness, and there are sounds which may belong to either’ (Sweet, Handbk. Phonetics, § 164). And there is in the consonants a regular gradation from those which come nearest to vowels and may function as vowels, to those which are most remote, and never so function. From this point of view, elementary sounds have been classed as (1) vowels, (2) semi-vowels (Eng. y and w), (3) liquids (l, Þ, r), (4) nasals (m, n, n), η), (5) fricatives or spirants, voice (v, ð, z, ʓ, γ), and breath (f, þ, s, ſ, χ), (6) mutes or stops, voice (b, d, g), and breath (p, t, k). Class 2 are more strictly the vowels i, u, functioning as consonants, and classed as consonants; classes 3, 4, 5, are capable, in a decreasing measure, of functioning as vowels; only class 6 have the consonantal function exclusively, p, t, k, being the most typical consonants. The use of the liquids and nasals as vowels or sonants is a prominent feature in Indogermanic Phonology. (See VOWEL.) Consonants may also be classed, according to the part of the mouth where they are formed, into labials (p, b, f, v. m, w), dentals, palatals, gutturals, and other minor groups. (See these terms.) In the Roman alphabet (with its Greek accessions), the historical vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y; down to the 16–17th c., i and u were used both as vowels and consonants, a double function served by y and w in various modern languages.
a. Applied to the letters (solely or chiefly).
c. 1308. Sat. People Kildare, 18, in E. Eng. Poems (1862), 153. Þis uers is imakid wel Of consonans and wowel.
1530. Palsgr., Introd., 20. Consonantes written for kepying of trewe orthographie, and levyng of them unsounded in pronunciation.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. (Arb.), 128. To prolong the sillable which is written with double consonants.
c. 1620. A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 11. A consonant is a letter symbolizing a sound articulat that is broaken with the tuiches of the mouth.
1727. W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 10. The two Consonants that may begin Words, are Thirty in Number … As in Bl, Br, Ch … Gn, Gr, Kn … Th, Tw, Wh, Wr.
1823. Sir B. Brodie, Crystallog., 103. The vowels A E I O, are used to designate the solid angles; some of the consonants, B C D F G H, to designate the primary edges.
1867. A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iii. 184. According to the present usages of English speech Y and W are consonants when preceding a vowel as in ye, woe.
1871. Pitman, Manual Phonogr., 46. The consonants of a word must be written [in shorthand] without lifting the pen.
b. Applied to the sounds.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 4. I have scattered here and there some iarring notes and harsh consonants, vntunable to a modest eare.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 88, ¶ 5. The difference of harmony arising principally from the collocation of vowels and consonants.
1871. Roby, Lat. Gram., I. § 1. Interruption [of the breath] by complete contact, or compression by approximation of certain parts of the organs, or vibration of the tongue or uvula, produces consonants.
1877. Sweet, Handbk. Phonetics, § 99. A consonant is the result of audible friction, squeezing or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth (or occasionally of the throat) … Consonants can … be breathed as well as voiced, the mouth configuration alone being enough to produce a distinct sound without the help of voice.
† c. humorously, with allusion to the etymological sense ‘sounding together.’ Obs.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, Pref. Like the foole, a Consonant when hee should be a Mute.
† 2. Agreement, accordance; = CONSONANCE 5.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 9. Þis consonaunt is vnknowen to þe japer.
1618. M. Baret, Horsemanship, I. 18. Ioyne two parrallel lines together, they make a true consonant.
† 3. Musical harmony or agreement of sounds.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 38/4. Iubal … was the fynder of musyke that is to saye of consonantes of acorde.
† b. Mus. = CONSONANCE 3 b. Obs.
1694. W. Holder, Harmony (1731), 113. As we Naturally by the Judgment of our Ear, own, and rest in the Octave, as the chief Consonant.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 334, ¶ 4. Those Numbers which produc’d Sounds that were Consonants.
4. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 1), as consonant diphthong, consonant-dropping, etc.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 65. The Hawaiian alphabet … is so destitute of consonant diphthongs that the natives cannot pronounce two consonants together.
1888. Sweet, Eng. Sounds, 27. Many … consonant-droppings are no doubt due to the … principle of economy in distinction. Ibid. Consonant-smoothing is analogous to that of vowels.
1889. Pitman, Man. Phonogr. (new ed.), § 64. The simple articulations p, b, t, d, etc., are often closely united with the liquids l and r, forming a kind of consonant diphthong, and pronounced by a single effort of the organs of speech.
