vocant

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

vocant (plural vocants)

1. (linguistics, phonology) A vowel-like sound such as uttered by a preverbal infant.

   Coordinate term: closant

   • 2012, J. A. M. Martin, Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child, Springer, page 70,

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

   • 2020, Eugenia Costa-Giomi, Lucia Benetti, 14: Home Musical Environment and Singing Development in Infancy, Frank A. Russo, Beatriz Ilari, Annabel J. Cohen (editors), The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), unnumbered page,

     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.

   • 2022, Margaret Fish, Amy Skinder-Meredith, Here's How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 3rd edition, page 207,

     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/.

Translations

preverbal vowel-like sound

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• German: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• Phonological development on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Verb

vocant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of vocō