Apart from its syllable initial role as a semivowel or semiconsonant in words like year, y functions in English largely as an alternative vowel symbol to i. Phonetically, the letter w (as in win) and y (as in year) are articulated similarly to vowels, but positionally they function as consonants, imitating syllables and introducing vowels (Compare wear/bear and year/fear). Phonetically too, the liquid consonants written as l and r and the nasal consonants written as m and n, have some of the characteristics of vowels (such as continuous non-fricative voicing) and, when used syllabically (as in the pronunciation of apple, spasm, isn't, and center), they in effect represent a preceding schwa vowel sound in addition to their own sound value.
The schwa, in phonetics, is the mid-central neutral vowel sound typically occurring in unstressed syllables in English, however spelled, as the sound a in alone and sofa, e in system, i in easily, o in gallop, and u circus.
Whereas the five classic vowel letters match the five vowel phonemes of a language such as Spanish, they are insufficient to distinguish the much larger number of vowel phonemes of
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